Quentin Tarantino Ranks This Free-to-Stream Horror Among the Century’s Best – “It just really, really works”
Quentin Tarantino loves John Frankenheimer’s Prophecy, and for that, I’ll always love Quentin Tarantino. No different than Stephen King or Guillermo del Toro, the seminal creative often spends his time earnestly sharing his love for cinema. He spotlights big hits, lesser-known gems, and everything in between. While he’s recommended plenty in the past, he’s recently formalized his efforts via The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast, where he’s been doling out his favorite 20 movies of this century. Coming in at number 19? Eli Roth’s Cabin Fever.
Cabin Fever, Roth’s springboard to horror success, is presently streaming free on Tubi. Full disclosure? Roth’s groundbreaking body horror hit never really worked for me. It’s sufficiently nasty, yes, but the entire thing felt… juvenile to me? That’s an apt way for putting it, I think, though I know Cabin Fever has plenty of fans, including Tarantino. Remember, this list is the top 20 of the entire century.
Cabin Fever’s conceit is pretty simple. The film follows some poor saps who take a remote trip, contract a flesh-eating virus, and then slowly succumb to the nastiest deaths you can imagine. There are wolves, horrifying attempts at shaving, and more. It’s been a cult hit for a while, so I’m curious to see whether Tarantino’s recommendation catapults it into the spotlight, especially after the 2016 remake all but tanked the film’s legacy. It’s one of those early aughts mainstays, nonetheless, a movie most horror fans are familiar with, even if they haven’t seen it for themselves.
On The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast, Quentin Tarantino remarked, “There’s something so charming. Eli’s sense of humor, sense of gore — it just really, really works. People kind of forget how tense it is in the first half because it gets so genuinely funny in the last 20 minutes. Hostel might be his best movie, but this is my favorite.” Hostel, for those curious, is presently streaming on Moviesphere. As for me, Hostel 2 is Roth’s best movie, closely followed by Thanksgiving.
Today, audiences are reasonably uneasy with Roth as a filmmaker, so whether you opt to heed Quentin Tarantino’s recommendation is entirely discretionary. I’m not certain a revisit to Cabin Fever would do much to change my mind, but if you feel differently, definitely check in with me over on Twitter and Instagram.
Categorized: Streaming News
