Cabin Fever (2002) 1/2

I'm still trying to figure out Cabin Fever. Was it a horror film or a comedy? Someone explain this to me. The film has some great horror visuals, yet doesn't take itself seriously at all to the point that it seems like a parody film within itself leading to a dreadful experience that is more camp than horror.

Going through the movie you get a ton of homages to previous horror films. By a ton I mean a shitload. These winks into the past are OK occasionally, but when you stockpile them one like sale toilet paper it also gives the feel of a parody film. The plot is that five friends go into the woods to a cabin (Evil Dead). They stop by a rustic convenience store with odd owners (Texas Chainsaw Massacre). They encounter an odd child sitting in a swing (Deliverance) and eventually wind up fighting off a flesh easting something that slowly eats their skin away (insert any Romero film title here). 

Of course this is done very tongue in cheek. Or is it. It's hard to tell because some scenes are very good from a horror genre standpoint, but others are so campy it's like something from an Ed Wood film. If Ed Wood was alive today he would have made Cabin Fever. The characters are all stereotypical horror film stock, even the local yokels who are low rent Deliverance rejects. There are a few interesting plot twists that you don't see coming, but those are drowned out by scenes like the "Pancakes!" scene that is probably the stupidest scene I have seen in a film in a very long time. It's so out of place it looks like an out take. The main problem with the film is that it's full of these scenes. Just when you're getting into the movie for what it should be you get hit from some insanely idiotic scene that ruins it. Pancakes is the epitome of those scenes. 

There are parts of Cabin Fever that I really enjoyed. I really did. The thing is that the stupid portions of the film overshadow what was actually good about it. I don't know if the filmmakers were afraid they would be called an Evil Dead rip off if they didn't do something different. I hate to sound like a fuddy duddy but different isn't always better. I was contemplating give this zero stars, but it still had those glimmers during the film and I feel generous. If you enjoy a nice C-grade horror film that will give you the WTF face then enjoy Cabin Fever. It may still have a bit of a pulse because of it.