RG
Roberto Giacomelli
•The water contaminated by the decomposing and virus-infected corpses is bottled and transported throughout the county, even reaching the local high school, where preparations for the end-of-year school dance are underway. Here, John is tormented by his obsession with Cassie, whom he has always been in love with, but Cassie is with Marc, the school bully expert in martial arts. While John is indecisive about giving up the dance and spending the evening with his friends watching a horror movie or convincing Cassie to go to the dance with him, the virus is spreading among the school's students and is preparing to cause a real massacre during the dance.
Once upon a time there was the 80s teen splatter movie... and it still exists!
Eli Roth with "Cabin Fever" (2002) brought to life a heartfelt homage to 70s-80s horror cinema by mixing "The House" (where, however, instead of the Kandarian demons there is a sort of AIDS virus a bit quicker to kill) with "A Quiet Weekend of Fear" and citing "Night of the Living Dead", "The Last House on the Left" and so much other supercult stuff. Now Ti West ("The Roost – La Tana") wants to follow the same path as his colleague and, between irony, citations, and scenes to turn your stomach, he doubles by amplifying each element.
But it is necessary to give first of all a piece of information
that should be basic: "Cabin Fever 2" should have carried the signature of Alan Smithee. This pseudonym is adopted in America by film productions when the author of the film disowns the work, as happened with "Cabin Fever 2". Apparently, the Lionsgate, which produced the film, did not consider itself satisfied with the result, so it had the film remastered and – it is said – reshot some scenes, excluding Ti West, who meanwhile was busy on other sets. In the end, it doesn't matter, "Cabin Fever 2" is rather in line with the spirit of the first chapter, it entertains and disgusts, exactly as it should have done. Of course, it is disheveled and, especially in the final part, it is noticeable that there is something wrong at the level of narrative continuity (the remastering?), but no one will cry for this (perhaps apart from Ti West, obviously).
If "Cabin Fever" was pure horror with comedy gags inserted, "Cabin Fever 2" is essentially a comedy with horror elements. In this sequel, in fact, the lives of some American teenagers facing the classic problems that the
media overseas attribute to them are followed; and so we are served the loser of the turn who loves the blonde since elementary school but she only wants to be friends and meanwhile she goes out with the handsome (handsome) bit of a jerk. Stop. "Cabin Fever 2" does not like stereotypes and has fun subverting them. The protagonist's friend, the classic fat guy who in any other movie would have collected blunders upon blunders, here is the only one who picks up... well, he also picks up the obese girl who usually makes wallpaper. Then there is the headmaster determined in school choices and rigorously gay, the teacher with the hare lip, the disgusting and "mischievous" janitor, in short, a whole series of strange characters who do strange things and that you usually don't see in a movie. "Cabin Fever 2", in fact, is constantly eager to distinguish itself from the crowd and often to do so it also relies on excess. And of excess, without a doubt, it is talked about when a series of grotesque findings, one more disgusting than the other, are put on stage. Between penises well on display that ejaculate pus, a fellatio to herpes, a punch based on pee, blood-vomit geysers and so many other delicacies, "Cabin Fever 2" wins a nice primacy of scatology that is rarely seen in a relevant production.
What, however, does not work in a fun, carefree, and disgusting little movie like this is the haughty narrative development that soon ends in chaos and the unresolved. It starts exactly where Roth's film ended and immediately returns
the character of Deputy Winston (played once again by Giuseppe Andrews), the one obsessed with the party; the film then unfolds in two stories, on the one hand there is John's story and the school dance, on the other the Deputy's struggle to find a solution to the disaster involuntarily caused by his incompetence. The problem is that the part dedicated to the Deputy is treated in a decidedly marginal and superficial way even if it seems fundamental for the development of some events, resulting in the end almost intrusive. Moreover, the film interrupts abruptly leaving a thousand questions unanswered; but instead of the appearance of the credits, we witness a long sequence that tells us something else, a portion of the film not requested that seems useful exclusively to reinforce the dose of disgust with the beautiful view on adolescent breasts covered with pustules and a kiss in the mouth that literally ends in the vomit, that yellow and lumpy vomit that induces you to look away.
In short, if they tell you that something in the making of "Cabin Fever 2" went wrong believe it, because from the result it is evident. But there is also no need to despair, even if the film by Ti West is ramshackle, it entertains and possesses that handful of bizarre scenes necessary to make it remembered.
Vote rounded up for excess.