Cabin Fever

I'll admit I've never been much of an Eli Roth fan. The original Cabin Fever was a pretty bad movie but I wouldn't even recommend this film to Eli Roth fans, as it is a pretty pointless remake. Fans of the original probably should stay away.

If there was one positive thing about the original film, it was that it had that low budget charm to it. There's something about low budget horror films that I like and Cabin Fever had that. However, this remake does away with that charm as it obviously had a higher budget. A higher budget doesn't always mean a better film, though.

The acting in this remake is atrocious and the dialogue is even worse. The characters are all underdeveloped stereotypes that you really don't care about at all. Nearly all the scenes of the original are redone shot-for-shot, but they're handled in a much messier manner. There are a few minor differences, such as the "party man" cop character is now played by a female, for some reason.

As for positives, there aren't many. The cinematography was decent and the gore and makeup effects were pretty damn good actually. Some of the music was alright. But that's about it. I don't see why this film had to be made.

Overall, this is a shallow remake of a bad, low budget horror film from 2002. If you've never seen Cabin Fever but plan on watching it, I'd go with the original, as it is the better of the two. However, that's not saying much, as they're both pretty shitty. If you are a fan of the original, you probably won't like it much. But you might watch it anyway just to compare the two. I wouldn't pay much to see it, though. Maybe rent it if you get the chance.

3/10

So I take most movies as what they are, entertainment. But sometimes you can't help but get annoyed with stupidity/lack of common sense. This "update" really just "modernizes" the original Cabin Fever staying pretty true to the story line a some minor changes here and there... I was alright with this movie and tried to put up with it but Eli Roth has an ability to make his characters seem like the DUMBEST living sentient beings in the world. In the world of Horror movies, I understand, the people have to be lower than average intelligence and lack common sense so that the plot will progress cause instead of knocking on the door of a trailer so you can use the phone for help, the character decides to "peek" in through a window in stead EVEN tho all the lights are on... so the inhabitants obviously don't listen to his pleas for help cause they seem him as a sexual predator.

I was kind of excited for this cause the original Cabin Fever was (IMO) a ground breaking piece of indie horror, it came out during the time when indie films were coming out of the shadows and actually gaining momentum. But this movie, I tried to stick it out, I really tried but there are levels of stupidity in this that "cringe" is a gross understatement. If you saw the original Cabin Fever and liked it, give this one a go! It's not entirely bad. But if you haven't seen the original first...

WATCH THE ORIGINAL FIRST, PLEASE!!!

and Mr. Roth, please inject just a meager amount of common sense into your characters, please?

Cabin Fever (2016)

1/2 (out of 4)

Five friends go out into the woods for a fun week but soon a flesh eating virus begins to take them over.

This is a remake of the 2002 Eli Roth film that put that director on the map and helped bring in some "frat boy" type of horror movies. Roth was involved in this one and had spent several months really pushing for people to give this film a chance but the end result is without question one of the biggest disasters in recent horror history. I've seen worse film but I've never seen such a pointless remake in my life. I'm a huge defender of remakes because quite often they're at least more original than sequels, which usually just copy the first movie. That's certainly not the case here because what we basically have is a scene-for-scene remake.

For the life of me I can't understand what Roth and company were trying to do with this film. At least the original film had two sequels that at least tried to be different or do something slightly original. When I say this is a scene-for-scene remake I'm not kidding. It really does seem like the original screenplay was used here with only a few things brought more up=to-date. This includes an assault rifle being used, stuff like the internet mentioned and the Deputy character is now a woman. Everything else is exactly like the original movie so what was the point? If you've seen the original then you're just going to be bored by what you see here.

The kills are slightly different but they're certainly not great enough to save the picture. The cast really isn't any better here. The direction isn't any better. As for the screenplay, as I said, it's pretty much just the original with a few alterations. Even worse is the fact that the film runs the same length, which just goes to show how alike they are. CABIN FEVER, the 2016 version, is one of the most unoriginal movies I've ever seen and it's just shocking that Roth would sign off for this type of remake. His rumor was taken out but the darker elements add up to nothing. I will avoid giving the film a BOMB rating since it's at least professionally made. Still, what on Earth were they smoking?

This movie should not have been made. It does nothing new, different or even remotely better than the admittedly average original. Had it been Evil Dead-remake caliber, we would have been in for something special. But everything from the acting to the gore has taken a considerable hit with this remake as to effectively make it Cabin Fever-lite. This movie doesn't even try to be original in its retelling of the film, as the same basic set-up (and even some of the dialogue) has been reused and recycled to ill-effect. Worst part of it all? Save for a few of the actors, the performances were atrocious. Honesty, I have seen found-footage films with better acting than what some of these no-talents pulled off. The movie was limited in its vision, and toning down the gore does a disservice to everything that was good about the original film. It's just basic in almost every way, and really is a waste of resources. If you didn't believe Eli Roth was a hack before, you certainly will after watching this mess. Not recommended, even if you have absolutely nothing else to watch.

I mean what the hell. Remaking movies that're less than 15 years old... What's next?