friskysman

You start watching CABIN FEVER and you're like, "What the...this movie sucks!" But then you keep watching and a chick gets torn to shreds by a dog. A dude gets a screwdriver shoved into his brain. And you think, "Hey! A real horror movie!"

When the movie first begins, you think it looks pretty promising. Something about the opening credits has sort of a 70's horror film style to it and you think it might be going somewhere good. But then you see the stupid teenagers (including Shawn from BOY MEETS WORLD, God forbid) and you're thinking, "Oh great, here we go." And for a while, it really does seem to be going there. The teenagers are unbelievably annoying, they do unbelievably cliché things, and you want them to be killed in unbelievably painful ways.

Now, see, this is where most horror movies would fail. We know that, certainly, the teenagers will be dispatched with in various creative ways. But in most cases, the camera shies away from the carnage and what you've got is a boring, annoying movie. But CABIN FEVER does not shy away. It is surprisingly brutal for a film made in 2003 that was actually shown in theaters. Yes, the dialogue will have you wanting to throw up and the over-acting will have you rolling your eyes, but when it is time to kill off the teens, its serious business.

You've got people throwing up blood all over the place; you've got guys getting set on fire; you've got the flesh rotting off people's faces while they're still alive; and you've got the aforementioned creative use of a screw driver and some mean dogs. This movie really does come right at you and earns your respect that it originally did not have.

Eli Roth directed this picture and he hasn't done anything of any particular note prior to this, but it is clear he knows where he's going. There are many plot points presented that you are fully expecting not to be tied up. But surprisingly, he nails down (with really sharp nails and a big sledge hammer) every single one of them by the end. It's because of this the movie seems to go on forever, even though it has merely a 90-minute runtime. But I mean that in a good (RETURN OF THE KING) way.

And you know what? The ending is great. I don't often say that about horror movies, but this one has several payoffs that are very clever and quite funny, actually. It shows simultaneously how fair and yet brutal this film is. No doubt there's a lot of camp. But if you miss the days of horror movies that went straight for the throat, check this one out. It's worth a rent. *** stars (out of ****)

I have never considered myself "extremely jaded" but I must rethink that idea after watching Cannibal Holocaust. I had read all the reviews and knew what to expect, but I was not a bit disgusted by anything I saw. At least not on a physical level. Of course, the horrible things shown in CH are disgusting on an emotional level when you consider what the filmmakers do to the natives and how they meet their grisly end. However, I was not scarred after watching it like I thought I might be. Perhaps all the research I did ahead of time helped. I don't know. But as far as disturbing movies go, I have seen much worse.

That's not to say CH is a bad movie. It is not. The scenes are beautiful and the process in which the story is told is revolutionary. I suppose my only complaint with the film (other than the fact that real animals were actually killed in the making...but that's another subject for another time) is that I see no motivation for what the filmmakers did. What reasons did they have to round up an entire village into one hut and set it on fire? I can sort of understand the rape (though I don't in any way condone it) but genocide I do not.

All that aside, CH does what it aims to do brilliantly. I don't think the gore is as bad as some make it out to be, but I certainly wouldn't recommend it to someone who has to close their eyes during Scream. If you can stand violence, rape, and animals being killed, this is a masterpiece of a film.