On Letterboxd, this month of horror marathons are all getting labelled Hoop-Tober after one member, called "Cinemonster" decided that Tobe Hooper would be the main focus of their marathon. It's called "The Hoop-Tober Challenge"
The rules are:
1 - You must see 31 movies
2 - The movies must span at least 5 different decades
3 - There should be either:
... at least five films by one director, or...
... at least three films each from two different directors...
4 - Films from at last four different countries.
5 - They should all be reviewed.
So, I'm kicking off my Hoop-Tober challenge with Eli Roth's "Cabin Fever".
1. Cabin Fever (2002)
Kicking off Hoop-Tober with a film from director Eli Roth. I was very happily surprised by Hostel and decided that Eli Roth didn't deserve the bad mouthing he often receives. Sadly this movie has given me cause to reconsider my position.
There's a bit of a problem with the tone in this piece. On the one hand there are clear horror tropes and homages included in a playful way. For example, there's a blatant 'butt-shot' clearly referencing a similar shot from Texas Chainsaw Massacre followed quickly by a female protagonist entering a building announcing her presence with 'hello?' over and over. Characters encountered by our central cabin-dwelling holidaymakers are clearly intentionally larger than life, such as the young deputy who wishes he were partying and getting high with the holidaymakers himself.
Yet on the other hand, for all these quirky references and over the top elements, the film quite simply doesn't have many scenes that are funny.
When watching "The Conjuring" I was fairly sure that the film was not intended as horror comedy, yet often found parts of the film hilarious. Watching "Cabin Fever" I had the opposite problem. Even while I saw clear signs that the film was trying to be a horror comedy, nothing really seemed to have a comic tone. "Cabin Fever" ends up seeming more stupid than funny.
Eli Roth's cameo is awful.
I know that the film is trying to spoof horror classics where protagonists often make stupid decisions, but the choices made by the characters in Cabin Fever are just.ridiculously stupid. They don't act like real people at all. I can accept that when the female character continues to shave her legs even though she can tell it is tearing off her skin there is a certain amount of self-denial involved and it emphasises the horror. But the protagonists also make some bizarre choices. Like when one of them sees a man covered in blood in the woods and then doesn't think to tell his friends. Or when they comfort their friend who is ill and being kept separate in a shed that she'll be safe while they are gone because they are locking her in.
Okay so perhaps it's intentional that the characters act like idiots, but the problem is that it's difficult to get interested in a load of non-people. Where's the character to act as a way-in for the audience?
Cabin Fever seems to be attempting to do what Cabin In The Woods eventually did. Except while Cabin In The Woods rose above the tropes of the genre, Cabin Fever tries to lump on as many stupid tropes as it can. The result is that Cabin Fever is an unbearably stupid movie and a massive disappointment after Hostel.
E-
Additional horror catch-up review
This is another one I saw before. I cannot believe that I managed to miss out "It's A Wonderful Afterlife". What a scandal!
It's A Wonderful Afterlife (2010)
Another comedy based around the Punjabi Sikh community in London from the director of "Bend It Like Beckham". Perhaps it's because I'm not terribly fond of football, but I much preferred this film.
The cast doesn't do any harm either, with an excellent Indian cast including one recognisable cast member from "East Is East" (a film I didn't like, but contained excellent performances) and another from the tv sketch show Goodness Gracious Me. There's also a fantastic performance from Sally Hawkins as a white girl with a passion for Indian spirituality and a welcome turn from Zoe Wanamaker as the Jewish neighbour.
After an opening involving exaggerated deaths involving Indian foodstuffs and newspaper headlines featuring ridiculous puns ("Korma Blimey!" being a personal favourite), we finally get to meet the main characters.
Ghosts are involved here, but what is interesting about it is that according to Sikhism spirits of the dead ought to be reincarnated, not just hanging around. The setup with the ghosts is similar to in "An American Werewolf in London" where the dead spirits talk just as they would have when they were alive, but with clear indications of how they died still present on them (including one guy who can't speak well because he was suffocated in chapati dough).
The story here is essentially a romantic comedy and it's a fairly straightforward one. But the gags are funny enough, the characters are endearing enough and the backdrop of the ghosts is bizarre enough that I was consistently riveted. On top of that there are interesting observations on Indian traditions in a British context. Sure it's nothing we haven't seen highlighted in episodes of Goodness Gracious Me, but it's very well portrayed with excellent performances from the characters. Particularly from the mother.
Also the scene paying homage to Carrie was hilarious!
A+