Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever (2009) Reviews

• Senseless entertainment

  Cujo1082010-07-29

  This DTV sequel to Eli Roth's film debut sees the flesh-eating virus spread due to the incompetence of Deputy Winston. The film opens with a badly infected Paul waking up in the river where Winston dumped him at the end of the original. He stumbles up to the highway and is killed almost immediately when a passing school bus splatters him across the pavement. The end of the infection? Hell no. The river water is being used by a bottled water company, and they have a shipment heading to a nearby town's high school prom. Director Ti West reportedly wanted this to receive an Alan Smithee credit after the studio interfered and took certain things in a different direction, though he didn't get his wish. I'm an unabashed fan of Roth's film, but this really felt nothing at all like the original. Even the Deputy Winston scenes felt a bit different in tone, the sequence where he's talking to the water company's night watchman notwithstandin. The aforementioned scene and it's climax cracked me up, but Winston's character wasn't written as amusingly as he was in the first film. Aside from seeing Winston again, the main aspect of interest here was seeing two guys (Noah Segan and Marc Senter) who played memorable psychos in two other genre titles (Deadgirl and The Lost, respectively) as rivals in this. Segan in particular seems to be playing the exact part his Deadgirl co-star played in that film. Anyway, there didn't seem to be much continuity between the effects of the virus in the original and what we see in this one. There is some pretty nasty and over-the-top stuff, though. Most characters were over-the-top as well. I wish the film had spent more time with Lindsey Axelsson (Sandy, the prom queen). She was yummy and had one of the film's more amusing moments. She didn't even get an on screen death scene! The last ten or so minutes with the strip club feel very tacked on, but I guess that makes sense, as West said the producers did the ending their way. I also didn't like the final cartoon bit in the least, not to say that the opening cartoon segment was any great shakes itself. If you like pure splat-stick with not much sense involved, you might enjoy this on some level. At one point, with chaos erupting around them, two teens continue making out even after they vomited blood into each other's mouths. That pretty much says it all. I would love to see the original cut, but doubt LG will release it. It took them forever to release the DC of the first.

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• Don't let them out

  kosmasp2009-11-04

  Having seen the first Cabin Fever, which I really liked (it showcased Eli Roths talent for sick and twisted horror comedy, so to speak), I kinda had hoped this could be better. But even before watching the movie, I heard the "director" Ti West, distancing himself from this movie (at a Festival, where I didn't have another option/movie to choose from, that's why I chose to watch this anyway, despite the warning)!!! He didn't like the movie and he didn't cut it together (there are also some additional scenes shot and edited into the movie, especially the ending) and he also said, that people might like it or hate it, but either way, he is not responsible for what people will think of the movie ... Having said that, I for once thought it was dreadful. Almost every "funny" line doesn't work, the chemistry between the two best friends is off, not to mention that the American Pie style thing just doesn't work. Unfortunately the main character isn't as good in his role as he could have been (you might have seen him in "Dead Girl" where he is phenomenal). There is also a side story that is really bad (it's supposed to be funny, but it just isn't). Some gory moments and a few actually not that bad one liners can't save this mess of a movie. There are movies out there, that are worse, but this still has got quite a few things wrong. If you want to see a good Ti West movie, watch his House of the Devil instead ...

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• gory, fun romp at the prom, with a bloodbath that makes "Carrie" look like Babe: Pig in the city.

