"Cabin Fever" - can someone explain the in-jokes? *spoilers*

[Anonymous_Coward]

Please assume there is a spoiler in every post from here on, so spoiler boxes are not needed.

I just saw Cabin Fever last night and thought it was a pretty good horror/gore flick. The bath scene and the final image of the blonde girl are still making me go “ugh…”. There was a suprising amount of comedy as well, and I think I laughed more than I went “ewwww…” (which was quite a lot).

However, I’m not a horror fan so I was not able to pick up on a lot of the in-jokes/references that Eli Roth threw in. Some things are obvious, like the typical teens (the innocent blonde girl, the slut, the jock, the straight-man) that are in every slasher film and the hicks.

I’ll just list a few and see if I’m right. Please add your own…

The box the big guy was holding - My first thought was Pulp Fiction , but that’s not horror. Any others with a mystery box?

“There’s one left in the basement” - Evil Dead?

The dog seeing red - Cujo ?

[Larry_Mudd]

I haven’t seen Cabin Fever, but the mystery box in Pulp Fiction references the 1955 film Kiss Me Deadly.

(Spoilers, albeit old ones, in link. Direct link to a picture of the box being opened, if you prefer. Here’s another.)

[Max_Carnage]

In the credits there were two references to “Shemps.” Sam Raimi also credits nameless characters as Shemps.

[Judith_Prietht]

“Shemp” is also a Three Stooges reference; Raimi’s a huge Stooges fan. After Shemp died, a stand-in was used to replace him on the show. IIRC from Bruce Campbell’s book, Sam Raimi uses “Shemp” to credit a performance by an actor who’s already playing another role; that actor is “shemping.”

From the mouth of Bruce Campbell:

We were all big fans of The Three Stooges growing up
(Sam Raimi, filmmaker friend Scott Spiegel and myself).

                         In learning more about the Stooges, we found that when they made
                         their films (or "shorts" - 20 minutes in length), they not only made
                         one at a time, but two or three - thereby capitalizing on standing
                         sets from the big, Columbia "A" pictures, currently in production.
                         This allowed them, for example, to use a large castle set (and shoot
                         a pie fight or something) before it was torn down. As a result, they
                         were always shooting pieces of shorts as well as complete ones.

                         Well, one fateful
                         day, Shemp (the
                         really ugly one
                         with the long,
                         stringy black hair)
                         was incapacitated
                         by a heart attack,
                         and the rest of
                         the Stooges,
                         distraught as they
                         were, had to
                         finish a number of
                         Shorts. So, they
                         brought in a
                         "Fake Shemp."
                         The doubles they
                         used were often
                         the wrong
                         height/weight and lacked in the true Shemp mannerisms. Even in
                         high school (in the mid-70's), distracted by commercials, eating
                         bowls of Captain Crunch, we could tell whenever the obviously fake
                         Shemp made his appearances - which is in about 3 or 4 shorts - and
                         we were amused to no end. 

                         We then began to use the term "Fake Shemp" for a any actor (in
                         our early Super-8 flicks) who didn't have any lines, or was doubling
                         for another actor (which happened a lot when you couldn't pay an
                         actor to stay around), or who was just way in the background doing
                         ridiculous things.

                         So, in the first Evil Dead film, we decided to designate Fake
                         Shemps as an official credit category. The names listed were people
                         who we shot "parts" of - a hand, a foot, someone under heavy
                         make-up, etc. It seemed to be handy, since films (particularly
                         low-budget ones) are usually pieced together in many different ways
                         over a long period of time.

                         The term has since expanded in our vocabulary to include a number
                         of fun uses:

                         "Shempish" - anything that is cheesy or second-rate - "Man, throw
                         that shirt out, it looks really Shempish."

                         "Shemping" - doing nothing of any great importance - "I have no
                         plans Saturday night, I'm just Shemping..."

                         "Shemp Alert" - sighting of a Shemp - either being "Shempish," or
                         just "Shemping."

To continue with Raimi references, the Cujo perspective was also reminiscent of the approach of Evil in the Evil Dead films.

And why the bunny at the hospital? Credited as “we’ll never tell”?

[Max_Carnage]

Wonder if the Bunny was an homage to Donnie Darko. Hardly the same genre, but it’s the only other wacked out movie I can think of with a guy in a bunny suit (other than Mallrats).

[Munch]

And why the bunny at the hospital? Credited as “we’ll never tell”?

Was that a reference to the movie Don’t Say a Word, with Michael Douglas? The trailers for that film had the female lead whispering “I’ll never tell” several times.

[Judith_Prietht]

It seems a Donnie Darko bunny reference is likely, as Eli Roth is working with Darko director/writer Richard Kelly on a film called The Box.

[applejamie]

You must be insane. This was the worst movie I have ever seen. Ever. The whole “this guns for the n-word’s” crap? Then to have black people show up at the end of the film? The blonde guy coming back to the cabin? The deputy dude? Any references to real movies should not even be addressed, but they are coming from Deliverance. The kid on the steps, the banjos, etc. Regardless, people were groaning in the middle of the movie. It really has no redeeming qualities.

[Ms2001]

Welcome to the SDMB, applejamie. During your new adventures in the world of Internet message boards, you may be surprised to learn things you never thought possible, for example, that some people believe the ability to make a theaterful of people groan for 90 minutes is a redeeming quality in itself.

I saw Cabin Fever last night, and IMO a movie that leaves me disturbed all night is well worth $8.00.

[Max_Torque]

The song playing on the radio when they first pull up to the general store, “The Road Leads To Nowhere”, is the theme song from Wes Craven’s first film, The Last House on the Left.

The “lone survivor getting shot by the authorities” bit was straight out of Night of the Living Dead.