The Party’s Over When the Flesh-Eating Virus Arrives. ‘Cabin Fever: Patient Zero,’ the Latest in a Franchise, is reviewed by BEN KENIGSBERG for The New York Times.

CABIN FEVER

Patient Zero

Opens on Friday

Directed by Kaare Andrews

1 hour 35 minutes; not rated

Tickets to “Cabin Fever: Patient Zero” should come with saltines and ginger ale, though the nausea factor is less extreme — and the filmmaking less auspicious — than that of “Cabin Fever,” which opened in 2003, and “Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever,” which bypassed a theatrical release.

Once again, the villain is a flesh-eating virus. At a remote island disease research center controlled by the Dominican Republic, Dr. Edwards (Currie Graham) hopes to extract a cure from Porter (Sean Astin), an imprisoned, asymptomatic patient. This supposedly uninhabited island is where Marcus (Mitch Ryan) and his friends have the misfortune to go ashore for a bachelor party.

Less methodical and witty than its predecessors, “Patient Zero” often turns its infected characters into mindless, lurching zombies. Some shots are so dark or shaky that it’s difficult to tell what’s going on. The medical staff (apart from a voice of reason, played by Solly Duran) shows little regard for patient safety or common sense.

Like George A. Romero’s similarly claustrophobic “Day of the Dead,” “Patient Zero” has allegorical overtones. Porter speaks of rendition and rights. Even taken literally, the movie could hardly ask for better timing, in light of the recent accidents at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and an Ebola outbreak.

Better actors would have helped. Playing to the cheap seats, the film reaches its nadir during a brawl in which a decaying buxom lab assistant (Lydia Hearst) and Marcus’s brother’s ailing girlfriend (Jillian Murray) literally rip each other apart. Up next: Russ Meyer’s “Cabin Fever.”

For the original report go to http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/01/movies/cabin-fever-patient-zero-the-latest-in-a-franchise.html