Practically everything is telegraphed a mile in advance thanks in no small part to the reliance on the original script so that even the prospect of new deaths isn't enough to warrant much excitement.

As if to keep from being too familiar, the deaths are altered just enough to qualify as being original, as long as you don't count on being surprised. The composer feels the need to John Williams this thing up at times, which just leaves the viewer scratching their heads at why such a big spectacle of a score is being utilized for a film that largely takes place in a single cabin. Nothing attempts to sell this more than the overly-ambitious music score, which is so epic at times that it feels like it belongs in a big-scale war movie. This time around, the director goes for a more serious approach to the material (a mistake, I believe) and attempts to paint the film as a tragedy. Roth's trademark humor is also excised in favor of a few random throwaway jokes, delivered in such a deadpan tone by the actors that each one falls flat on its face. It's as if none of them wanted to be there. They're the ghosts of what we saw in the original film, the acting completely lifeless. It's upsetting that, despite having many of the same scenes and lines as their original characters, everyone in the cast feels so disconnected from the script that they utterly fail to bring any of their characters to life. They feel like strangers and it doesn't help that all of them seem to be acting as if they're in completely different films-the disconnect is that apparent. I simply couldn't buy that any of them would take off for a weekend together, much less have known one another for years, as is the case for at least two of the characters. It literally feels as if they pulled random strangers off the streets and asked them to make-believe they were friends for a weekend. It's not that any one particular actor is singularly bad, it's that none of them feel like they're in the same movie. What sets this remake apart from it's 2002 predecessor is the lack of any chemistry between the actors. I'm sad to say it fails to live up to the original in nearly every regard. I'll go on the record saying I -wanted- to like this film, despite some unease after watching the trailer. Despite this seemingly pointless exercise, I was prepared to give it a chance and not hate it for failing to aspire to anything original. While not a shot-for-shot remake (the angles and cinematography are different), this remake uses the same script as the 2002 original with slight alterations.

Cabin fever 2016 amazon