Tagline: This time it’s spreading.
Curiosity: It’s a sequel to Eli Roth’s original helmed by Ti West, and I’m pretty into that guy right now.
Plot: Picking up where the original left off, Paul (Rider Strong, Boy Meets World) wakes up in a river and stumbles to a nearby road. He gets hits by a school bus and explodes while a campy/retro title logo pops up. And then the movie starts!
John (Noah Segan, Kablam! Remember Kablam!? Also Brick) is a super-smart Catholic school kid with a super-dumb crush on Cassie (Alexi Wasser). Cassie seems like a nice gal, but her on again, off again boyfriend Marc (Marc Senter, I Know Who Killed Me) is psycho-crazy. Like bash your face in with a fire extinguisher crazy [SPOILER ALERT: This is actually one of the tamer scenes!]. These three square off over the penultimate conflict: Is prom bullshit or rad?
Also the flesh-eating virus from the first movie is still eating flesh. Winston the cop (Giuseppe Andrews) returns as well and says funny things.
Thoughts: I had just as many reasons to avoid Cabin Fever 2 as I did to check it out. It’s a sequel to Eli Roth’s hi-larious Cabin Fever (that’s good!), but it went straight to DVD (that’s bad! But then again so did Wrong Turn 2: Dead End and that ish rocked). Ti West wrote and directed, and got the cast and crew he wanted (that’s good!), but he left the film during post-production and it was edited by… other people (that’s worrisome!). But he did it to make The House of the Devil (which was great!). West has since distanced himself from the project, which is a shame since it’s a pretty funny, albeit puke-inducing, gorefest in the tradition of John Waters and Troma.
Which is exactly what I don’t think of when I think of West’s work. Trigger Man and The House of the Devil both have a casual pace. His films aren’t interesting because of the kills, but the moments in between them. West actually bothers to develop his characters (even if, in Trigger Man’s case, those developments are extremely slight). Cabin Fever 2 may or may not prove his range as a horror filmmaker. It moves at a clip, constantly dropping tasty treats filled with blood ‘n’ puss. It’s not quite Pink Flamingos, but it’ll clear a room just as effectively.
Some of the humor fails – any resemblance to American Pie is regrettable – and the dialogue relies too much on profanity over wit. At least Judah Friedlander gets in a great quote: “She told me she was 18, and I always believe everything children say.” It’s no “Yeah, he's a professor... of being a dog!” but it made me laugh. Yet it’s the film’s gross-out gags where the biggest laughs are, however uncomfortable they may be. I’m talking about herpes joke here. Severed limbs. And a pool sex scene between two teens that starts off weird and just gets worse/better from there. While I’d be interested in seeing West’s original edit, for now I’m pretty OK with the final, fairly gross result.
Reflection: My girlfriend and I were too skeeved out to have dinner afterwards, though. Well, OK, she was too skeeved out. I was pretty hungry.
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