  Strawberry_Typhoon2010-02-18

  To be honest, I didn't want to review this flick for a number of reasons. One of which being that Cabin Fever is one of my favorite films. Another reason being that Ti West has become one of my favorite genre directors. I remember becoming stoked the day I read that Ti West was taking on a sequel to Eli Roth's Cabin Fever, then all the delays and production problems, and reading that West had all but disowned the film, My anticipation turned to disappointment. The end result turned out to be much better than expected, but still felt incomplete. Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever spreads the infection from a cabin in the woods, to a nearby high-school prom. With a solid performance by all players involved, some superbly fitting music, and well done gross-out effects, Cabin Fever 2 is a worthy watch for anyone into indie splatter comedies. One of the biggest problems with Cabin Fever 2 is that Ti West wasn't available for the editing process. Sure, 90 percent of the footage that he shot was used,(and it shows) But if a director isn't there for the editing process of a film, It's not going to turn out the way it was intended. The film feels incomplete, as the producers decided to shoot an entirely different 6 minute ending sequence that feels so out of place, that if it didn't contain one of the early characters, you'd thing you were watching a completely different movie. Just as the film picks up, it's brought to a complete halt by this weird, unsuited ending. The ending actually made me feel as if the film had no ending at all. Giuseppe Andrews puts in an amazing performance as he always does, but his character isn't given the depth that he deserves. Despite it's problems, Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever is definitely worth the watch. It has one of the best opening sequences in b-movie history, and you can tell by the cinematography that Ti West not only knows his stuff, but has a deep love for the genre. I wish they would have given him creative freedom, as I feel this would become a cult classic, but as it stands, we're left with a competent, gory, fun romp at the prom, with a bloodbath that makes "Carrie" look like Babe: Pig in the city. http://liberaldead.blogspot.com

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• Has it's problems, but it sure has blood, violence, and gore

  TdSmth52011-10-30

  An infected guy from part I crawls out of a water treatment plant, stumbles through the woods, makes it to a road only to be aerosolized when he's hit by a school bus. The world's most incompetent sheriff deputy arrives on scene and the tells the bus drive he just hit a moose. What a great way to start the movie! But things go way downhill from there. Meanwhile, infected water is distributed all over the place. The movie focuses on what happens at a high school...during prom day...of course. Hollywood just can't make a movie about high school on any day other than prom. Our main cast is a nice guy and his heavy and horny sidekick. Nice guy is bullied by some bad guy over a girl. Slowly the infection spreads at school, with blisters being the first sign. Sidekick hooks up with an infected girl in a bathroom stall. Nice guy doesn't have a date for prom so he decides not to go until sidekick convinces him to. The punch at the prom is made with infected water and the disgruntled and infected janitor urinates in it so in time for prom dance every one starts projectile vomiting blood. Somehow the deputy realizes what is going on, rushes to the water plant only to encounter some secret army taking control. This army also reaches the high school, locks it up and executes everyone, but our heroes who will try to find a way out. Cabin Fever 2, subtitled "Spring Fever" for no good reason whatsoever, has nothing to do with the original, there isn't even a cabin. And IMDb quotes that there were re-shoots and re-editing because of producer-director disagreements. It is obvious in Cabin Fever 2 that something wasn't right behind the camera. The movie just doesn't work, there is plenty of story missing, characters that serve no purpose, like the deputy, what happens with him? The ending of the movie is told in...animation!? But there are also problems with casting. The nemesis is very well cast, the sidekick is alright, too. But our main guy and his girl are dull and the girl unattractive. Before infection starts, the pace of the movie is atrocious as we are introduced to the characters. The prom itself is poorly filmed, dark, and unoriginal. Despite all the movie's shortcomings, I'm compelled to give it a better rating. The crew went places few dare these days when making a horror movies. Most are concerned with getting that PG-13 rating and offending no one. Cabin Fever 2 aims to be extreme in violence, gore, disgusting scenes. It has a bit of nudity and sexual situations, too. This movie was done in the right spirit, but somewhere something went wrong.

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• Sick, Twisted Film

  seh1109042010-02-22

  I mistakenly assumed that with Rider Strong repeating his role from the first film this sequel would continue that story, which was humorous and disturbing. I found that to be far from the case. The movie isn't worthy of being classed as B status. Performances are bad. Script almost non-existent. A thin plot exists to move the film from one gross-out scene to another. I could find nothing that would move me to recommend this film. How anyone could find something funny in this production is beyond me. It is one sick, twisted film whose only goal is to attempt to sicken the audience or desensitize viewers to the reality of tragedy in the real world. Perhaps I'm being a bit too philosophical for such low-brow "entertainment", but there is nothing redemptive about this feature. Cheap special effects, constant profanity, unlikeable characters (especially the deputy who cares only about himself). Whereas Cabin Fever displayed some originality, this sequel exists merely to cash in on its predecessor's name and reputation. There's no tension or sense of "something worse coming" that was present in the original. The movie itself is only about 72 minutes, followed by a 5 minute tangential story, which is itself followed by a crudely drawn cartoon of 2 or 3 minutes; filler, simply filler. There are better ways to waste 80 minutes.

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