Cabin Fever
Short description
Cabin Fever follows five friends who have just finished college and rent a remote cabin in the woods to celebrate before starting their working lives. Their holiday is disrupted by a stranger whose skin is covered in bleeding sores. The group drives him away, but he has already contaminated the area's water, and a flesh-eating infection begins spreading among them. As the friends turn on one another in fear, the local residents prove no safer than the disease.
The film is Eli Roth's first feature as director, and he also produced it and co-wrote the screenplay with Randy Pearlstein. The main cast includes Rider Strong, Jordan Ladd, Cerina Vincent, James DeBello and Giuseppe Andrews; Roth himself appears as Justin. Made for a modest two million dollars, it went on to take around thirty-one million worldwide, a strong return that helped establish Roth as a horror filmmaker ahead of his later work.
On IMDb the film holds a rating of 5.6 from about eighty-eight thousand votes, and on TMDB 5.7 from roughly fifteen hundred votes. A critics' score of 6.1 from around one hundred forty reviews places it slightly above those audience figures, though all three sit in middling territory, pointing to a mixed reputation rather than a widely acclaimed one.
What's left behind the scenes
- Filming of the movie began in the spring of 2002 in High Point, North Carolina, USA.
- The dog in the film was so old and tired that all the scenes with it had to be reshot. Due to lack of time and money, a real police dog was used, which turned out to be so aggressive and unpredictable that the actors were afraid to appear with it on camera, crew members hid behind trailers, and the cameras were operated remotely.
- The idea for the film came to screenwriter and director Eli Roth while he was working on a farm in Iceland. He developed such an allergy to rotten hay that he developed sores on his face that bled profusely when he shaved.
- Eli Roth wanted Marcie (played by Serina Vincent) to perform completely nude in an erotic scene with Paul (played by Ryder Strong). In 2001, Vincent had already played a permanently nude student in Joel Gallen’s comedy 'Not a Teen Movie'. Now she feared that after filming this movie, she would only be offered roles involving nudity, and therefore flatly refused to expose her buttocks for Roth’s film. The standoff between the director and actress escalated until Vincent suggested Roth find another actress for the role of Marcie, since he was so insistent on filming bare bottoms. Eventually, the parties reached a compromise – Vincent agreed to expose her buttocks exactly one inch (2.54 cm) – and no more. Roth personally measured exactly one inch with a ruler he had brought specifically for the purpose. Then, at the level indicated by Roth, the actress’s body was wrapped in sheets, and the erotic scene was filmed. Ironically, Vincent later decided to play a scene topless herself, even though no one asked her to. This refers to the scene in the bathroom, where Marcie, wearing a robe, tries to examine a rash on her back in the mirror. Vincent considered the scene as written unrealistic and herself suggested playing it topless.
- During auditions, actresses vying for the role of Marcie were asked to perform a scene in which the character compares the situation to being on board a falling plane and says the following: “It’s like when you’re on an airplane…” The choice of phrase and the timing of the auditions proved extremely unfortunate – it was September 11, 2001. Producers tried to cancel the auditions or at least postpone them to another day, but due to the chaos that had engulfed the United States, they were unable to reach many of the actresses expected to audition in time. The auditions went ahead as planned, and the role went to Serina Vincent.
- Four times during filming, Joey Kern (who played Jeff) had to be rushed to the hospital with an eye injury. This seriously disrupted the shooting schedule. This is why many daytime scenes (mainly in the cabin) were filmed at night.
- According to Eli Roth, the director and screenwriter, the prosthetics made for the leg shaving scene froze during transport and were non-functional upon arrival on set, so Serina Vincent’s actual legs had to be used, which were covered with special makeup and then shaving cream.
- One of the scenes was conceived directly during filming. Director and screenwriter Eli Roth saw Matthew Helms (who played Dennis) practicing Taekwondo during breaks between takes and decided to add a scene with Taekwondo moves performed by Helms to the script.
- During the filming of one of the most gruesome scenes, Ryder Strong (who played Paul) decided to take a walk in a nearby forest between takes. Covered from head to toe in fake blood, he accidentally stumbled upon a tour group of 35 schoolgirls. Upon seeing him, the girls screamed in fear, and the screams and cries became even louder and more piercing when they realized it was their favorite actor from the series "Boy Meets World" (1993-2000). The schoolgirls rushed towards Strong, he took off running, and upon returning to the set, vowed never to leave the filming location during breaks again.
- Robert Jones, a member of the film crew, took a headless mannequin used in the filming home with him after work. He put it in his car and drove off. He was stopped by a patrol – the police kept Jones at gunpoint until one of them personally verified that it wasn't a corpse in the car, but a dummy.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
