Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever

cabin10 Word on the street has been surprisingly positive for this sequel to Eli Roth's highly misunderstood 2002 film debut. Considering its storied and well-known traumatic history, and the fact that it was a DTV sequel is something that doesn't bode well for any horror movie, but I started to actually want to give this sequel a shot and check it out for myself. Now, I'm not one to let my expectations get the best of me, so I know that is not the problem here, but what anyone sees in this movie is well beyond me.

Picking up almost immediately after the events in the first Cabin Fever, Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever never actually picks up anywhere. Instead, you are just plopped into the lives of impossibly stereotypical characters, living mundane and even more typical lives. I mean, the main character is a super smart (but not ugly, of course) nerd, who has been in love with his female best friend since they were kids. Only problem is, she is dating the resident dick face, and is blind to the love that said smart and compassionate best friend has for her. Crazy, right?! Now get this, the resident dick face hates the sweet and well-meaning nerd and kicks his ass warning him to stay the fuck away from his girl, but that doesn't stop nerd boy, oh no siree.

cabin1 Is any of this starting to sound familiar at all? It should, it's the plot to 209,635 other movies, many of which are much better than cabin2Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever.

It's so cliché and pointless, in fact, this film is the definition of pointless as even the weak and simple plot has no sort of direction whatsoever. Nothing fits right, scenes are so random, aimless, and serve no purpose at all. For example, there is a scene with two "random" characters, one is a cool guy jock, and the other is a loser obese girl. For whatever reason (as in there isn't one), they have a sex scene in a pool and it would seem the only point of this scene is for something gross to happen to them. What happens is she loses a few teeth, the guy overreacts, swims away and she drowns. That's all. No fucking point. Even serving as a catalyst for the gruesome events to come, the scene fails on all points, though, there is not point for it to fail on I guess.

cabin3One of the only cool things in Spring Fever was the return of Giuseppe Andrews, but even his character of Winston really has no objective in the film. However, his role in Cabin Fever was somewhat pointless, but it was at least fun, quirky, and worked within the type of film that Cabin Fever was. Here, it feels like it was just forced and shoehorned…trying to capture something that could only be captured once. Still, at least with Winston came the cameo of Mark Borchardt, who surprisingly was much better acting wise than much of the film's cast, all of whom were far from good. Actually, Noah Segan wasn't too bad when he wasn't yelling, but that's really it.

cabin4

Spring Fever is not funny enough (or at all), it's not gross enough, but it tries so hard to be both of these things. All of the humor falls flat and even though there are a few very gross scenes, there is nothing to be moved by with this one. I was really expecting this movie to be disgusting, and granted there is some nasty shit, there was not really enough to impress me. Seeing as it takes place at a high school and during prom, one would expect a major prom blowout, but instead, all there was was a bunch of hose styled projectile puke blood, then dead. That's it. It should have been the big set piece to display some nasty stuff, but instead they displayed how not to make someone puke. Unless they were trying to be funny, that is. In that case, it wasn't funny at all.

cabin5The entire film feels very incomplete and scatterbrained and that carries into some of the technical pieces with its lack of flow and weak editing. Even worse is I do not think I have ever heard a film with worse sound editing than with Cabin Fever 2. There is a scene when two characters are walking down the street having a conversation, but you can barely make out what they're saying. Why? Because the song playing was WAY TOO LOUD, and even worse was the sound of wind flowing through the trees and leaves. I was flabbergasted by just how intrusive the sound of the leaves blowing was and I couldn't wait for the scene to end it was so awful and nerve wracking.

cabin8With that said, there area few things that are positive about Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever, but not many. I like the way the movie cabin6looks with some of the set design and how a few scenes are shot (especially the prom stuff). It definitely has a certain look that could be appealing if put together in a cohesive and competent way. Some of the make-up and gag FX are quite well done and look super impressive. Even though the film lacked in the gross department, there were a handful of awesome little moments, but the two standouts were the head bashing via fire extinguisher and band saw hand removal scene. Actually, the hand removal scene was going pretty damned well, until something so completely ridiculous happened just in time to ruin one of the few good moments in this otherwise shit piss of a film.

cabin9

There was a golden opportunity to have a fun little body horror film with Cabin Fever 2 – there is the hint of something good buried somewhere in the film, but it's just so disjointed and sloppy. I hardly even tapped into the vastness of what's wrong with this movie (the ending?!! UGHH!), but I'm just tired of even thinking about it anymore. I just really disliked this one and as most of you know, it is a rare thing for me to hate a movie with as much passion as I hate Cabin Fever 2 right now. While so many sling shit at something like Book of Shadows, Spring Fever makes that film look like the fucking Empire Strikes Back. One things for sure, Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever is the worst film I have seen in 2010 thus far, which is incredibly disappointing considering how many people have seemed to enjoy it.

22 comments:

  1. ::Sniff sniff:: Yup, smells like dookie. Thanks for taking one for the team.

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  2. Yeah, it's crap. I agree with the comments about it being unfocused, especially after reading Ti West's interviews about the studio meddling with the movie. Sad stuff.

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  3. THANK YOU. I thought I was the only one. I went to a screening and it was so bad I almost walked out. The positive reviews are truly baffling to me.

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  4. Hey you just saved me $1! I was about to rent this from Redbox, but I think I'll choose something else now.

    There you have it folks--Matt Suzaka not only writes a great review--but he saves you money!

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  5. Will definitely skip this one. Thanks for the heads up.
    But WTF is with the dude in the rabbit suit? Leftover from The Shining or perhaps a failed Donnie Darko costume?

