Cabin Fever (2002 Film) - History

History

Eli Roth co-wrote Cabin Fever with friend and former NYU roommate Randy Pearlstein in 1995 while Roth was working as a production assistant for Howard Stern's Private Parts. Early attempts to sell the script were unsuccessful because studios felt that the horror genre had become unprofitable. In 1996, the film Scream was released to great success, leading studios to once again become interested in horror properties. However, Roth still could not sell his script, as studios told him that it should be more like Scream. Many potential financiers also found the film's content to be unsettling, including not only the gore, but the use of the word "nigger" early in the film. The script was not produced until the fall of 2001, when Roth and Lauren Moews raised $50,000 to begin production with producers Evan Astrowsky and Sam Froelich. The rest of the money was raised during the shooting.

The auditions for the character of Marcy had been scheduled to take place on September 11, 2001. The scene producers had chosen for the auditioning actresses was the build-up to Marcy's sex scene with Paul. In the scene, Marcy is convinced that all the students are doomed and despite Paul's reassurances, she describes their situation as "like being on a plane, when you know it's gonna crash. Everybody around you is screaming "We're Going Down! We're Going Down!" and all you want to do is grab the person next to you and fuck them, because you know you're going to be dead soon, anyway." After which, she looks over at Paul (the person next to her), followed by a cut to her throwing him down on the bed and having sex with him. Eli Roth and the producers tried to cancel the Marcy auditions, but the general chaos caused by the attacks made it impossible for them to reach many of the actresses who were scheduled to try out for the role. Consequently, the auditions went ahead and Cerina Vincent won the role. Roth has said that he chose her for her 'expressive eyes'.