Now that Blu-Ray prices are falling, I went looking for titles on sale over the weekend and picked up a copy of Cabin Fever for $7.99 at Target. (Also picked up Serenity for $9.99.) I've only seen Cabin Fever in SD on one of the movie channels like Chiller or something that shows commercials and edits for content, I think, so I'm not going to get into the technical aspects of the disc except to say that it looked very good to me and the sound including music, effects and dialogue were all discernable and visceral where appropriate, e.g., big musical bursts as keys for action rocked the house.

The disc packaging says it contains the unrated director's cut and a PG-13 "family-friendly" version. I didn't watch the latter and can't imagine the film without all the gruesomeness. I understand there were different versions shown upon release in 2002. The version I ran across on Chiller may have been the PG-13 version. But I don't think writer/dir. Eli Roth is a PG-13 kinda guy. Anyhow, the set-up is similar to the original Evil Dead and Evil Dead II. In fact, there are references to and influences from many genre stalwarts. A group of college students have finished school and head out to a cabin in the mountains to celebrate only to find that a contagious flesh-eating virus is on the loose. The most interesting and enjoyable parts of the film are the strange encounters with the locals - the old man in the mom-and-pop store, the albino kid at said store, Deputy Winston who's always looking for a party, et al. I think the quirkier characters and scenarios were an homage to David Lynch. Lynch's main music man Angelo Badalamenti is credited with some of the music for Cabin Fever. There are many bloody messes in the film that may be hard to watch, but the splashes of lol humour are highlights. Highly recommended for tense moments, humour that seems almost out of place at times and "WTF?" quirkiness. Even so, I'm going to avoid the sequel as nothing good has been said about it.