This straight-to-dvd monstrosity bears little resemblance to its predecessor and is lacking most of the elements that made Eli Roth’s Cabin Fever one of my all-time favorite movies. The story commences a couple of days after the previous film’s conclusion, with Paul (a role reprised by Rider Strong) arising from the stream where he had been dumped and left for dead by Deputy Winston (the only other returning character from the first film, played by Giuseppe Andrews). Paul stumbles through the forest, more closely resembling the toxic-waste-soaked Emil from Robocop than the severely infected hermit Henry from the first Cabin Fever, while leaving pieces of himself behind in the brush. Rider Strong receiving top billing for this film is odd since, within a minute, an actor so laden in make up effects that he is barely recognizable as himself is liquidated by the grill of a speeding school bus. I’m left to assume that this was a desperate attempt to attract fans of the first film that, like myself, were leery of any sequel not helmed by Roth. Deputy Sheriff Winston enters the story at this point, investigating the scene of the vehicular slaughter. After assuring the bus driver that it was just a moose and expounding some of that creepy Winston wisdom, our 40 slugging anti-hero discovers a boot still holding its former host’s foot as the blood-painted bus continues on its merry way to begin the school day. Winston is almost creamed himself by a Downhome Spring Water truck, triggering a rapid-fire montage during which he pieces together the chain of events he has triggered by dumping Paul in the stream that feeds Downhome’s bottling plant. Winston spends the majority of the rest of the film in self-preservation mode. He provides little in the way of comic relief in the sequel, and it’s a shame that his screen time was mostly wasted.
Some key plot points are developed through a 2nd rate animated sequence that shows some of the freshly-bottled pathogens on their journey to Springfield High School, the home of Spring Fever’s doomed prom. Enter our typical clichéd high school students: the questionably lovable geek lead and his too-popular-for-him love interest, his horny disheveled wise-cracking sidekick, the love interest’s borderline psychopathic jock boyfriend, the cocky blonde guy and the morbidly obese busybody who worships him, a blond cheerleader with a life goal of becoming prom queen, a disgruntled janitor (who becomes infected during the opening animated sequence), and a bevy of socially inept and stereotypical faculty members, with the exception being the principal’s unconventional private life. None of the characters is overly likeable and I found myself not particularly caring if and when most met their demise, although I did get slight satisfaction from one scene involving a nail gun.
As would be expected from a movie bearing the Cabin Fever name, the story picks up the pace in not only the spread of infection, but in the amount of resulting violence and gore, leading to chaos and the complete meltdown of acceptable conduct and decorum. The addition of a fictional government agency bent on quarantining and eliminating the spread of the infection by any means necessary adds a sinister new enemy to the equation. Once the pieces are in place, the plot follows a rather predictable course Ultimately the story brings us to a country road at night, van speeding away from town on it’s way to Mardi Gras, lone survivor of the prom amongst others on their way to unwittingly spread the virus further. There’s another sub-par sequel in the books with another one on the way, or so you would think. The movie is dragged behind the van for another 10 minutes or so with an unconvincing strip club scene that was not part of the original script. Learning after the fact that the stripclub seats were filled with several of the film’s producers, this scene seems like either an ego-stroke to some already way-too-involved producers, or a less costly attempt to stretch the film toward the ninety-minute mark. I have a hard time believing any scenes on the cutting room floor were worse than this. The movie concludes with another lower quality animated sequence and cuts to the credits.
Absent from this film are the mood-establishing shots of the first film as well as the tripped-out cut sequences. While the first film maintains a constant tension and an eerie sense of foreboding that results in the inevitable meltdown, the sequel only causes me to long for the progression of the disease to get shorter so I can be on my way. The progression of the disease did indeed get shorter, but also altered in a way that totally disrupted any sense of continuity from the first film. A red rash, open sores, and decaying flesh were replaced with squirting, pus-filled boils that looked like giant pimples. The rash led to vomiting of blood several hours later in the first film, where the order was reversed in most cases in Spring Fever. There are no quirky minor characters such as Dennis (PANCAAAKES!) or shop-owner Old Man Cadwell in the sequel to speak of. Judah Friedlander of Feast and TV’s 30 Rock plays no real consequential role in the film and is just another name in the credits.
The gore factor of the film is high but is not of a quality level expected by fans of a movie carrying the Cabin Fever label. The first movie had its gory elements but blood was minimal and confined to a few key moments. Blood spray abounds at the prom, but in many cases looks like somebody is just out of the shot lobbing buckets of fake blood on extras. A scene involving infected genitals seems gratuitous and could have been left assumed, but this is coming from somebody who is not particularly fond of seeing other guys’ junk in movies. I will admit this scene is as cringe-inducing as any scene in recent memory. Other gore scenes include a janitor urinating blood in an unsavory place, the school’s resident whale getting “harpooned” to death in the pool, and a vaguely familiar scene involving a tourniquet, a table saw, and a torch. There is another scene involving a blowjob from a metal-mouthed girl with a cold sore that, while not particularly gory, provides another of the film’s unsettling gross-out moments.
Just as Eli Roth borrowed portions of the film’s score from both The Last House on the Left and The Shining, Spring Fever pays homage to a classic by predictably using a song from the 1980 version of Prom Night. Spring Fever was a major disappointment for seeming at times to poke fun at and degrade the era of horror films that the first film attempted to emulate and pay respect. Fans of the first film may notice some references, such as the reappearance of Bunnyman from Paul’s time in the hospital. In this installment, the Bunnyman is the mascot of the high school. Winston orders pancakes and raves about them to the waitress at the diner, which may or may not be the same pancakes that fuel Dennis’s obsession. And keep an eye out for a cheesy and less than competent martial arts music montage not-so-reminiscent of one in Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master.
Director Ti West should not be held accountable for this trainwreck. Attempts to disown the film and have it released under the pseudonym Alan Smithee, a moniker used by Directors Guild of America members to detach themselves from a film when they lose creative control, were met with rejection because West was not a member of the guild. The editing process of the film had been taken over by the producers and the film was finished without West’s input. I would be curious to see what Ti West’s finished product would look like had he been allowed to complete the project.
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