B-Movies: Fever

B-Movies & Couch Classics
Reviews of Movies Often Overlooked or Forgotten

by Arik Treston

Fever
2000, R

If you want to delve into a darker cinematic hole to get lost in for a while, you should catch Fever. Director Alex Winter (who played Bill in the Bill & Ted-Keanu Reeves films) makes an interesting sophomore effort (after 1992’s wild carny-ride Freaked) with this moody and brooding piece. Henry Thomas (E.T.) plays Nick Parker, an artist and art teacher who lives in a Brooklyn tenement. Nick begins to catch a fever and things change for good at this point. A mysterious stranger moves above Nick’s apartment, his landlord is mysteriously murdered, and Nick is having strange hallucinations and sleepwalking episodes. Sticking to the David Lynch analogies, there is a distinct echo of Eraserhead nicely mixed in with a dash of the Coen Bros.’ Barton Fink. Thomas, who will always be looked at as the alien-loving Elliot, has worked hard on his image and tried valiantly to escape the constant allusions to his breakthrough role. Make no mistake; this isn’t the cute and curious little boy who flew on a bike by the light of the moon. This is a mysterious man who is flying high when the moon is out.
Nick doesn’t take the care of himself that a sick boy should, and the weirdness doesn’t improve with time. His sister, played by Teri Hatcher (of TV’s “New Adventures of Lois & Clark” and those God-awful Radio Shack commercials with Howie Long), is worried about him and tries to get him some help so that he can heal before things get worse.
While it is slow and sometimes tedious to follow, the film raises enough interesting questions about who is responsible for what which in turn, keeps you interested in finding out. The slow descent into fever-induced dementia is reminiscent of a drug addict trying to kick the habit. Ultimately, even through its uncomfortable-ness, it’s better than having to sit through the daily saccharine-fest on, say, the Lifetime channel.

More to rent:
If you haven’t seen the powerful and disturbing Requiem For A Dream, get moving. Ellen Burstyn’s Oscar-nominated role as an elderly pill-popping dieter is only one reason to watch this haunting look at the effects on addiction.

After you get a bite to eat, rent Shadow Of The Vampire. Watch this flick and you’ll get a look at another sort of bite — the bite of Dracula! Willem Dafoe’s Oscar-nominated role as Max Shreck — the real-life actor who played Dracula in F. W. Murnau’s horror-classic Nosferatu — is only one reason to see this delicious dark-comedy. The premise? Perhaps Murnau needed such authenticity for his film that he found an actual vampire to play a vampire. Some took this as a horror film, but its tone is to be taken as pure historically-skewing comedy, albeit darkly done.