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  6. Bummer. I thought it was a jolly good time. I laughed (and gagged) at most of the gore and I liked the characters I was supposed to like. Then again, I went into this expecting dog shit.

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  7. POT: We all have to take one every once in a while. I am glad to protect you from this travesty!

    Mike: From what I have heard and/or read is West was going for a Henenlotter style of film and I can totally see that in there, but it is such a mess that it all gets lost. I am very curious as to how different, if at all, West's version would've been.

    Stacie: I have heard so many decent to great things about it that as I was watching it, I was waiting for it to give me something, anything to enjoy and it just didn't. I'm not one to let expectations get in the way, especially when all I expected was a fun and simple horror film with some cool gore. They couldn't even get that right.

    Rev: Ha, thank you kind sir! Hate it or not, it might be worth the dollar rental...I unfortunately got it as a birthday present (but I did ask for it, 'cause I'm dumb), so now I fucking own it! I should have a contest to win my copy. No one would enter.

    C.L.: The rabbit suit dude was a lame attempt to have another connection to the first film. If you remember towards the end of Cabin Fever, Rider Strong's character is in the hospital and as he is being wheeled by one of the rooms, he sees some dude dressed as a bunny. It was just some random odd little thing that was used in the sequel to connect the two films I guess.

    Eskie: I can see some of the appeal it may have for some people, especially with no expectations, but I was trying real hard to like it and couldn't. I thought Segan's character was okay, but that was it really. I didn't like his best buddy or the girlfriend either and even the dick head boyfriend wasn't that good (and I LOVE dick head movie boyfriends!). Still, hated it or not, I would try giving it another watch down the road sometime to see how I feel upon a second viewing. Maybe.

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  8. For as much as I looooove the original CF, I have shied away from the purchase of CF2 because of reviews like this, and because I generally felt little need to revisit that story... yet Naked Eskimo up there expected dog shit and enjoyed it, and I, too, expect dog shit, so might I not enjoy it??? Now I'm torn. Guess I'll have to rent the damn thing. I hate renting movies (I'm a "purchase to own" type o' guy, all the way). Thanks a lot, assholes. ;)

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  9. I'm totally with you that it sucked bigfoots dick, but it did have it's moments (maybe just moment). After watching House of the Devil, I've got to give Ti West the benefit of the doubt and believe him when he says his movie was different than the one that got released.

    For some reason I really liked Rider Strong in this one, which is odd, cause I don't normally. The bus helped.

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  10. So surprised at your reaction to it, Matt. I haven't seen it yet, but it seems like everyone loves it.

    Ti West has disowned it and you've probably given us all the reasons why.

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  11. J.: Yeah, I think my review may pile your expectations right into the toilet enough to where you may find some enjoyment out of it. I didn't even try and compare it to Cabin Fever, but if I did, that would have hurt the film significantly more.

    Peter: Ha, bigfoots dick is huge, and it did suck big dick, so very fitting analogy! This is one of those things that works out very well for West. People that hate it, know that he was not a part of the editing process and the final result is not his vision. On the other hand people that love it, will say that he has a lot to do with the films success and the issues it does have, are from the tampering.

    Chris: I'm usually the one to like a movie like this, so it is surprising to even me that I didn't care for it. I do have a strong feeling that much of the film's problems are to do with studio tampering, but even outside of that, it would still have some problems, just a little less maybe.

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  12. Thats so friggin disappointing, and yet.. nothing will ever stop me from watching and inevitably owning it.. BUT im not looking forward to it, so there.. I showed it..

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  13. Yeah, it's one of those things where I wouldn't discourage anyone from seeing it, but don't let all that hype ruin it for you. I think it sucks, but a lot of people did enjoy it, so you never know!

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  14. I think I had a slightly better time than you Matty, but I agree this is a mess of epic proportions. You can see some potential in the throwback spirit of the prom (they even played Prom Night!) and I didn't even mind the stereotypical high school stuff, mostly because I found the young actors appealing and didn't really think it was that much worse than the original. But when you put the whole film together, ugh.

    The Winston stuff just seemed deliberately there to throw everything off. The main story ended 60 minutes in. I just didn't really get what the big picture was, which makes perfect sense when you consider the lack of a clear vision during the non-director edited process.

    I should be getting my review for it up tonight. Fine work here Matt.

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  15. Thanks! I didn't even bother with mentioning the ending, which was so awful that I was just jaw-dropped with how poorly it played out. I did love the aesthetic of the prom, though and thought the colors, music, and how those scenes were shot, were a high point. And I agree, that was one place where you could see some of the films potential. I'm off to read your review now!

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  16. I didn't care for it much either,I immediately put it into my never watch again pile.I had hopes for it also.Shame.Great blog btw!

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  17. I wouldn't have had high hopes if not for the positive reviews that were floating around. Still, the movie is awful and hype or no hype wouldn't change that. Thanks for the comment, Erik, and I appreciate the nice words!

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  18. That Noah Segan guy sucks! Bad acting...It was a bad movie though, so I guess he fit the bill.

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  19. Yeah, the movie is a big pile of steaming brown, period!

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  20. Ouch, I never saw 2001 Maniacs and never really had much of a desire to. If it sucks harder than CF2, then I'm all set!

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  21. All I could ask myself was why....this movie was crap...buuuut on the bright side, I didn't change the channel while watching Summer School after reading the review you gave via IMDB... Its proving to be more than the beginning lets on...I think watching Cabin Fever 2 fight before got me so disappointed that I almost couldn't bare giving another movie a chance so soon after that crap...thanks!

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  22. Yeah, most films come off much better than Cabin Fever 2 does. I would say that Summer School is vastly more entertaining and competent than CF2 in pretty much every way!

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