Cabin Fever: Patient Zero (2014)

What a day. Between crazy traffic, a dismal attempt at a nap, and one miserable homework assignment in my writing class, I am ready to hang it up. Before I can do that though, I must venture into the blog, and finish what I had planned. Next up, the 2014 prequel Cabin Fever: Patient Zero.

Plot/ When a group of friends enjoying a bachelor cruise in the Caribbean stumble upon a research facility on a remote island, a deadly virus is unleashed. The group must find a way to survive before the flesh-eating virus consumes them all.

Every virus has an origin (like Ebola and the CDC), and in this installment of the Cabin Fever franchise, we can see the beginnings of one of the most grotesque virus to scroll across my screen. While this flick lacks a huge budget, it does not disappoint with the amount of violence and gore. Unfortunately, that budget impacts a lot more. The acting is so-so; the scripting uneven, the lighting sporadic, and there is an overall cardboard feel to all of the characters. In the end, it was definitely better than I expected, but it definitely did not come close to matching the awesomeness of the original. Sure, it is entertaining and has some positives, but it leaves no lasting impression inside your head. Unless you have no other selection, stay away.

Flu (2013)

While I did take off a few days from the blog to finish some homework assignments, I did watch a few interesting movies. One of the first ones that I watched this week was the South Korean entry Flu from 2013.

Plot/ People are helpless against the airborne disease and the number of infected increases quickly, spreading chaos. As the worst-case scenario precaution, the city of half a million people, just 19 kilometers from Seoul, is about to be sealed off. The government orders a complete shutdown.

Flu is the movie I expected to see when I watched Contagion. While Contagion fell flat, Flu succeeded in creating an awesome disaster movie. The storyline works and was realistic, the performances are solid, and the underlying message was tremendous. Yes, some of the dubbed dialog at the beginning of the movie was out of place and there were some unbelievable moments, but those flaws were expected as they usually come with the territory when dealing with the translation from the foreign market. In the end, this Korean entry was not only entertaining is was everything that you would want in an epic disaster flick. If you have not seen it, give it a shot!

Contagion (2011)

After spending a few hours at the skating rink for Genesis’ birthday party, (I cannot believe she is 14), it was time to kick back and enjoy some decent virus based entertainment. While zombies are always fun, the tragedy and devastation of a real outbreak may be scarier (especially considering this is the year 2012), fortunately, that is exactly what the 2011 thriller Contagion may deliver.

Plot/ A thriller centered on the threat posed by a deadly disease and an international team of doctors contracted by the CDC to deal with the outbreak.

When I saw the preview for this, I wanted to see it. With the way the media covers outbreaks such as H1N1 or SARS, I felt it was a great time for Hollywood to capitalize on the mass hysteria involved. To me, this one did not disappoint. The cast was solid and their performances were all good. Unfortunately, by boasting such a dynamic cast, the character development did suffer some with all of the divergent storylines formulated to take advantage of the cast, but that flaw was not a showstopper. Surrounding this cast, the storyline was tremendous, perfectly centering the main character of this movie The Virus itself. The scenery and cinematography was awesome, and overall this is a well-put together docudrama. It does have some flaws besides the character development as the pacing was a bit slow and there was a lot of story that went unresolved.  In the end, this was much more a docudrama than thriller and should be viewed with that in mind, but it is an effective venture into the mind of an epidemic that would ravage the world. Check it out!