Eli as:Justin aka Grim
Cast: Jordan Ladd, Rider Strong
Director: Eli Roth
Genre: Horror
Written by: Eli Roth & Randy Pearlstein
Production Status: Completed
Release Date: September 12, 2002
Rated: R
Runtime: 93 min.
Plot Outline:

The film centers around five recent college graduates, Jeff, Karen, Paul, Marcy and Bert, who trek to a remote cabin deep in the woods to celebrate with some wanton sex and copious amounts of alcohol. They are also visited by a stoner camper, Justin (aka Grim), who has a large dog named Doctor Mambo. Bert goes hunting, and accidentally shoots a vagrant in the woods. Although not apparently seriously injured, he is extremely ill with some unknown disease, and Bert leaves him to die. The man later turns up at the cabin, even sicker, asking for help in seeking medical attention, but when he recognizes Bert, the group panics and turn him away without assistance. Then one by one each friend fall victim to the disease.

• While filming a particularly bloody scene, Rider Strong decided to go for a walk in the woods between setups. Covered head to toe in blood, he happened upon a group of 35 schoolgirls, who were on a field trip. The girls screamed at the sight of this blood-drenched hiker, and then screamed even louder when they realized the hiker was the star of Boy Meets World (1993). The girls chased Rider through the woods. Strong eventually made it back to the film crew, and vowed never to wander off between scenes again.
• Out of 347 films shown at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival, Cabin Fever (2002) was screened last, and became the highest selling movie at the festival. Nearly all of the nine studios who engaged in a bidding war had passed on the movie at the script stage (the exception being the eventual winner, Lion’s Gate, which was not in existence when the script was first written).
• Peter Jackson stopped production on The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) three times to screen this movie for the entire crew. Jackson was so enthusiastic about the film he gave director Eli Roth publicity quotes.
• Director Eli Roth originally got the idea for this movie while working in Iceland on a horse farm. He got such a bad skin infection from the rotting hay in the barn that his face broke out in sores, bled and peeled off when he shaved.
• During her sex scene with Rider Strong, Eli Roth wanted Cerina Vincent to be completely naked. But Vincent, who had previously played a student who never wore clothes in Not Another Teen Movie (2001), was concerned that over-exposing herself would lead to her being typecast as a ‘nude scene chick’, and refused to bare her rear in Cabin Fever. The standoff between the director and actress became so intense that Vincent informed Roth that if he truly wanted a naked ass in the scene, he would have to get another actress to play the role of Marcy. Eventually the two hammered out a compromise – Vincent would show one inch of her ass on film, no more, no less. When the scene was set to be filmed, Roth bought along a ruler and literally measured one inch of Vincent’s butt crack. Bedsheets were then taped to Vincent’s ass at the designated level before the sex scene was shot. Ironically, Vincent later volunteered to bare her breasts in a scene that didn’t call for them. During the bathroom scene where she discovers the rashes on her back, the script had her wearing a robe, which she lowered when she turned her back to the mirror. But Vincent thought this scenario was too unrealistic and volunteered to do it topless.
• Jordan Ladd was reduced to tears when she first saw herself with her ‘faceless’ make-up on, in the mirror.