Cabin Fever (2002)

Summer is the perfect time to go camping and sadly so many young adults are killed by various silent maniacs wielding machetes and other sharp objects. So imagine what a breath of fresh air the film “Cabin Fever” presented to the horror movie loving masses. You still have a group of young college age friends, you still have nudity for the target audience, and you have people dying. But “Cabin Fever” doesn’t have a person killing people but rather a contaminated water supply. The movie also has some of the best unexpected moments of black comedy thrown in to keep the viewer engaged. This film was Eli Roth’s big picture debut as a writer and director and he impressed the hell out of me.

Five college friends (Paul, Karen, Bert, Mercy, and Jeff) go out to the woods for a camping getaway to celebrate the end of the school. They meet some interest locals at the gas station/market, making a great first impression. Once they are at the cabin the group breaks up to do their own thing; Paul and Karen go swimming, Macy and Jeff have sex, and Bert goes off alone to shot squirrels…and eventually a homeless guy. Later that night the homeless guy shows up at their front door, bloody from the gunshot wound as well as something else. He’s sick and wounded and when they refuse to help him and he realizes that Bert is in the cabin, the homeless guy goes to their truck and begins to get blood all over the inside. They manage to chase him away in the morning they split up to find help. But unaware to them, they have been drinking the same water that affected the homeless guy. Soon they begin to show signs of the infection and things only go downhill from there.

Favorite moment – Watching how the group treats Karen and the process of her decay. It’s hard to imagine how a group in real life would approach this situation and the way the movie handled it is a very likely possibility.