Yesterday Eli Roth showed his director’s cut of Cabin Fever at the HollyShorts Film Festival, where he was honored the night beforehand for the accomplishments he has done for Independent film making. This is the first time the movie has been seen in its entirety in the United States since before it was sold at the Toronto Film Festival because Lionsgate made him cut about 4 minutes of little things from the version that was the talk of film festivals around the world. So what other way to show the movie, but for Eli himself to introduce it and tell the audience little tidbits about the movie.
Before the movie started, there was a long line to get into the theater and Eli stopped and greeted everyone who came out to see his first movie. Then we went inside and it was time for the event to begin. Eli starts out by telling us that he showed a shorter version of the movie in the same theater that we watched last night back in 2002. Tarantino was also there then watching the movie and loved it! So much so he offered Eli the role of Dov in Death Proof that eventually lead to Donny Dononwitz in Inglourious Basterds. How cool is that? In the audience last night were the people who helped with the production of Cabin Fever including Rider Strong and Eli gave us little tidbits about them and the importance of them being part of the production of the movie.
Eli also answered questions from people in the audience and the first one was how do you make it as a filmmaker. He told them work on a set and told stories about his past experience. Including how he technically worked with Brad Pitt before IB in Meet Joe Black, I say that because he was fired from the movies 10 minutes after he started playing Medium’s Jake Weber’s stand in.
He also talked about filming the movie in North Carolina and the problems he had with some of the dogs that were such an important part of the movie. He also shared with us about how the guy who gets stabbed in the ear with a screwdriver in the movie was in a mental institution and how the actor was obsessed with Boy Meets World and Rider Strong.
The sweetest part of the night came when Eli was wrapping up and he told the story about how his dad gave him $100,000 to fund Cabin Fever and that was a lot of money for him at the time. As we know Cabin Fever was such a huge hit that Eli paid him back with much more than he gave them. Last night was his parents 49th wedding anniversary and they were in the audience. What an awesome way for his parents to celebrate such a milestone. I wonder what Eli give them for their big one next year???
Now even though Eli said he was going to bolt during the credits, he stayed to find out what we thought of the added scenes that were missing from the movie we have been forced to see. And those scenes really made the difference. He asked us to plead with Lionsgate to release a BluRay version of a Director’s Cut of the DVD and I am so going to ask them to do that and you should to! We need to have this cult classic that has influenced so many filmmakers to be released as it should’ve been! So call Lionsgate at 310-449-9200 and ask for Joe Drake and/or Steve Beeks and tell we need the Director’s cut of Cabin Fever now!
Some of you might think I post a little too much on Eli Roth and the reason for that is my admiration for what he did with Cabin Fever. Years ago I was working for a horror movie director that was on the down and down, and whenever I was ready to quit Hollywood because I was beginning to think that everyone was like him, I would put in Cabin Fever and my faith was restored. What Eli did with this movie and the special features on the DVD blew me away so much so that it was the movie that kept me from not walking away from the industry all together. Eventually I stopped working for that guy, but I have not turned by my back on the biz. I just learned to respect those who honor this business (like Eli) and the rest well… So thank you El Roth for creating a movie that was so inspirational to me and so many others! After last night’s screening, I saw I wasn’t the only who felt the same way there are many more like me.
