Did you like Cabin Fever? It's ok, you can be honest. It may not have been the greatest movie in the world, but it was a solid debut from the now notorious "Bear Jew" Eli Roth, and to be honest, it was just a damned fun movie. Overflowing with gore, witty one-liners and Cerina Vincent naked, Cabin Fever has become my "background noise" movie, and I am proud to say I genuinely like the film.

Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever....eh, not so much.

The sequel, written and directed by Ti West has a sordid past, and West isn't too proud of it. Shock Till You Drop scored an exclusive interview with West after a screening of his soon-to-be-released 80s throwback The House of the Devil, and revealed some very interesting information concerning the controversial release of the follow-up to Eli Roth's gore-infused horror/comedy. After editing his cut of the film, Lionsgate wanted to take the film in a new direction, and West would have none of that. As a result, he disowned the film, and did what he could to get his name taken off the final product.

"I very much wanted the Alan Smithee credit - that would have been a silver lining to me. I would have been more than happy to have promoted the film if I had had Alan Smithee on it. They said no; I'm not DGA, so I couldn't do it. And the DGA doesn't do Alan Smithee anymore, anyway, so it was a bummer situation with that. I really do not feel like it's my film. That was a film that was really made by a bunch of other people on that production. And it's unfortunate."


The producer of the film, Lauren Moews, told Shock after the film's pre-screening the day before Fantastic Fest started, "Except for the tag ending, this film is probably 90 percent West's cut. It's got the wipes in there, it's got the animation in there he wanted, it's got the 80's references, the Ramones for the songs. I worked very hard to maintain the vision he saw and maintained what he wanted when he wasn't around."

Although West admits much of the completed Lionsgate cut contains footage he shot, he still firmly believes it was presented in a way he strongly disagrees with.

"There's a big difference in how you cut a joke together or how you cut a scare together or how you cut a gross moment or what of sound and music you do. Ninety percent of the decision they made are the opposite of what I would have done. Yeah, people still die the same way. Yeah, a lot of the dialogue's still in there. But the way it's presented was radically different."

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