Quentin Tarantino knows a thing or two about movies. Over the course of his 30-year career, the filmmaker has released countless hits, ranging from Pulp Fiction to Inglourious Basterds, but even he gives credit where credit is due. A few months back, Tarantino revealed his list of the top 20 films of the 21st century. Ranked alongside movies like Pixar’s Toy Story 3, Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, and Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood, Tarantino listed this 2002 horror movie now streaming completely free as one of the best.
Cabin Fever, Eli Roth’s dark-comedy body-horror film about a group of college graduates whose vacation to a remote cabin turns into a nightmare when they fall victim to a fast-acting, flesh-eating virus, took No. 19 on Tarantino’s list of best movies of the 21st century. Tarantino said on The Bret Easton Podcast in December that while Hostel is Roth’s best film, Cabin Fever “is my favorite… There’s something so charming. Eli’s sense of humor, sense of gore — it just really, really works. People kind of forget how tense it is in the first half because it gets so genuinely funny in the last 20 minutes.” The movie really is a standout of 2000s horror, and fans can relive all of the gory, flesh-eating horror after Cabin Fever joined Tubi’s free streaming library on April 1st.
Eli Roth’s Cabin Fever Is One of the Best Cabin-In-The-Woods Horrors
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There have been a lot of cabin-in-the-woods horror movies, but Cabin Fever is one of the best. Although the film follows the 1980s-style formula of young people in a cabin in the woods, it turns that typical scenario into a paranoid battle for survival where the enemy isn’t a masked killer but a horrific, fast-acting flesh-eating virus. The movie is focused as much on the psychological breakdown and panic of the friends as it is on the physical horror of the virus, ultimately revealing how fear spreads faster than the infection, leading to distrust, selfish survival, and unexpected moments of humor. And when it comes to the physical horror, Cabin Fever’s practical gore effects are grisly, featuring scenes of decaying skin and memorable moments like the leg-shaving scene.
All of that wasn’t exactly appreciated upon the film’s release. Cabin Fever was initially met with mixed reviews and seen as an average horror film. It scored a 62% critic score and 44% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but its status as a sleeper hit that grossed $30 million against a $1.5 million budget was enough to launch a franchise, with three additional films following it, including a remake in 2016. The movie is now generally seen as superior to the initial, somewhat mixed critical consensus and celebrated for its unique, dark campiness and iconic body-horror scenes.
Other Horror Movies Now on Tubi
Tubi has a pretty deep catalog of horror, and all of those titles are streaming completely free. April’s roundup added movies like Carrie (1976 and 2019), It Comes at Night, Jeepers Creepers, Jeepers Creepers 2, the original Scream trilogy, and Zombieland 2: Double Tap. It grew that lineup even further on May 1st with additions like Hannibal, House At The End Of The Street, Misery, and The Final Girls.
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