Cabin Fever 2

Fast paced gore fest. Got what I paid for. Never boring, non cerebral, and a fun 90 mins.

There will be many who condemn Cabin Fever 2, and reject it to the shackles of B-movie apathy. And there will be a few who rejoice in this offbeat sequel's deliciousness and shenanigans. I am one of the latter. This horror-comedy is fun down to the last frame. They have the glum awkwardness, impulsive naivety and mixed up confusion of high school teenage angst down perfectly. And as for the semi-redneck cop? He's baaack. And, in case you didn't know, he's seen this kind of thing before (AKA Cabin Fever 1). There is a creative intelligence behind this movie, from the cartoon imbedded beginnings to the masterfully honed caricatures, to the straightforward, impeccable direction. Way better than Carrie (the new one), and supremely more funny. There have been a few Australian movies in the same vein, such as, "Who Loves Mandy Lane?" which is a bit of a sub-genre in the horror-comedy films--a kind of sadistic and gratuitous teenage eighties romp that is coming back round again. I loved cabin fever 2 because it is authentic, and does not pretend to be anything other than what it is, a campy regression into the heart of campy American cinema.

...I'm a gorehound!

Look...it's pretty obvious after watching part 2 that Ti West had multiple options:

• follow Roth's vision and develop a decent movie, or
• push the boundaries and make a grotesque, blood-riddled gore circus.

He very much went for the latter. Indeed, many of the reviews here aren't wrong. What makes the difference for me is that in my opinion, TW did what he did intentionally, passing on the the opportunity to craft a fully cohesive part 2 in exchange for putting out the most vile and disgusting sequel he could, with the money he had. What does that mean? Well,

• the acting is not superb but it's at least average,
• the script is likely the least developed part of the flick
• you get EXACTLY what he intended, which is likely why the ending is what it is, and the entire movie is barely more than 80 minutes.

Look...I could be wrong, but the purpose of CF2 is it not to take a prestigious ranking in the lexicon of horror cinema. It's GORE! There's really no other reason for its pervasive and continuous use and lack of other characteristics. That being the case, I enjoyed it! I didn't pick at the myriad of plot holes or script issues, or logically false issue that popped up, but enjoyed it for what it is...or a gorefest. Granted, I would have liked a better all around movie, but not at the expense of what he put out. There's just not enough straight-up gore flicks anymore, so I appreciated the graphic nature of the film.

It is worth noting that the fx are very well done. All the gore is done by way of practical fx, which is preferable to CGI. The largest part of the budget obviously went to the fx and it is noticeable.

All these meanderings are just my opinion, which means zilch, but for my purposes, being the gorehound I am, I enjoyed the flick. It's certainly not for the squeamish.

I mistakenly assumed that with Rider Strong repeating his role from the first film this sequel would continue that story, which was humorous and disturbing. I found that to be far from the case. The movie isn't worthy of being classed as B status. Performances are bad. Script almost non-existent. A thin plot exists to move the film from one gross-out scene to another. I could find nothing that would move me to recommend this film. How anyone could find something funny in this production is beyond me. It is one sick, twisted film whose only goal is to attempt to sicken the audience or desensitize viewers to the reality of tragedy in the real world. Perhaps I'm being a bit too philosophical for such low-brow "entertainment", but there is nothing redemptive about this feature. Cheap special effects, constant profanity, unlikeable characters (especially the deputy who cares only about himself). Whereas Cabin Fever displayed some originality, this sequel exists merely to cash in on its predecessor's name and reputation. There's no tension or sense of "something worse coming" that was present in the original. The movie itself is only about 72 minutes, followed by a 5 minute tangential story, which is itself followed by a crudely drawn cartoon of 2 or 3 minutes; filler, simply filler. There are better ways to waste 80 minutes.

To be honest, I didn't want to review this flick for a number of reasons. One of which being that Cabin Fever is one of my favorite films. Another reason being that Ti West has become one of my favorite genre directors. I remember becoming stoked the day I read that Ti West was taking on a sequel to Eli Roth's Cabin Fever, then all the delays and production problems, and reading that West had all but disowned the film, My anticipation turned to disappointment. The end result turned out to be much better than expected, but still felt incomplete.

Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever spreads the infection from a cabin in the woods, to a nearby high-school prom. With a solid performance by all players involved, some superbly fitting music, and well done gross-out effects, Cabin Fever 2 is a worthy watch for anyone into indie splatter comedies.

One of the biggest problems with Cabin Fever 2 is that Ti West wasn't available for the editing process. Sure, 90 percent of the footage that he shot was used,(and it shows) But if a director isn't there for the editing process of a film, It's not going to turn out the way it was intended. The film feels incomplete, as the producers decided to shoot an entirely different 6 minute ending sequence that feels so out of place, that if it didn't contain one of the early characters, you'd thing you were watching a completely different movie. Just as the film picks up, it's brought to a complete halt by this weird, unsuited ending. The ending actually made me feel as if the film had no ending at all. Giuseppe Andrews puts in an amazing performance as he always does, but his character isn't given the depth that he deserves.

Despite it's problems, Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever is definitely worth the watch. It has one of the best opening sequences in b-movie history, and you can tell by the cinematography that Ti West not only knows his stuff, but has a deep love for the genre. I wish they would have given him creative freedom, as I feel this would become a cult classic, but as it stands, we're left with a competent, gory, fun romp at the prom, with a bloodbath that makes "Carrie" look like Babe: Pig in the city.

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