Cabin Fever follows a group of friends looking for a fun getaway at a semi-remote cabin. Things begin to spiral out of control as a flesh eating virus infects members of the group one by one. Trust and sanity gradually drain away as their bodies begin to deteriorate.
Cabin Fever Review
This remake to an American film from merely 12 years prior to this film's release is practically a shot-for-shot remake. And when we're talking non-existent improvements in the gore arena, you wonder, "why bother?" The overwhelming similarities hardly make it worth reviewing to be honest. If you saw the 2002 version, you pretty much saw this one. I could play the two films next to each other, but I'm pretty sure there wasn't a break in between the two scripts until well-over half-way through the film.
Even the black, awkward humor of the original remains in tact, with no attempt to expand into a more serious tone (like with the Evil Dead remake) or go full-on satire (like, say, Tucker & Dale). So it's just...Cabin Fever...again. How this got greenlit is beyond me.
I hate to bash a movie so much. I love to find redeemable qualities. But there just isn't much to go off of. The original can be considered by some to be a cult classic, but I think that's only the case because your memory of it skews your experience. It just wasn't good enough of a film to warrant a remake, let alone one that hardly changed a thing.
Take a movie from the 1950s...update it for modern culture and use updated special effects and change little else. Okay. It's unoriginal, but at least you're accomplishing something with the update. You're bringing relatively unknown material to today's audience. This...this film isn't even two decades old, isn't remade from a foreign market, and lacks the originality or quality to be deserving. Yet here we are.
I could soapbox this remake further, but it's not worth it. If you wanted to watch Cabin Fever (2002) again but don't own it, just check this one out. You'll basically be watching it again.
Horror Qualifier: 8/10
Horror Quality: 6/10
Film Quality: 2/10