Eli Roth Reflects on Cabin Fever 20 Years Later

Eli Roth‘s first feature film, Cabin Fever, recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, a milestone that Roth says is kind of surreal to think about.

Speaking to ComingSoon, Roth reflected on the 2002 horror film, a movie he wrote when he was in his early 20s and had just graduated film school.

“It is crazy. I mean, in one way, I can’t believe it was 20 years ago,” said Roth. “In another way, it was yesterday, because it’s still such a part of my life. I wrote that movie when I was 21 or 22 years old. I wrote it when I was like a senior. I graduated film school and said, “I’m going to make this movie right now.” The film was written in ’95 or ’96, so I think 1995 was when I wrote the first draft or finished it with Randy Pearlstein. So for me, it’s something that is like a 30-year-old story that’s been in my head. It was so stressful and so nerve-wracking that it’s really nice to see the write-ups about how we really made this movie on credit cards and spit and glue and we sold it at the film festival.”

Cabin Fever changed Roth’s life overnight

Roth noted that the film’s positive reception and success at the box office was a moment that changed his life instantly. While he didn’t do anything to celebrate the milestone due to his work on Thanksgiving and Fright Krewe, Roth said that he appreciates that the film is still relevant.

“It was one of those things that really did change my life overnight,” said Roth. “I just wanted to help bring back the R-rated horror movies that I loved so much. It felt like it was the beginning of a new wave of a kind of rebirth of horror films. Obviously, along with Rob Zombie and James Wan and Greg McLean, Alexandre Aja, Neil Marshall, and a whole bunch of people — we all felt that way. It’s so nice that it’s looked back on fondly and that people still enjoy it. The goal was that I always wanted to make a movie that kids watch at sleepovers that if you’re still watching it 15 or 20 years from now at a sleepover, that’s a success, because those are the movies that I loved: when you’re having a sleepover and you put something on at two in the morning and it’s this weirdo movie with all these insane deaths and crazy dialogue and you just have fun living with those characters in that world.

“I wasn’t even thinking about it. I’m so focused on Thanksgiving and on Fright Krewe and on finishing those. Fright Krewe has been a 10-year journey to come out that I don’t even think about it, but it’s really nice that other people do. It’s wonderful that it’s still a relevant title all these years later.”