I must admit when I heard that the 2002 black-comedy-horror film Cabin Fever, a movie so seminal to my obsession with horror, was being remade (with the original shooting script none the less)…it gave me a stomach ache.
Executive producer Eli Roth presents this reboot of his instant classic gorefest, which features all new characters and all new kills. The story is familiar: fresh out of college, a group of five friends retreat to a remote cabin in the woods for one last week of partying—only to become snacks for a gruesome, flesh-eating virus. What’s surprising are the ingenious new deaths, which offer a fresh spin on a horror-comedy milestone.
From my experience, the only reason these films are remade is to reach the widest, youngest audience possible. One way to do this is by washing off the blood of the original, and slapping on the dreaded PG-13 rating. Which…miraculously didn’t happen in this case. I might actually have started an online petition if they stripped the franchise of blood vomit. Another way to maximize remake financial success is to add a teen celeb or two. Disney stars, pretty much anyone ever featured in a J-14 magazine will do. In this case we’ve got Gage Golightly (Nickelodeon’s The Troop, MTV’s Teen Wolf). Listen, I know what you’re thinking. Cash grab, seat filling behavior…BUT, let’s settle down and think back fourteen years. Remember this first time you saw Rider Strong (aka Shawn Hunter in Boy Meets World) digitally stimulating Lauren Ladd in the original? An absolute game changer. For me, that was the moment Rider separated form Shawn. Next level stuff.
So I guess all I’m saying in my rambling is that I’m actually excited to see what we’ve got here. It’s dangerous walking a tightrope made of peoples nostalgia. Godspeed.
Cabin Fever will be available February 12th in limited theaters and on VOD.