In the words of Mallory Knox, sometimes things can just be ‘too eager’. Such is the case with Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever, a film about which I can surprisingly say a number of positive things. All of those things, however, have pretty much been entirely used up by the time the thirty minute mark has come and gone, and more than half the movie remains.
As the ending of the first film led us to believe would happen, the flesh-eating virus is spreading out of the forest and into the local townships, infecting victims through both direct (say, having another infected person spew blood directly into your face) and indirect (drinking infected waters) means. This being a sequel on a larger scale, this would also have to affect an environment that is just as claustrophobic but contains just as many possibilities for outrageously inappropriate and stupid behavior.
Enter the prom. John (Noah Segan) is the typical best-looking guy with a group of ugly friends. He’s looking to ask out Cassie (Alexi Wasser), but is afraid that her psycho ex-boyfriend Marc (Marc Senter) is going to beat him up if he does. Meanwhile, Officer Winston (Giuseppe Andrews, the goofy guy from the first film), is trying to track the progress of the virus, with intermittent help from Paul (Rider Strong, also carried over from the previous film). But then the virus just sort of happens, and all previously developed storylines are sort of crushed under the weight of the ensuing bloodshed.
For the first half hour or so of the film, it maintains a weird aesthetic balance where you’re not entirely sure what decade it’s supposed to take place in. There’s no definitive evidence that it’s anything but the modern day, but everything about what they’re wearing, how they’re behaving, and how they’re lit for the camera suggests the popular cinema of another era (in this case, the 80s). And it’s actually kind of a pleasant direction for this to take. None of it is brilliant or revelatory, but it is attentive to the details, going so far as to include a prom preparation montage set to ‘Born to be Alive’ which couldn’t have been done much better as far as a recreation of the period.
Having gotten that out of the way, it has to be said that the film eschews all of the goodwill that it builds up by second guessing its tone and running off in a million different directions at once. What was once innocuous and funny (which, it could probably be argued, a horror film should never be) grows into something that it seems to want Eli Roth to like, even if it misses his weird sense of pathos and humor almost completely. Where there was once the slow build up to what promised to be an outright massacre (when you’re knowingly drawing parallels to the climax of Carrie, you have to be planning something good), there is then only the sudden, strangely weightless machinations of chaotic violence, which comes and passes without having made the slightest impact.
Some of these problems can be attributed to the characters (it’s not really sure whether the writing or the actors are to blame), because by the time we get to the whole bloody climax, it’s hard to care exactly what happens to John and Cassie, since neither one has done anything to make them likable (better fare like Evil Dead at least has the good sense to build up their characters so they make a more satisfying splat when they hit the ground). But then again, a lot of it probably comes down to the filmmakers (again, responsibility is unclear; director Ti West tried to have his name taken off the picture, saying that it represents the producer’s vision more than himself) trying to approximate Roth’s sensibilities at the eleventh hour. It’s visible in several places, but in each occurrence, it comes across as something that was probably rejected for the original and included here to pad the running time.
DVD Bonus Features
"Gore Reel" - This DVD literally gives you the option of watching only the gory scenes from the film.
"Behind The Scenes Featurette" - The typical volley of production footage and interviews, strangely augmented by Napoleon Dynamite–style animated titles.
"Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever" is on sale February 16, 2010 and is rated R. Horror. Directed by Ti West. Written by Ti West and Randy Pearlstein, Joshua Malkin. Starring Noah Segan, Rider Strong, Giuseppe Andrews, Alexander Isaiah Thomas, Alexi Wasser.
