Cabin Fever 2

So... this movie happened.

One thing that I'm still having trouble getting used to in America is the way they censor television. Back in New Zealand, violent movies are just played later, or on channels that require a code to bypass the R18 setting. Here, though, they just mute the swearwords and blur the nudity. It's... jarring. Especially in a movie like this, where 'fuck' is apparently the word of the day.

For any of you who aren't familiar with the original Cabin Fever, the premise was fairly basic - group of teens-or-older in a cabin in the woods, some water-transmitted, flesh-eating disease... Basically, an excuse for blood and violence, as always.

The sequel started with the 'surviving' (read: infected but not dead yet) guy from the first movie stumbling through the woods and infecting the water supply, before getting run over by a bus. Then, inexplicably, the credits turn into a strange cartoon that shows how the infected water is being bottled and distributed to a high school. It's... very weird, but I have to say it's actually kind of cool. There's this 80's feel to it that for a moment made me question the year the movie was made.

Once we see people starting to drink the water, we find out that it's Prom Night, and we're introduced to the characters. Absolutely none of them are memorable or likeable, and with the sound cutting out every few minutes when they swear, it's really hard to keep up with what's going on.

The 'getting ready for prom' montage is equally confusing. It's so very 80s - up to and including a references to The Karate Kid, any John Hughes film of choice, and Prom Night. But anyway. People start getting sick, word gets out, and the armed forces crack down on the school and lock everyone inside, intending to kill them all by way of quarantine.

Along the way, we find out that the 'cure' for this disease is to cut off the infecting areas. But... um... if the disease is transmitted by water and thus injested, how is cutting off your hand because it was the first area to show the infection going to help? Seriously - how does that actually work?

We're not to know. Two kids escape, one of them handless, and he is taken down. The girl - bearing a remarkable resemblance to Carrie, convinces some people on the run out of the quarantine'd town to take her along. So, they're smart enough to get the hell out of this town, but not to veer away from a girl covered in blood who is possibly infected? Well done.

And finally, we have the closing credits - animated once again as they show us how the virus is spreading.

Overall, the movie was just weird. The plot made no sense, the characters made no sense, the blood was so-so... the only thing I really liked about it was the touch of 80s... At times, it really was impossible to tell that this movie was made within the last five years.

Of course, maybe that's not a compliment...