The trailer for the remake of Eli Roth’s campy horror classic Cabin Fever is less of a trailer, and more of an existential exercise in futility. To wit: what is the point of remaking a film if you’re just re-using the shooting script from the original? Perhaps Travis Zariwny’s remake isn’t an earnest attempt to re-adapt Roth’s original film, but instead to hold a mirror up to the Hollywood factory-culture of remakes that ultimately feel pointless and achieve far less than their superior predecessors. Or maybe this is just another dumb remake.

If this is some sort of attempt at artful meditation / pop culture commentary, the effect is lost in the first trailer for the Cabin Fever remake which is simply titled — surprise — Cabin Fever. Zariwny used Roth’s original shooting script, and you’ll immediately notice the actors in this film regurgitating the exact same lines used in the 2002 film, like the famously petulant “I don’t wanna get sick! I don’t want any of us getting sick!”

Here’s what is different in the remake: the method of some of the kills (though the grotesque crotch and shower gags remain because why not), the practical effects presentation, the dog, and the bunny costume — the latter of which has been transformed into a paper plate bunny mask, which is about the only thing that indicates that this might be some half-baked attempt to make some sort of “art exercise.” And if that’s the case, it looks more like a student art film than anything.

Clearly, this is not like Gus Van Sant basically filming a shot-for-shot remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, or Michael Haneke remaking his own Austrian horror flick Funny Games for American audiences — the very act of which had thought-provoking implications within that film’s meta-narrative.

Regardless, the Cabin Fever remake exists, for better or worst, and stars Gage Golightly (Teen Wolf), Dustin Ingram (Paranormal Activity 3), Matthew Daddario (brother of Alexandra and star of Delivery Man), Samuel Davis (From Dusk Till Dawn) and Nadine Crocker (Deadgirl).

Cabin Fever (the remake) hits theaters and VOD on February 12.

More From 94.3 WCYY