Cabin Fever: Patient Zero, 2014.
Directed by Kaare Andrews.
Starring Sean Astin, Currie Graham, Ryan Donowho, Brando Eaton, Jillian Murray, Mitch Ryan and Solly Duran.
SYNOPSIS:
When a group of friends enjoying a bachelor cruise in the Caribbean stumble upon a research facility on a remote island, a deadly virus is unleashed. The group must find a way to survive before the flesh eating virus consumes them all.
As an honest to goodness reviewer I have to admit I wasn’t a big fan of the original Cabin Fever from Eli Roth and I didn’t get the fuss that came along with it. Perhaps as a kid I’d grown up with the likes of Wes Craven and John Carpenter and I knew horror. For this reason I’d skipped the second film, so when it came to review the third I felt I was at a considerable loss of what is now going on with the story.
We begin with an opening montage of Sean Astin being aggressively man-handled by a number of people in HAZMAT suits before being rather unceremoniously dumped in a lab which is clearly being run by a supervisor (Currie Graham) who has checked all the boxes for being a bit on the “unhinged” side of things. We find out that Sean Astin’s family has recently all died from the virus and we’re informed that he is Patient Zero and perhaps the cure to the plague; it’s from this I had taken to believe that in Cabin Fever 2 a plague had swept across America or something of that ilk. Cutting to a happy pre-wedding party, which I assumed is before the plague, we meet our Jock (Brando Eaton), Stoner (Ryan Donowho), Hussie (Jillian Murray) and Straight Laced Guy/Groom (Mitch Ryan); to be fair to the Stoner and Hussie they all get stoned and the Hussie only has sex with her boyfriend (but tries it on with the groom). This group of four take to a deserted island for a bachelor party and it all starts going wrong from the first dip in the ocean with the filleted fish.
It all becomes apparent quickly that then two stories of Lab and Beach Party are running side by side and things begin to take a turn for the worst in the lab when Patient Zero starts to use his blood against the lab workers. It then rapidly becomes fairly gruesome to watch and stomach churning, however at the same time you cannot help but laugh as a rotting lab assistant is fighting it out with a decaying party-goer with snapping limbs and chunks of flesh being thrown all over the place. The make-up department really deserves a well-earned clap for this achievement.
There is a problem however; the film is rather dull and vacant of anything that wants to keep you watching. The actors were clearly as bored starring in the film as I was watching it and it came to the point where midway through I ended up wiki’ing Cabin Fever 2 to see what I had missed in the lead up to Cabin Fever 3… and there was nothing linking them at all!?
If you’re a fan of this franchise so far you’ll maybe want to watch it for the fight scene (it’s near the end) but other than that there is really nothing of interest in this film.
Flickering Myth Rating: Film ★ ★ / Movie ★ ★
Villordsutch likes his sci-fi and looks like a tubby Viking according to his children. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter.
Originally published March 18, 2014. Updated April 11, 2018.
