Thursday's Turkey on Friday

Last weekend's snowstorm got me all mixed up, so I hope you'll forgive me for doing the usual Turkey Month Thursday Turkey on Friday, this week. And since I had already mentioned it in the post about The Innkeepers the other night, I thought I'd start with Ti West's direct-to-video Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever.

Eli Roth's 2002 directorial debut, Cabin Fever, was a funny and horrific homage to the genre about a group of college friends who rent a secluded cabin in the woods, only to be infected with a fast moving form of necrotizing faciitis (flesh eating bacteria). Gross,gory and often hilarious, Cabin Fever was a sleeper hit and gave Roth a career (though lately he's been acting, more than directing).

West's 2009 sequel... well, let's just say it lacks the finesse of the original. Rider Strong briefly returns as Paul (the original's only survivor), to find that he is also  infected. He wanders onto a highway and is promptly hit by a school bus whereupon he explodes like an overripe watermelon. Giuseppe Andrews also returns as party-hardy Deputy Winston, who tells the bus driver that he hit a moose. 

The story then moves on to a high school, where everyone is having angst about attending prom. Needless to say, the infected bottled water from the creek gets into the school and everyone is infected. Agents from a CDC-like organization try and quarantine the school as all sorts of mayhem breaks loose. There are exploding bodies; bloody vomit; amputations; ax attacks and even a nail-gun killing. The CDC-like group eventually gasses everyone in the school, but not before one girl escapes and goes to her job as a pole dancer, exposing her sore-covered breasts to the patrons who are apparently too drunk to notice.

What a mess. The 'humor' in the movie is barely passable as sophomoric, using unfunny sex jokes, homophobic entendres and just plain unfunny gross-outs. As for the cast of mostly* unknowns, I've seen more talented actors in back-water productions of The Fantastiks. The barely coherent screenplay byJoshua Malkin appears to have cobbled together from random ideas scribbled on diner napkins, while West seems to be simply going through the motions for a paycheck. To be perfectly honest, there is absolutely nothing worth recommending about Cabin Fever 2. I'm so glad I caught for free on FearNet.

*I hope "30 Rock" co-star Judah Friedlander doesn't count this movie among his "career highlights."

More, anon.
Prospero

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