CABIN FEVER 2: SPRING FEVER REVIEW

      In the DVD extras, there was a feature about all of the blood they used in this movie. I believe they said something close to 300 gallons or more. After watching the movie, I am surprised they didn’t use 1000 gallons of blood. Blood and disgust were the ongoing theme in the movie, so it will be the theme of this review.

  The movie primarily took place at a local school on prom day. John and his friend, Alex, weren’t planning on going to prom, but after a certain turn of events their plans changed. Both ended up at prom, along with their classmates. Unknown to everyone, the bottled water that was delivered to the school was contaminated, and used in the punch for the dance. Just when everyone seemed to be enjoying prom, the blood bath began.

  When the Cabin Fever 1 ended, Paul was left for dead in a creek. This movie picked up from there as Paul struggled to his feet, and then stumbled through the forest until he made it to the highway. Then the theme of the movie was set as Paul was hit by a school bus, and his body was splattered all over the road. In one of the better decisions they made about the movie, they picked up where the original left off. It gave closure to the original, and allowed you to move your attention to what was about to happen in the sequel. This movie did just that in the same way that Hostel 2 did.

  One of the more interesting things the movie did was have a cartoon fill in some of the blanks. They used it at the beginning, as the opening credits rolled, to show you how the contaminated water eventually made its way to the school. It worked because it took away any unnecessary bad acting, and moved the story right along. They used the same cartoon to end the movie. I will get into the specifics of that cartoon below, but I will say it helped give the movie a decent conclusion. I definitely wasn’t expecting two cartoon segments in a horror movie.

  On to the blood and disgusting stuff, as promised. How about when Alex was getting ready for the prom, and realized his fingernail was coming off. You could see it moving around as he decided to try to glue it back on. It made me check to make sure all my nails were in place, and gave me the same feeling I got from part one when the girl was shaving her legs. Even though it was clearly fake, I also felt a little pain when John asked Casey to cut off his hand with a table saw, and then closed the wound with a blowtorch.

  Speaking of fake, how about the big prom scene where they used those gallons and gallons of blood. One student threw up blood, then another, and yet another. Left and right, all over the place, and all over each other. The room was covered with blood. I am all in favor of scenes with plenty of blood, but this scene became ridiculous. It was more important for them to spread the blood everywhere then shoot a good scene.

  The movie even took sex and made that disgusting. In one scene, a boy lured a girl into the school pool to have sex with her. Just when they got started, the girl had a tooth fall out. The boy was not amused so he left her in the pool as she realized more and more of her teeth were coming out. She eventually drowned in a pool of her own blood taking the boy with her. I can appreciate the play on words here, so I give them some credit for creativity.

  Then, there was this girl that we only saw at the beginning and end of the film. To me, she almost stole the show. Early on in the movie, she gave Alex a blowjob in the school bathroom. So what was disgusting about that you ask? Well, she had this nasty blister on her lip that turned out to be the source of her contamination. Poor Alex later checked his penis to find it oozing puss. As a guy, seeing that was beyond disgusting.

  She was supposed to meet Alex at the prom, but it turned out that she did not go because she was a stripper. We got to see several disgusting things in this ending scene. First, back to her blister, as we see her putting lipstick over it. Sucks for the girl that came in the room after her and used the lipstick that was contaminated. Second, she was on stage dancing when she took off her top to reveal blisters all around her breasts. Only in a movie could they have some guys that thought that she was still hot at that point (I hope). She was not done yet, as she was giving another blowjob when she threw up all over the guy. I would think that scene ruined strip clubs for a lot of guys (just nasty!).

  As I mentioned before, we got to see the cartoon to conclude the movie. It showed where the different guys from the strip club went after leaving the club. Obviously they were all contaminated, so we got to see how they spread the sickness. Like the first cartoon, it was well done, and gave a little humor to this movie filled with blood and disgust.

  My biggest disappointment with this movie was that it was not a serious horror movie like the original was. I tried not to compare it to the original, but I couldn’t help myself. The original had blood and disgust, but also brought you more fear and concern for the characters. It had its funny moments, but was more serious once they were contaminated. This sequel was never serious, and never made you feel anything for the characters. They were more concerned with how much blood they could use, and how much they could disgust you.

  Blood and disgust were the theme of this movie, and this review. If you don’t believe it, just count how many times I wrote “blood” (16), “disgusting” (6), or “disgust” (6). The movie started right where the original left off, and moved right into spreading the blood (+1) and disgust (+1) around. It was effective in some scenes, yet ridiculous in others. The cartoon to begin and end the movie was unexpected, and blister girl stole the show. I was disappointed this movie was not more like the original. If I were rating this movie on pools of blood (+1), it would get 4 or 5 pools of blood (+1). Since I am rating the movie overall, I give this movie 2 pools of blood (final +1).

