Cabin Fever

Film Threat Eric Campos

Gory, scary, smart and funny, this is definitely one of the best horror films I’ve seen in years.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Completely -- and quite cleverly -- contrived, a cascade of stupid mistakes and miscommunication stirred into a visceral stew of gooey blisters and flaying layers of bloody flesh.

Film Threat Kevin Carr

While Cabin Fever takes its horror very seriously, it still shows that it has a sense of humor.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Roth never fully exploits the woods around him, and the homes of the locals are far too middle-class, but because so many clichés are discarded amid the flesh rot, even the patented "Night of the Living Dead" coda feels sharp-edged and genuine.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Sustains such a palpable mood of foreboding until the end.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

If this story has a moral -- though unlike many horror films, it doesn't seem to -- it's that humans are likelier to destroy themselves than help each other.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

A ferociously entertaining and mean little horror movie that achieves the kind of outrageous vibe best enjoyed in a crowded, noisy theater.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Roth, who has taken more than a few cues from Raimi, David Lynch (whom Roth worked with), and George Romero (Night of the Living Dead), is working in a horror tradition that goes way back -- and he's working it with nasty glee.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

It plays on your knowledge of/expectations about generic horror movies and then either delivers the goods from an unexpected angle or pulls the rug out from under you.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

First-time director Eli Roth turns this cheapie into a greatest-hits of horror. It's a blast of good gory fun that just won't quit.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

So this is a first-level, unironic fright film, the sort whose tongue is removed from its cheek, coated in gore, and pointed right at the audience.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Cabin Fever may not be a horror classic, but it's definitely an ideal midnight movie.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

A refreshingly old-fashioned splatter movie.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Ultimately, Cabin Fever isn't going to win any awards for originality - it's too busy twisting the conventions of the genre back in on themselves for that - but it does provide a jarring battery of scares (often depressing ones at that) that make it severed-head-and-shoulders above the spate of recent shockers.

USA Today Mike Clark

A disciple of David Lynch's, Roth packs his story with horror, humor, hillbillies and sex. Roth caps his fast-moving story with a joke that's as oddly left-field as it is funny, but truth to tell, it is funny.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Other than a few witty jokes and a game cast, there's nothing particularly special here.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

While many films of this kind are undermined by amateurish performances, the main cast is solid and some of the supporting performances (many from non-professionals) are small gems.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Roth puts a sardonic spin on the puritanism of the 80s slasher.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

A big, dumb, crude, noisy, goose-the-audience bash and proud of it. It's not nearly as unsettling as ''28 Days Later.''

Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf

Hypochondriacs and germ freaks may dig it.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

It's so by-the-numbers and clumsy that it will only appeal to that little sect that's managed to wear out their "Evil Dead," "Friday the 13th," "Halloween" and "Nightmare on Elm Street" DVDs.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Doesn't have the gonzo wit of ''Re-Animator'' or ''Evil Dead 2,'' nor is it flat-out terrifying like ''The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'' or even a zombie-come-lately like this year's ''28 Days Later.''

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

As a thriller, Cabin Fever falls short, filled with characters so obnoxiously stupid that just watching their skin slowly melt off doesn't seem like enough punishment.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

Maybe Roth was too busy paying tribute to all his childhood influences to take the necessary steps, but even in this uneasy era of SARS and other airborne horrors, his flesh-eating virus movie never convincingly gets under the skin.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

The result is something neither scary nor funny.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The movie adds up to a few good ideas and a lot of bad ones, wandering around in search of an organizing principle.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

This movie may appeal to the youthful, midnight-madness crowd, but there isn't enough in it to bestow it with classic B-movie glory.

Los Angeles Times Manohla Dargis

Rather than steep his story in dread, ideas or something, anything, fresh and different, first-time director Eli Roth just pours on the blood, along with some recycled surrealism and plenty of giddy movie allusions.

Variety Dennis Harvey

Uncertain whether to go for straight suspense or gross-out effects, genre in-joking or schlock cinema-of-parodic-excess, Eli Roth's backwoods horror opus Cabin Fever seldom sticks with any one tactic.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

It's just a loud, derivative grade-Z horror film of no particular distinction.

Chicago Tribune Ellen Fox

It's just a watery, undeservedly smug update of the low-budget, kids-stranded-in-the-sticks bloodfests of the 1970s and '80s.