Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘Cabin Fever’

Written by Scott Edwards

​One of the things that I loved about college were the times when you had to make a choice. Most of the time, it was when to party, or when to take a quick vacation. I would like to say that you are an adult at this time, but for me at least, I was just following along with the crowd. No regrets and I have many great memories from these days that I would not trade for a million dollars. Getting away when the stress starts to get to you is not a bad thing and when you are retreating from life, you are just slowing it down and anyone that has been around the block can confirm that you should do it more often than not.

Friends Paul, Bret, Jeff, Marcy and Karen have just finished their finals and are looking for some time alone to unwind. Jeff and Marcy however just want to get to a place off of the beaten path to take care of their business with no interruptions. Paul on the other hand has a plan in mind to make his move on Karen whom he has known since the eighth grade and wants to reveal his feelings for her. As the group arrives at the cabin that they have rented, they take full advantage of being away from the world and make sure that nobody knows that they are there. But when Bert is out hunting squirrels, he makes the mistake of leaving a dying man in the woods and little does he know that decision will come back to haunt him.

When it gets too cold outside, the group decides to take the party back into the cabin and waiting for their new friend Grim to come back with his massive bag of weed, the group is in store for something much worse. When a strange man comes knocking at the door, the group sees that he is sick with something and decide to keep him outside. But when they hear their car being messed with, they have to take a stand and remove him from the premises. Trying to scare him away is not enough as they see that he is vomiting blood over everything in his path. Setting him on fire by accident, the group tries to sleep off the horrors of the night, but the visions in their minds are still haunting their decision as the man only needed help and was not trying to hurt them.

When the sun rises and there is no trace of the sick man, the group tries to devise a plan to get back to town and alert the authorities of what happened the previous night. Since the car is out of commission after the attack, they will have to go by foot and try to make contact with a neighbor, but things start to look grim. Little does the group know that the stranger found his way to the local lake to put the flames out and now a part of him resides in their drinking water, passing the virus along, as life in the cabin goes on as usual. Anybody that uses the water from the reservoir will be infected, whether they know it or not and the first person that falls victim is Karen just from taking a quick drink. Seeing that Karen has become infected with the virus, the group does not hesitate to move her out of the cabin until they are able to get help. As the virus is far from contained, the group of friends are challenged with the difficult decisions of who to keep with them and who to leave behind. There might not be a clear choice when it comes down to it, since they have all been exposed to the virus in one way or another.

As a full feature for Eli Roth, I must say that I am impressed. This movie gives you little hope of getting out alive and the ending proves that nobody is safe when all is said and done. When looking back, this movie gives you chills and scares that cannot be replaced with happy feelings, at all.  I really like how the story played out, even though someone thinks that they are safe, they really are not and there is only one way to stop the infection. With a taste of the ‘Dead’ series from George A. Romero and the lack of hope from the ‘Alien’ series you have found a great new name in horror that will be around for ages to come. You might think that this movie does not give you enough when you look at the name attached to the writing and directing, but you know what, it is his first full length movie and in reality, it was better than most when you start looking at the stats. I only hope Eli is ready to take on another multi genre picture that will bring all of our nightmares to life. Stay Scared!

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