  HorrO

THE CRAZIES REVIEW

  What a great title for a horror movie: The Crazies. There is so much you could do with a title like that, but this was a remake so some people already knew what to expect. Never having seen the original, this movie was new to me, and I thought I was just crazy enough to see it. So do you have to be crazy to see this movie?

  The movie started out on what was probably an ordinary day in the small town of Ogden Marsh, Iowa. People of the town were at a high school baseball game cheering for their team. No one knew that the town was about to change forever as a local resident walked onto the outfield with a shotgun. He was the first person that officially went crazy, and was the first of many crazy people David Dutton, the sheriff, had to confront as he tried to lead his wife, her friend Becca, and the deputy sheriff out of town.

  The movie didn’t waste too much time getting right into things. After kicking things off at the baseball field, things got a little more crazy as another resident decided to lock his wife and child in a closet, and then burned the house down. David arrested him, and took him back to the police station to be locked up. It was funny how a guy that couldn’t go anywhere, or do anything, turned out to be one of the scarier characters, as he became crazier, and crazier locked up for the rest of the movie. While the movie got off to a fast start, it lost a little steam towards the end of the movie. They took too much time setting up the final scene of the movie. It was hard to get excited for the final scene after that. Maybe I just wasn’t thrilled about the ending, even though it ended with a little twist.

  I have two different thoughts about some of the scenes in this movie. The first, as usual, was that there were a few scenes I particularly liked. One of those scenes was when David was taken to the floor by this ladies’ son, and had a knife go right through his hand… ouch! Just when it looked like it was the end for him, he pulled his hand off the floor with the knife still in it, and stabbed the lady… double ouch! It was a nice touch turning his pain into her death.

  Another scene that was well done was the car wash scene. They did a good job of building up the tension. As soon as the car wash started, the car was locked down to the track. Then, the soap covered the car leaving barely enough room to see out of the window. Everything seemed fine to them until Becca noticed one of the crazies standing in the rear of the car wash, which resulted in them all freaking out. Of course, a struggle with some of the crazies ensued, where Becca ended up with a cable wrapped around her neck and pulled out the back window of the car. Everyone jumped out and tried to save her, as the car rolled out of the car wash. Just as you thought the tension was over, there was one more surprise that I will leave for you to see.

  However, my favorite scene in the movie was when a group of people were strapped down to these tables. Some of the people strapped down had gone crazy, but not David’s wife or her friend Becca. They struggled but could not free themselves when they heard this screeching sound getting closer and closer to them. They quickly became silent when one of the crazies walked in dragging a pitchfork. He slowly walked over to the first person he heard making noise, and stabbed them with the pitchfork. I know some people complained that they chose to show the death from under the table, but it didn’t bother me. Yea, it might have been more interesting to see it from above, but what can you do. Maybe they could have done one from below, and another from above. If you just put yourself in that position, I think the scene turns out to be pretty scary.

  The second thought I had about some of the scenes in this movie was that they reminded me of scenes from other movies. Take the scene where all of the crazies were imprisoned, and eventually broke out. Some were shot, but most seemed to get away when all hell broke loose. This scene reminded of 28 Weeks Later when the infection broke out, and all hell broke loose. How about the scene where David’s wife was standing at the diner drinking a glass of water? Any guess what movie I am thinking about? With the guy standing in the background with no noise, and nothing else happening for a couple seconds before he disappears. It reminded me of The Strangers when the guy was standing silently in the background while the lady was in the kitchen. Then, there was the scene with the electric saw. It is a little bit of a stretch, but for some reason it reminded me of the scene in The Stepfather when the saw was hanging over the girl’s face. Of course, I thought they messed up that scene, but you can read more about that complaint in my review of The Stepfather. And the reason why everyone went crazy in the first place wasn’t as crazy as the crazies were (about as crazy as this sentence?). We have seen that story line before. So the question here is: do these things take any originality away from the movie, even though it is a remake?

  It kind of bothered me that David’s wife’s character had to be pregnant. She really didn’t act as if she was pregnant during the movie, with all of the running around and fighting off the crazies. I didn’t see much point in her pregnancy except, maybe to give them a reason to go back to the house later in the movie. It was interesting how most of the crazies that David had to face off with throughout the movie were people he had conflicts with earlier on. You thought that his issues with these people were nothing, but it gave them reason to go after him once they turned crazy.

  The movie kind of boiled down to four people trying to escape from a town that was becoming crazier by the moment. It started off quickly, but didn’t end with the finish I was looking for. There were several good scenes in the movie that provided plenty of tension, and suspense. However, some of those scenes were similar to scenes of other movies. I don’t think you had to be crazy to see this movie, but maybe I am a little crazy because I give this movie 3 pools of blood.

  HorrO