Cabin Fever: Patient Zero Blu-ray Review
Mathew Plale
September 17th, 2014
Some men prefer bar-hopping or golfing or fabulous Las Vegas for their bachelor party. Others, like Marcus (Mitch Ryan, 2013’s MISSIONARY), spend it on a deserted island. It’s on that deserted island in the Caribbean that a recent outbreak occurred.
Leaving his future wife (Claudette Lali, the Dominican Republic comedy WHO’S THE BOSS?) behind, Marcus, his brother Josh (Brando Eaton, who appeared in a handful of episodes of DEXTER), friend Dobbs (Ryan Donowho, 2012’s TRANSIT) and Josh’s current girlfriend Penny (Jillian Murray, 2010’s WILD THINGS: FOURSOME) make their way to the island via a rented boat. Through binoculars, the island (which isn’t even on a map) looks lovely and isolated, and it’s at their destination that the boys (and girl) can partake in a night of beer, pot and swimming.
It’s on a dip that Josh and Penny make a discovery: all of the fish are lifeless on the bottom and there may have been body parts floating about. It’s not long before red blotches start popping up on their skin and Penny starts excessively gushing blood, and suddenly a case of chlamydia from a discount hooker on the Las Vegas Strip doesn’t sound like such a bad time before tying the knot.
Back in isolation is Porter (Sean Astin, THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy), the “patient zero” and only survivor of a flesh-eating disease who proves to be a danger to anyone (whether they’re in a hazmat suit or not) around through his desperateness to escape.
CABIN FEVER: PATIENT ZERO is the third in the CABIN FEVER series, after Eli Roth’s 2002 original and Ti West’s 2009 follow-up, SPRING FEVER, which took the infection to a high school and beyond. It’s also a prequel and serves to explain how the virus developed before it reached the dog at the beginning of the original.
PATIENT ZERO is directed by Kaare Andrews, who did the “V for Vagitus” segment in the 2012 horror anthology THE ABCS OF DEATH, and written by Jake Wade Wall, who penned the screenplays for the remakes of THE HITCHER and WHEN A STRANGER CALLS. Both men try to add some depth and originality to the story and characters, but very little works (is there a purpose to Penny being Marcus’ former girlfriend?) and the plotline never gets the necessary tweaking to make it stand out.
The highlight, as was the case with the movie’s predecessors, is the gore. That makes special makeup effects creator and designer Vincent J. Guastani (whose credits include horror fare such as CHILD’S PLAY 3 and THINNER to lighter work such as SUPER MARIO BROS. and SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, for which he earned a Primetime Emmy Award nod) the key contributor to the movie. Guastani’s work is excellent and shows body parts coming off, skin peeling, blood oozing (and being puked), etc.—and it all looks just as gruesome as fans of the series would want. So, too, does the catfight, which will stand out to the target audience as the must-see scene because of how much it shows and sheds.
CABIN FEVER: PATIENT ZERO BLU-RAY REVIEW
Video: 2.40:1 in 1080p with MPEG-4 AVC codec. The overall image is clean for the duration and shows off both the gorgeous island locales and the dark underground tunnels with equal effect.
Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1. Subtitles in English. The dialogue is clear and the sound effects (especially during any scene where flesh is torn, peeled, etc.) are often gruesome.
DVD
