- Directed by Kaare Andrews
- Written by Jake Wade Wall
- Stars Sean Astin, Currie Graham, Ryan Donowho
- Run Time: 1 hour, 31 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlRRoX8IlBk
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s a little too long to get to know the doomed young people at the beginning, but it eventually gets going nicely. As you might guess from the title, it’s a prequel that shows the origins of the disease from the first two Cabin Fever movies. And it’s a pretty complex and interesting story. The cast does a decent job with it, and the gore effects are pretty over-the-top. It’s a nice bounce back after the so-so second film.
Synopsis
We get credits as we watch men in hazmat suits checking out a crime scene. They pull one man out of a house and send him to the hospital for examination.
Elsewhere, on an island, Dr. Edwards takes over at the lab, and we see right away that he’s a jerk. The various small occurrences of the plague have all been contained so far, but it’s just a matter of time. The man they picked up from that house is the only survivor of the disease— he’s patient zero, Mr. Porter. Edwards tells him that he’s an asymptomatic carrier. Porter isn’t very cooperative, but that’s not going to stop Edwards.
Credits roll.
We cut to a group of young people coming for a wedding in the tropics. Marcus is getting married at the resort. Brother Josh comes to the wedding party along with his girl Penny, and Marcus isn’t thrilled to see either of them, since Josh is a loud drunk. And Penny is an old flame.
A woman at the bazaar tries to give Penny some kind of protective amulet (this goes nowhere). Dobbs and Josh have rented a boat to take all of them to a deserted island for a bachelor party getaway. Fiancée Katia insists she will stay behind but Penny should go along since they’ve known her so long she’s practically one of the guys.
Back at the lab, Porter talks to Camila, one of the scientists. He wants to know if they’ve told his wife what happened to his son, who melted in his arms. They’ve been experimenting on him for two months now, and he’s had more than enough. He threatens to kill himself if he doesn’t hear from his wife. Bridgett gives a generic-sounding message from his wife and she’s fine. We know she’s lying. More importantly, we can see that Porter knows she is lying. He purposely infects one of the technicians. This causes a 48-hour lockdown and all guards and support staff are evacuated to the outer bunker, leaving just the three scientists, the infected technician, and Porter in the inner sanctum.
Back on the boat, Marcus gets upset that Josh doesn’t like Katia; he’s marrying up into the higher class, and his brother and friends don’t like it. Penny comes onto him, but he avoids her. Soon after, they come to a nice, deserted-looking island that’s not even on the map. Their guide drops them off and leaves with the boat to come back after they’ve had their fun.
Josh and Penny go snorkeling, but they can’t find any fish. None. Not alive anyway, but there are many rotten ones all over the bottom of the lagoon. She gets upset, but Josh makes a joke out of it. Marcus and Dobbs are too high to care. Penny notices that she has a rash on her arm now.
Edwards and assistant Bridgett work on the man that Porter infected, and she gets splashed with blood. She runs out to wash the blood off, but knows it’s too late at that point.
Penny shows Josh her rash, and now he has some on his legs. He thinks they got some bad weed and are having a reaction to it. They have sex, and we see that she’s already getting pretty bad. She spits blood all over Josh.
Marcus and Dobbs decide to make for that building they saw on the way into the island. They find a compound that seems to be deserted and locked down. They force a shutter up and go in. Then they get locked in and soon find blood on the floor. There’s a radio that someone smashed with an ax. As they explore the place, they find no people, but lots of wreckage.
Josh sorta-kinda makes contact with Dr. Edwards on the radio, who says to come to the compound. But then he accidentally pulls the skin off Penny’s arms. “I can fix this!” He screams.
Dobbs and Marcus finally find an infected man who has a gun, and the chase is on! As they try to hide, they find dozens of rotting corpses and some that aren’t quite dead yet. Marcus finds a room full of information and gets some idea of what they’re dealing with. Josh, who got in a different way, catches up with Dobbs and Marcus, and the three of them have an armed standoff as they all spout truths at each other.
The three guys find Bridgett and Camila. Confirming this is the lab we’ve been seeing all this time. Bridgett’s looking pretty bad. They meet Edwards and Porter. They all blame Dr. Edwards. Camila says the dead fish in the ocean means it’s just a matter of time until it spreads to the mainland. Oh yeah— there’s also a self-destruct system for the compound.
They find the sewer system that drains into the lagoon, but only Porter is able to go in and turn the valve off since he’s immune. They also set the self-destruct to go boom soon.
Bridgett whacks Josh with a stick and takes half his face off. Edwards talks to Dobbs about what Dobb’s infection is going to do to him until Edwards gets a chance to kill him. Bridgett makes it to the beach and encounters Penny, who’s a rotted mess. The two have a gross, rotten, skinless cat fight as they literally pull each other to pieces.
Marcus, Porter, and Camila find Dobbs’s and Josh’s bodies in the jungle. Edwards starts to monologue and shoots Marcus. Porter shoots Edwards.
Back on the boat on the way home, Marcus tells Camila that a mouse infected the people in the bunker. She realizes that Porter infected everyone on purpose, including the water he just gave them to drink. He kills the guide, sabotages the boat, takes the dinghy, and leaves for the mainland without them.
During the closing credits, we get to see what went on with that mouse we just heard about.
Commentary
Marcus’s angst over the wedding really drags. These people are all going to die anyway, and we know it, so move the hell on with the story! The acting here is far better than the second film, and Sean Astin and Curry Graham do a good job with the script they have.
The Penny vs. Bridgett fight was really something. They went all out on that gore!
There was too much pre-wedding angst that didn’t come to anything and slowed down the good stuff. Still, it was miles better than the second film.