“Happy October, you goblins, ghouls, and ghosties. Or shall I say, Happy ROTHTOBER!!! Time to kick off the latest ExpDel mini project. The full list of what we’re attacking is on the Mini Projects page. You’ll see we’re not only covering films that Roth has written, directed, produced, and/or acted in, but we’re also including some favorites and influences.
While he had some smaller projects beforehand, Cabin Fever was his first real big splat on the scene. You’d think the whole cabin-in-the-woods subgenre of horror was done. We’ve seen every possible twist on it. Zombies, zombie trees, zombie redneck torture family, homicidal rednecks, teenagers. And after Joss Whedon made his statement there’s nowhere else to go with it. But ten years ago, there was a fresh new bloody twist, thanks to Sir Eli Roth.
Instead of our archetypical college students being chased around the great outdoors by something big and spooky, the big bad was internal. They’re being attacked by a flesh eating virus, scared who of each of them is gonna infect the others next. So if you’re gonna have the big breasted slut running out into the wild, it’s finally for a different reason other than she’s being chased by some undead creature trying to have his way. But even though the big bad is a virus, their deaths end up being indirectly related. Kinda ironic, and \m/ brilliant.
Let’s face it, as brilliant as the story nuances are, that’s not the main reason people flock to this flicks. Lucky for us, that’s not as far as Roth’s creativity goes. There’s blood. Oh dear \m/ God, there is blood. It may take a while for it to show up, but once it does oh my dear \m/ God is it worth it. It goes so much further than your blood spattered helpless victims. There’s the screwdriver to the head, the dog mangled body bits, and of course the shaving scene. Low budget is really the way to go with these types of films, and Roth works wonders with what he has.
Roth also has some fun on the opposite side of the camera, as the stoner dude Grim who wanders by the camp. The other thing that’s \m/ fun is how \m/ many \m/ f bombs are \m/ said thru the whole \m/ movie. Srsly, that should be my next movie drinking game. Hey, just drinking beer worked out for the characters for a lil while.
But yeah, fun for the whole family. Well, my family at least. And by my family, I mean that both of the cats were watching with rapt attention. Nosferatu was watching from his pillow bear beside the couch. Lestat, the one who truly goes in for this sorta thing, was on my lap, completely fixated on the screen. Or maybe she was looking at that Cabin Fever poster behind the tv. Got that from a Kickstarter that Trailers From Hell did this summer. Eli Roth donated and signed that. I was in shock that I was able to snatch that up, and its currently my favorite thing in a very full and cluttered apartment.”