Cabin Fever

Coming just 14 years after Eli Roth's 2002 original, this new version of his gratuitous splatter flick once again finds several college students spending the weekend in (you guessed it) a remote cabin, and coming under attack from a horrific flesh-eating virus. Its source material was no classic, but its tongue-in-cheek approach won favour among hard-core horror fans. Director Travis Z sucks that charm out and opts for a bland, straightforward retread, making the same film almost scene-for-scene. Worse still, he takes everything far too seriously, which ultimately makes the whole journey feel nasty and pointless. Both the violence and sadism of the killings are ramped up, with the only saving grace being that the victims are so unlikeable that you're almost cheering their demise. About as bad as a remake (or, for that matter, any film) can get, this new bout of fever stands out as a spectacular misfire, even in the less-than-glorious history of horror remakes.