SHOCK reviews the remake of Eli Roth’s CABIN FEVER.
We recently reviewed The Goetz Brothers remake of MARTYRS and did so positively. For even though the idea of remaking a film especially a beloved film – only a few years old is both absurd and crass, Pascal Laugiers original effort employs a rich, emotional and intricately designed narrative and thematic arc that lends itself to a revisit and, in the U.S. redux, was (in this writer’s opinion) maturely and respectfully rendered, with added dimensions of humanity that the original failed to explore.
But Eli Roths CABIN FEVER, itself less than 14 years old, is not necessarily a film that merits another look. Its Roths first film and not his best, with the obnoxious, frat boy characters he oft employs (and lampoons) in his subsequent, far more successful features, running hog wild and pitting them against a threat that, in the context of a survivalist/body count horror film, is really a cheat. The antagonist in CABIN FEVER is a disease. Its not a sentient threat and thus, theres no morality or suspense in regards to its onslaught. Instead, CABIN FEVER is just a body horror geek show, goosed with cheap jokes, female nudity and a racist running gag that is even odder now than it was then.
Still, theres an outbreak horror germ of a good idea in the film, one that could potentially be explored with style, urgency and a more sophisticated character design. New director Travis Z. (real name: Travis Zariwny) isnt interested in such things, however. Instead he and writer Randy Pearlstein simply regurgitate the same story, with a new gaggle of bland actors (here played by Matthew Daddario, Samuel Davis, Nadine Crocker, Dustin Ingram and Gage Golightly) simply spilling into their almost-isolated cabin in the woods for a weekend of weed, sex and irritating stupidity, encountering wanna-be-eccentric locals and once again running afoul of a flesh-eating disease that causes its hosts to literally melt and spread a Velveeta-cheesy plague.
CABIN FEVER 2016 is, despite a few trite deviations, the same movie as CABIN FEVER 2002, but far worse, especially since Roths film was shot on film and looked great and had a rather beautiful Angelo (TWIN PEAKS) Badalamenti score. Travis Z.s clone is shot on video and has that glossy, un-sensual, fake-flawless look that HD video technology gives every indie flick.
Roth at least knows and loves classic exploitation cinema and gave his CABIN FEVER the texture of a real-deal grindhouse romp, with a tactile visual palette that made the sloppy shenanigans on screen feel filthy. This remake is just dull and far-too-clean; every time it apes character ticks and plot devices it feels like a community theater whitewash.
To be fair, for what its worth, CABIN FEVER 2016 isnt badly made or anything. Its well shot, cut and is professionally produced and the cast as nondescript as they are here will likely go on to better things. But so what? Since Roths film was released, Drew Goddard’s CABIN IN THE WOODS already successfully lampooned the “dipshits in the shock shack” sub-genre and Fede Alvarezs EVIL DEAD remake (Sam Raimis original is pretty much ground zero for these sorts of pictures) propelled the gross-out factor of isolated self-mutilation in the forest to near operatic heights.
Throw in the fact that theres already been a couple of recent CABIN FEVER sequels that at least tried to create (unsuccessfully) a kind of mythology out of the threadbare source and there just is no point whatsoever to any of this childish, witless nonsense.
Don’t go in these woods!
