October Horror Movie Challenge- Day 22

Day twenty-two started with Silent But Deadly (2011), a horror-comedy starring Jason Mewes as a mute, goat-loving farmer's son who snaps and goes on a killing rampage. He finally ends up as an assistant on the set of a horror movie called Silent But Deadly while being tracked by the local sherriff. Silent But Deadly is okay and provides a few laughs, but not a lot of memorable kills. It could also have been due to the copy I watched, but the colors in the film all seemed ridiculously bright for a horror movie. Silent But Deadly is worth viewing as a curiosity, but I don't imagine it would hold up on multiple viewings. 6 out of 12 beers.

When the first Cabin Fever came out, I was living with some friends in a very small town near the waterfront. We were just hit by the tail end of a hurricane which flooded parts of the town and knocked out power everywhere. Having no power for over a week, we found that there was very little to keep us entertained once it got dark. On one of the first days the power was out, a friend and I decided to go to the movies in the nearby city that had power. Cabin Fever had just come out and I had heard a few rumblings about it through horror conventions, so we decided to check it out. We left the theater with that "What the hell did I just watch?" feeling and more questions than we had when we entered. What was with the pancakes kid? What was in "the kit"? There was so much about the movie that was either completely off the wall or inexplicable that we couldn't help but become entranced by it in the same way one would be by a David Lynch or Alejandro Jodorowsky film. Of course, we told everyone we knew about Cabin Fever and with so little else to do, this would often lead to us going with said person to see it again. This must have happened at least half a dozen times, and the movie just got better every time I watched it. With no power, board games became an easy distraction and we even went so far as to design our own Cabin Fever board game wherein the goal was to avoid becoming infected while not running out of beers. All this being said, it's obvious that Cabin Fever holds a special place in my memories and in my heart. That's why it saddens me to see a quirky movie that should never have had a sequel become a franchise that could never match the spirit that the original had.

 

While Cabin Fever: Patient Zero (2014) is certainly better than the first sequel (Cabin Fever 2: Spring Break, disowned by director Ti West), it still contains none of the fun or unexpected gross-out moments of the original. The plot involves a group of young people who set up camp on a deserted island to celebrate their friend's bachelor party. Little do they know that the island is not actually deserted, but is home to a secret research facility that has accidentally released a flesh-eating virus. Sean Astin plays the titular patient zero who is a carrier immune to the effects of the virus. His presence lends the movie a little credibility, but ultimately can't save it. While I didn't hate Cabin Fever: Patient Zero, I wasn't very interested in it and probably will forget about it soon. The team behind this sequel is also now working on a Cabin Fever remake/reboot. Ugh. 5 out of 12 beers.