Eli Rothis synonymous with gruesome and gory movies. Arenowned member of “The Splat Pack”, the director is known for pushing the boundaries with extensive torture sequences within his movies. Roth has often taken inspiration from real-life events, withHostelinspired by a horrifying murder website. However, it is his directorial debutCabin Feverthat has the grossest real-life connection, with the movie’s events inspired by a real life infection Roth once contracted.
Cabin Feversees a group of teens renting a cabin in the woods only to encounter aflesh-eating virus that infects its host at a rapid rate. The graphic nature of the movie walks the line of being unrealistic, so to find out Roth actually had a similar experience makes the movie even more shocking. One moment involving a razor is completely sickening, and showsRoth was making disturbing body horrorright from the start of his career.
‘Cabin Fever’ Shows the Brutal Reality of Its Infection
Cabin Feverutilizes a trope that Eli Roth has continued to re-use throughout his filmography, taking a group of young adults and throwing them intoan isolated or unknown environment. Here, it takes the form of a cabin in the woods, where a group of college students are spending their October break. Things immediately seem unnerving, when Bert (James DeBello), one of the students, briefly encounters a man who is bloodied and wounded, apparently suffering from some kind of disease. Things only get worse when the man finds the students’ cabin, and begins vomiting blood. The group manage to hold him back, with Paul (Rider Strong) setting him on fire. However, in an attempt to escape, the man jumps into the reservoir, contaminating the water and leaving the group hopeless.
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Even Quentin Tarantino thought it was too much.
The infection inCabin Feverworks quickly, eating away at a healthy body almost overnight inan extremely gory and graphic manner.Quickly, the group begin to succumb to the virus, with Bert fleeing in the truck and Karen (Jordan Ladd) forced to isolate in a shed, Marcy (Cerina Vincent) is left alone with Paul - her boyfriend Jeff (Joey Kern) having already fled earlier in the movie. Marcy and Paul impulsively sleep together, before Marcy goes to take a bath. Whilst in the bath, she begins to shave her legs, with the camera pulling close up to her leg as the razor takes off the shaving foam to reveal chunks of skin missing from her leg. She keeps shaving, with each motion removing more flesh.Roth allows the infection to take up the whole screen, so the graphic reality is unavoidable. However, this is made even more painful, as every shave cuts to a closeup of Marcy’s distressed face, unclear if the trauma is a result of the pain or the final realization of her situation. Through her face, it is evident that she knows her time is limited, but she is attempting to grapple with this truth and just can’t stop shaving.
Eli Roth Faced His Own Version of ‘Cabin Fever’
The bathtub scene inCabin Feveris graphic and truly traumatizing, but it is made all the worse by the knowledge that it is inspired by true events. Eli Roth explained to theMuseum of Pop Culturethat whilst on a trip to Iceland, he “got a weird scratch on [his] neck, and looked and there were chunks of flesh in [his] hand”. Things got even more gruesome when he went to shave, although believing he had simply cut himself with the razor, Roth looked to see he was actually “shaving chunks of [his] face off”. This is evidently mirrored in the scene with Marcy in the bathtub, but most interestingly, Roth explained that it didn’t hurt, but actually felt good because the skin was so itchy. It adds context to why Marcy compulsively continues shaving: she simply couldn’t stop because of how it felt, and the tears were a response to her internal distress.
Roth explained that the extremity of the infection, with the realization that you can be totally healthy one day and the next be dealing with something life-threatening, served as the movie’s inspiration. The rapid rate at which the infection inCabin Fevertakes over is what makes the movie so unforgiving and hopeless. The characters never stand a chance, and the scene of Marcy in the bathtub isnot only a representation of this relentlessness, but is the epitome of simply accepting one’s fate.
Cabin Feveris available to rent on Amazon Prime
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Cabin Fever
