Eli Roth's debut, Cabin Fever, contains lots of weird scenes, but the one where a kid yells "Pancakes!" and does karate really takes the cake. Roth has certainly had a varied directorial career, and whether one loves or hates his films, it's hard to deny that they're usually at least memorable. That began with Cabin Fever, a bizarre blend of horror and comedy. One minute a character is shaving their own leg skin off as a result of a terrifying flesh-eating virus, the next there's Roth himself making a ridiculous cameo as a stoner.
The tone of Cabin Fever is kind of all over the place. To some, that's a drawback, but to others, it leads to a film that's lovably off kilter. How much of that odd sensibility was informed by Roth himself becomes quite apparent when one watches the 2016 Cabin Fever remake, which stuck to the original very closely, but seemed to be lacking any of its charm or heart.
As much weirdness as can be found in Cabin Fever, the award for oddest scene definitely goes to the "Pancakes!" kid. It's an inexplicable turn of events that adds nothing to the film's story, and usually just leaves viewers confused.
Early on in Cabin Fever, the group of college students that end up becoming infected by the flesh-eating virus stop at a small store in the town near their cabin. Things get strange pretty quickly, as when Paul (Rider Strong) sits down next to a young boy named Dennis on a porch swing out front and tries to be friendly, the boy savagely bites into his hand. Later though, is when things go nuts. Bert (James DeBello) heads back to the store to seek help, and when he gets there, Dennis jumps up, begins crazily yelling out "Pancakes!," does some admittedly impressive martial arts moves, then runs over and bites into Bert's hand. It's completely out of place, and feels like it was edited in from a different film, or that Bert was suddenly having a bad trip or something.
The whole scene is one big pile of "huh?," and if it seems like something that Roth just came up with on the spot and threw into Cabin Fever for no real logical reason, that's because it totally was. Roth saw Dennis actor Matthew Helms practicing his tae kwon do moves between takes, and decided to give him a showcase scene in the film. Why that had to include him yelling the word pancakes is anyone's guess. Still, the scene remains jarringly off even when viewed all these years later, and the plot point of Dennis' father becoming angry with Bert for possibly infecting his son could've still been accomplished with nothing but the bite.
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