Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever (DVD)
Steve Barton
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Reviewed by Uncle Creepy
Starring Noah Segan, Marc Senter, Alexi Wasser, Giuseppe Andrews, Rusty Kelley
Directed by Ti West. Sort of.
Distributed by Lionsgate Home Entertainment
It’s been a long, arduous road for Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever to see the light of day. For those not playing along … as a result of a dispute with the producers, director Ti West walked off the film just as post-production had begun, leaving them with all of his shot footage. Having seen his first cut, the powers-that-be thought the flick should go in a different direction. Said direction would be the opposite of where West was willing to go. So how did it all turn out? Before we get to that, let’s take a look at the story.
In a brief opening cameo Rider Strong reprises his character of Paul from Eli Roth’s Cabin Fever to start things off with a bang, and that’s exactly what happens. As you know by now if you saw the original film, the disease has found its way into the water supply, and a bottling company is distributing it. The delivery truck’s first stop? The local high school, which is gearing up for prom. It’s then that we’re introduced to the film’s protagonists and villains, who all in one way or another have to deal with an upcoming gory outbreak. We’re also introduced to a really weird government containment plot twist and the return of Cabin Fever‘s Deputy Winston, who shows up, much like in the first flick, to do pretty much nothing.
Despite the paper thin plot (or lack thereof), all of these strange pieces of cinema actually work together to deliver a fairly competent and extremely violent gross-out flick. At its heart Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever is a fun-filled little experience with great music and one of the best opening title sequences we’ve seen in a while. But, man, does it have its problems, the main one being that despite having all of a director’s footage, you cannot successfully put together a film without his input. What we have here is a Ti West film without Ti West, and it plays exactly as such. Imagine if chef Bobby Flay gave you all the components of a great meal. Does that mean you can cook it better than he can? No.
The producers also saw fit to shoot an additional six-minute ending for the film that feels so out of place and tacked on that it nearly sucks the life and fun out of everything you just watched. Not a wise choice at all. Still, despite the uneven editing and really horrid decision-making that this film suffers from, you can sort of grasp what West was going for, and even with his lack of input some of that still shines through, making this a barely above average experience instead of the good one that it should have been.
In terms of special features more or less all we get are two featurettes highlighting the main thing that Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever has going for it — its gore. Holy shit, was there a lot of it. This flick is all about going too far, and from that standpoint it completely succeeds.
In the end this movie should stand as a prime example for producers to learn from: If you hire a director to make a movie for you, you really should consider putting your egos aside and letting him or her finish the job. Too many cooks really can spoil the pot or, in this flick’s case, bring down the temperature far enough so that your supposed fever ends up running inappropriately cold.
Special Features
3 out of 5
Special Features:
2 out of 5
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