A_Different_Drummer Review of Cabin Fever: Patient Zero

Cabin Fever: Patient Zero (2014)

Ambitious Start ... and then morphs into an Ed Wood special

[2/10 · 5 February 2014]

Rating 2/10. Reviewers notes as follows: Let's start with the positives. First, this is a direct to DVD release, and in the review biz, we always award points for honesty. Here the producers are being brutally honest about their expectations. MATRIX this 'aint. Second, the script (and I use the term loosely) starts off very ambitiously for an indie knockoff produced on a shoestring. Under those constraints, many producers would be challenged just to manage one single narrative. Here, the viewer gets two to play with -- the film starts with two core stories, one about a group of young, stoned, teens out to have fun, who run into a deadly virus which (typical of what passes for humour in these sorts of scripts) they initially mistake for a harmless "reaction" to bad weed. The counterpoint narrative is about a group of scientists who have somehow captured a man they believe to be the carrier of the original CABIN FEVER virus and are testing him in an underground lab. (A lab where the female lab assistant looks, and acts, like she just wandered off the Vivid set, and is not entirely sure what film she is in.) Again, very ambitious, and this dual narrative would have strained a much bigger production, with a much bigger budget. Here in Cabin Fever 3, it completely obliterates the film to such a degree that, by the midpoint of the runtime, there is clearly no money left in the kitty for anything but closeups framed in a garish red light (that signifies nothing in particular, and is mainly annoying) as well as equally inexplicable scenes shot in dim lighting where the characters from both narratives finally get together and essentially pull plasticy looking fake "skin" off each other as the last dregs of the Special Effects budget are exhausted. If Ed Wood were alive, this is precisely how he would do a sequel to Cabin Fever, and frankly I am not sure that's a compliment. PS #1 -- If by any chance you have not seen the original Cabin Fever, one of the best things Eli Roth ever did, run don't walk to your local DVD purveyor or video streamer and watch that instead. (The IMDb rating for CF1, 5.6 as this review is prepared, is dodgy, because some 800 IMDb members have already left a review and you don't do that for a weak film. In fact CABIN FEVER 1 is totally brilliant and does a better job at deconstructing the genre than Whedon did with CABIN IN THE WOODS, and he had a budget that could have resurrected the Manhattan Project). PS #2 -- for these sorts of indie oddities, best to ignore the IMDb rating until at least 100 members weigh in because -- IMDb tip!! -- those involved with, or related to, the production company tend to "overweight" the rating for the first few weeks.