Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever (2009)

Sick, and a lotta ick. That about sums up the installment that makes Eli Roth's 2003 original seem like "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie," by comparison. This time around, the titular cabin is replaced by a high school building, and director Ti West would have liked his name replaced by Alan Smithee's in the credits (since he is no member of the Director's Guild, he couldn't). West did neither finish nor endorse the (unrated) cut of this direct-to-DVD-release. As bad as that sounds, the movie is not. Tongue-firmly-placed-in-cheek it's a bow to 1980s slasher flicks, offering decomposing people at the prom, gore galore, great make-up effects and not a single dull moment. Blink and you'll miss Rider Strong (the star of the first "Cabin Fever") in a superfluous flashback sequence (inexplicably, Strong is billed first in the opening credits). Gorehounds will eat this one up, because the movie has guts...literally.

Fmovies: Since you most likely saw the first one you know how this one begins. A clever animated title sequence shows the bottled water making its way to the people through commerce. The sequel starts off with a blast as the survivor gets disintegrated by a school bus. Enter screwball Winston (Andrews returning from the original) to smooth it over and sweep it under the proverbial carpet. We quickly move to the goings-on at the local high school where we meet plenty of "Superbad" angst and sexual hi-jinks. It all comes together at the prom where infected punch really gets the party started.

Wow this bad boy goes for the gross-out fast and hard. The gore and blood flows like wine and if you don't feel like losing your lunch once or twice then you seen way to much (I sympathize becauxe I'm there too). Director West once again taps the 70's – 80's (just like "The House of the Devil") complete with corded phone, crap make-up and a disgustingly familiar prom. It's all good dirty fun. I had a bit more fun than the first one.

In Springfield, Paul contaminates the supply of bottled water of the Down Home Water to the local high-school on the day of the prom. Alex (Rusty Kelley) convinces his friend Jonathan (Noah Segan), who has a crush on Cassie (Alexi Wasser) and is bullied by a school mate, to go to the prom. However, the contaminated water spreads a deadly flesh-eating virus among the students.

"Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever" is a weak sequel, with a bad development of the plot and characters, gross and unpleasant. It seems that the writer was in a hurry to finish his work and was not careful with the story; or maybe Ti West was only interested in gore and special effects and used a "heavy hand" and the black humor never works. In the end, this rip-off "Carrie" with "Outbreak" (or any other movie of virus outbreak) is only nasty and not funny. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Cabana do Inferno 2" ("Cabin of the Hell 2")

Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever fmovies. I mistakenly assumed that with Rider Strong repeating his role from the first film this sequel would continue that story, which was humorous and disturbing. I found that to be far from the case. The movie isn't worthy of being classed as B status. Performances are bad. Script almost non-existent. A thin plot exists to move the film from one gross-out scene to another. I could find nothing that would move me to recommend this film. How anyone could find something funny in this production is beyond me. It is one sick, twisted film whose only goal is to attempt to sicken the audience or desensitize viewers to the reality of tragedy in the real world. Perhaps I'm being a bit too philosophical for such low-brow "entertainment", but there is nothing redemptive about this feature. Cheap special effects, constant profanity, unlikeable characters (especially the deputy who cares only about himself). Whereas Cabin Fever displayed some originality, this sequel exists merely to cash in on its predecessor's name and reputation. There's no tension or sense of "something worse coming" that was present in the original. The movie itself is only about 72 minutes, followed by a 5 minute tangential story, which is itself followed by a crudely drawn cartoon of 2 or 3 minutes; filler, simply filler. There are better ways to waste 80 minutes.

To be honest, I didn't want to review this flick for a number of reasons. One of which being that Cabin Fever is one of my favorite films. Another reason being that Ti West has become one of my favorite genre directors. I remember becoming stoked the day I read that Ti West was taking on a sequel to Eli Roth's Cabin Fever, then all the delays and production problems, and reading that West had all but disowned the film, My anticipation turned to disappointment. The end result turned out to be much better than expected, but still felt incomplete.

Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever spreads the infection from a cabin in the woods, to a nearby high-school prom. With a solid performance by all players involved, some superbly fitting music, and well done gross-out effects, Cabin Fever 2 is a worthy watch for anyone into indie splatter comedies.

One of the biggest problems with Cabin Fever 2 is that Ti West wasn't available for the editing process. Sure, 90 percent of the footage that he shot was used,(and it shows) But if a director isn't there for the editing process of a film, It's not going to turn out the way it was intended. The film feels incomplete, as the producers decided to shoot an entirely different 6 minute ending sequence that feels so out of place, that if it didn't contain one of the early characters, you'd thing you were watching a completely different movie. Just as the film picks up, it's brought to a complete halt by this weird, unsuited ending. The ending actually made me feel as if the film had no ending at all. Giuseppe Andrews puts in an amazing performance as he always does, but his character isn't given the depth that he deserves.

Despite it's problems, Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever is definitely worth the watch. It has one of the best opening sequences in b-movie history, and you can tell by the cinematography that Ti West not only knows his stuff, but has a deep love for the genre. I wish they would have given him creative freedom, as I feel this would become a cult classic, but as it stands, we're left with a competent, gory, fun romp at the prom, with a bloodbath that makes "Carrie" look like Babe: Pig in the city.

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Having seen the first Cabin Fever, which I really liked (it showcased Eli Roths talent for sick and twisted horror comedy, so to speak), I kinda had hoped this could be better. But even before watching the movie, I heard the "director" Ti West, distancing himself from this movie (at a Festival, where I didn't have another option/movie to choose from, that's why I chose to watch this anyway, despite the warning)!!!

He didn't like the movie and he didn't cut it together (there are also some additional scenes shot and edited into the movie, especially the ending) and he also said, that people might like it or hate it, but either way, he is not responsible for what people will think of the movie ...

Having said that, I for once thought it was dreadful. Almost every "funny" line doesn't work, the chemistry between the two best friends is off, not to mention that the American Pie style thing just doesn't work. Unfortunately the main character isn't as good in his role as he could have been (you might have seen him in "Dead Girl" where he is phenomenal). There is also a side story that is really bad (it's supposed to be funny, but it just isn't).

Some gory moments and a few actually not that bad one liners can't save this mess of a movie. There are movies out there, that are worse, but this still has got quite a few things wrong. If you want to see a good Ti West movie, watch his House of the Devil instead ...