 Lions Gate has taken the unusual step of screening its new horror film Cabin Fever for critics. (The genre is generally given short-shrift by the writers, but this film has been screening at film festivals and that might make a significant difference.) The movie is receiving quite a number of positive notices. Stephen Holden in the New York Times observes that one reason that it "sustains such a palpable mood of foreboding until the end is that it stays away from the supernatural and makes minimal use of cheap shock effects." Eleanor Ringel Gillespie hails it as "one of the most audacious film debuts in recent memory" for writer-director Eli Roth. She adds: "Whether we're terrified, laughing out loud, grossed-out or merely uneasy, Roth has us exactly where he wants us almost every frame of his picture." But many critics appear to agree with Stephen Hunter in the Washington Post, who remarks, "It's just a loud, derivative grade-Z horror film of no particular distinction." And to Bruce Westbrook in the Houston Chronicle, it's just a "mean-spirited, drunken stumble of a movie unspooling in an endless loop of panicky foolishness." Christian Bale, a British actor noted for his edgy roles in such films as Swing Kids, Velvet Goldmine and American Psycho (in which he played a businessman/serial killer), has landed the role of the caped crusader in the next Batman movie. The announcement was made by director Christopher Nolan (Memento) who described Bale as "the ultimate embodiment of Bruce Wayne. He has exactly the balance of darkness and light that we were looking for." |
