CABIN FEVER
In most horny-teens-in-the-woods horror films, the watchword is "You can run, but you can?t hide." Here it?s "You can run, but don?t drink the water." Instead of a masked psycho wielding a blade, a flesh-eating virus serves as these wayward youths? nemesis. And if that doesn?t get them, the rabid dog and the platoon of incensed rednecks will. Much of what these victims-in-waiting do defies common sense ? even in the context of the genre ? but that doesn?t matter once the carnage begins.
Director (and Boston area native) Eli Roth has cooked up a gorefest that?s so stylish and graphic, even the most jaded will be watching through parted fingers ? especially the leg-shaving scene where razor burn is the least of these people?s problems. There?s little from
Last House on the Left
,
Evil Dead
, and so on that Roth doesn?t steal, but he supplies enough wit and panache to call it his own. Beyond his make-up artist, Roth?s best asset is Giuseppe Andrews as the happy-go-lucky deputy who likes to party. (94 minutes
BY TOM MEEK
Issue Go out with: September 12 - 18, 2003