The Aughts (and The Aught-Not- Haves)

And while I was away these festivals is when Lionsgate began testing the movie.  “Cabin Fever” scored a 19.  That’s 19 out of 100.  It was the single lowest score ever for a Lionsgate film.  Suffice to say they were nervous.  I took their suggestions about what to cut about as well as I took Z.com’s notes, so they started re-cutting the film without me.  Looking back I now know I could have handled it better, I was being a petulant child about it, but I had fought for so long to get the film made and had seen the movie work with audiences around the globe, and I felt they were putting way to much credence into some stupid questionnaire. They even tried to get me to cut the blood and the language, saying that R rated horror was dead, and that PG-13 would reach a wider audiences.  This was the popular myth at the time, in fact, my whole mission was to that fans wanted R rated horror and were tired of PG-13 bloodless, sexless horror.  I couldn’t believe I had come this far only to watch  everything slowly slip away because I couldn’t control my mouth.

“Let everyone know you’re here to bring back blood into horror movies. You are the guy horror’s been waiting for – you can revive the genre.”

Journal Entry:  March 12th, 2003

I don’t know at what point I lost interest in fighting.  Maybe it was after I yelled and nobody yelled back at me, but calmly pointed out exactly how I had let myself waltz into the precarious position I am in right now.  I stared at the table and felt like I was getting a sore throat.  I looked at my eyes this morning in the mirror and could hardly see any brown, they were just so red.  Two bloodshot sockets with a black dot in the center.  I sat there with my agents while they explained exactly why I should take it in the ass.  I felt like telling them to go fuck themselves, that they were out of their minds, but I knew deep down they were right.  What could I do?  If I throw a tantrum and go into terrorist mode against the studio I’ll never work again. It’s ludicrous. I feel like I’m back at Z.com, except this is on a worldwide scale. So fucking frustrating.

I sat there at Doughboys restaurant after the meeting, just gutted. I felt sick.  My thoat was dry, my hair a long mess, and I’m unshaven. I have rave reviews coming in from festivals and fansites around the world and the studio’s re-cutting my film because of some stupid idiot in a focus group.  My right knee aches – bad.  When I sleep I hear voices – loud voices.  Like suddenly the room’s filled with a cocktail party.  These voices are so distinct it’s scary.  And sometimes they don’t want me to listen.  One guy said I wasn’t dressed appropriately, not in a tux, and smacked his hands over my ears, cupped.  That hurt.  Then I went back to sleep and he clapped in front of my face again, waking me up.  Have I always been this crazy?

By June 2003 we had more or less settled the cut, but more importantly, Quentin Tarantino saw the film at the Los Angeles Film Festival and loved it.  Quentin invited me to his house to watch movies, and we watched “War of the Gargantuas.”  It was one of those nights I had always dreamed of, just sitting there talking movies with him.  Then he showed me some scenes from “Kill Bill” and gave me some of the best advice yet: “go everywhere, tour the world, do as much press as possible, make yourself a star by showing off your knowledge of horror.  Let everyone know you’re here to bring back blood into horror movies.  You are the guy horror’s been waiting for – you can revive the genre.  You can do it.” It was fucking inspiring, and that night I went home and e-mailed every foreign distributor to book me on any flight they could and that I would go anywhere to do any press they wanted.   Quentin also gave me some great advice on how to deal with the studio and finalizing the edit of the film, which helped tremendously.  I knew from that point forward the only person I could listen to was Quentin, he was the only one who had been in my shoes and he just wanted to see me succeed because he saw I started the way he did, fighting his way in with an independent film.  Not since David Lynch had anyone given me such generous advice.  I felt empowered.

July 11, 2003

So it’s 9:00 on a Friday night and I’m in Soho, London. I did press all day for CABIN FEVER, which is all I’ve ever dreamed of.  I did interviews for Hot Dog, Total film magazine, GQ, Dazed and Confused, I-D, Maxim, Empire, among others. It’s a lot of fun doing press, telling stories about the shoot.  The journalists are all lamenting the death of horror, and they’re really listening to me when I talk about why horror films died.  Everyone’s ready for blood to make a comeback.

July 28^th, 2003.

Wow.  Okay, where to begin, I don’t even know.  Peter Jackson saw “Cabin Fever” and he loved it.  Loved it.  Not only that,  he’s giving me a quote for the poster.  Fran Walsh suggested it, like Stephen King did for “Evil Dead.”  I mean, I just can’t believe it.  I went there not knowing what to expect and just had the best time with them.  They’re so cool, so down to middle Earth, and just so sweet.  Peter Jackson loves “Reanimator”, “Evil Dead”, “Dawn of the Dead”.  He says that’s his favorite film, he thinks.  And he’s never met Romero. Peter and Richard Taylor went nuts during the film. They were so happy.  They loved it, the fingering, the leg shaving – the nudity.  Peter said he couldn’t believe someone made a Cabin movie.  That a movie like this was coming out of America – home of the homogenized, boring, studio dumbed-down horror movie – was just astounding.  And of course it’s all coming from the independent scene.  We talked about David Lynch and “Mulholland Drive.”  And ate lamb.  How cool is that?  They toured me all around WETA, I met all the artists.  It was like I was dreaming the whole experience.  I even saw the Feebles themselves!

Peter Jackson.  Quentin Tarantino.  Don Coscarelli.  Scott Spiegel.  John Landis.  These people all love the movie.  This is all I’ve ever dreamed of.  But the quote, I mean… I still can’t believe it.

On September 12th, 2003, “Cabin Fever” opened #3 at the box office to $8.6 million dollars.  It went on to make $23 million at the domestic box office, Lionsgate’s highest grossing film of 2003, and a total of $35 million dollars worldwide. The negative cost was $1.5 million, making it one of the most profitable independent films in years.
>>>NEXT: Bringing the Blood Back (Click here to print.)

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.