The interesting thing about this film is that the complete demise of this group of friends is due not to the 'fever' in question, primarily, but to another factor. The disease may have been the instigating agent, the catalyst, if you will, for a tragic unfolding of events, but what really dooms these people is repeatedly poor and immoral judgement and behavior. They commit small (and sometimes not so small) immoral acts that pile up and snowball into tragedy. Above all, their poor judgement leads to their inability to work with each other as well as receive help from others. Their behavior isolates them and seals their fate.Here is partial list of outstanding or particularly memorable examples of such small and large immoralities that line the path to death for all involved:
1. Bert's hiding of the cigarettes: already we see he's willing to screw people (well, at least not to share/help) for his own benefit.
2. The old shopkeeper spouts blatantly shocking racial epithets: this sets the tone for their first-time meeting as very uncomfortable, a situation which soons escalates as below...
3. Bert tries to shoplift a Snickers bars: he is caught, but now all the shopkeepers distrust the whole group. The others reprimand Bert, but he tries to downplay it as 'nothing'; then, as they drive away, he shouts something about 'we oughta come back and burn the shack down, the racist fucks.'
*He should have apologized (of course), or better yet, his friends should have apologized for him.
3.5. Oh yeah: Bert's extreme stupidity and lack of caution with a live weapon.
4. Bert's extreme fear/self-concern prevents him from doing anything to help the man in the forest who he accidentally shot. He offers help in the beginning, but changes to giving threats when the man continues walking towards him (the man is probably delirious). Then, after the affair, he does nothing!...
*He could have kept his word, and gone to get help - loaded the guy in back of the truck (without coming in contact with him), then driven him into town and to a hospital... and the movie would have been over.
5. Bert has also let the fire burn unchecked, leading to Jeff and his g.f. to yell at him and further degrade camping-friendly feelings between all.
6. Henry returns, and just as the friends appear willing to drive him somewhere (they can't call for help, as they have no cell reception), Bert again ruins things by slamming the door and letting his excessive fear of contamination run rampant. Henry thens starts the car (why were the keys there???), they go out and immediately start to beat/stab him (why, Paul?), Bert shoots the truck, screwing it (very poor judgement), then Henry throws up infected blood all over the car. He exits, Paul hits him with the bat and smashes more windows (unnecessarily violent/antagonistic behavior, given that Henry never did anything violent at all), then Henry falls into his walking-foward-trance thing and spooks the girls, triggering Paul to light him on fire, soon engulfing him in flames and sending him screaming away.
*The friends should have overridden Bert immediately and driven Henry to town; next, they should have been calm, and tried to talk him out of the car, then driven him themselves; finally, they shouldn't have resorted to brute violence so quickly, but instead should have tried to restrain him somehow, or lead him towards the shed or somewhere else. Finally, even if they did light him on fire, they should have immediately followed to help him, to extinguish the flames, etc. Instead we presume they were all paralyzed with fear, or else they reasoned that he was as good as dead (which he was).
7. Bert immediately characterizes the tragedy as an 'accident,' and the group collectively decides it has done nothing wrong. They discuss the various lies they will tell police - if they will tell at all.
*This is only partially corrected later by the blonde girl (Jamie?), who puts it succinctly: "That man asked for our help. We LIT HIM ON FIRE." In general, this is the first BIG mistake, as the group decides to cover up this heinous, horrible event.
8. The butcheress assumes that Bert and Jeff are from her associate, and cusses them out while slicing open a living (?) pig: Not a good first impression. Creates an atmosphere of blame and hostility and violence from the start.
9. Then Bert and Jeff see the picture inside the house and realize that they killed Henry, the lady's cousin. Instead of trying to explain things, they LIE and start to make excuses, and finally leave without taking her offer of a ride into town. This effectively cuts off one possible escape for them - one of their options are instantly closed after this exchange.
*Of course, they should have come clean at this point, and even accepted the consequences for their action - and they would have ended up better off (namely, ALIVE) in the long run.
10. The brunette finds Bert and Jeff in an empty house, where Bert once again displays his lack of common sense by stealing and eating snacks, despite Jeff's open discouragement.
11. When the policeman arrives, Paul characterizes the event as an assault - an attempt to steal their truck, first and foremost, and simply closes with 'I guess we scared him off.' The policeman promises a tow-truck.
*Again, owning up to the facts - mentioning the disease, for example - would have saved lives. Likewise if Dewey (?) had remembered the truck as well (or gotten a backup after the first person died).
12. Jamie is infected and the Bert has a fit, yelling his head off and refusing to let the others near her. Sometime earlier, Jamie apparently discovered her infection (hence the blood all over the bathroom) but failed to tell anyone - first mistake.
*At this point, someone should have returned to the butcheress's house and asked for a ride to the hospital immediately. Why wouldn't they have done this???
13. Instead they seal her in the shed (rather cruelly), and lock her inside, displaying a general lack of compassion and pity. They make token attempts to comfort her, saying someone will be outside with her at all times, and that they will guard against the psycho killer dog on the loose....
*At this point, they again should have just concentrated on getting to a hospital ASAP.
14. Paul goes for help, but totally accidentally happens to stop in front of a window where a woman is naked inside - then when he's standing there like an idiot, he's caught, and although he tries to explain his dilemma to the husband, the latter is enraged and drives him off with a gun. Another possible rescue route destroyed thanks to immoral behavior.
*Paul could have saved everyone, possibly, if, at this point, he had fallen on his knees and begged the man to wait one second and hear his story. After all, it was a matter of life and death for Jamie - why not try his hardest even if there was a small chance this man could help get her to a hospital? If he had told his story truthfully, including the fact that he ogled the wife by accident, surely he wouldn't have been shot. At least the man might've gone to check on Paul's sick friend, even if he dropped Paul off at the jail on the way.
15. When Jamie is sullen and depressed (understandly), the brunette doesn't try to comfort her at all. There is no response to her taunt "You better close the door - you don't want to get sick." The lines of communication are destroyed. The betrayal and abandonment are now painfully clear.
16. They try to take Jamie into town, finally, but it is a bit too late... she is covered in blood, and throws up in the car, unfortunately. Bert then leaves with the car himself, and Jeff later runs away with beer, yelling at the brunette and Paul for having helped Jamie (what an asshole...). Good riddance.
*Why did they load her into the back seat of the truck, with the others riding next to her? I mean, compassion is one thing, but that was a bit stupid. Naturally they should have loaded Jamie with mattress and all onto the back bed, perhaps with one person to supervise - then, if she hadn't been standing and walking all that time, she probably wouldn't have thrown up, they all would've gone together to the hospital... end of story.
17. The old man at the story has an utterly twisted sense of logic, leading him to conclude that since his boy may be contaminated he will have to kill Bert (??). Of course, his feelings are undoubtedly influenced by Bert's earlier delinquent behavior.
*Instead of running away, however, Bert should've stayed and tried to talk the old man down. Seems like it would have been readily possible, since his leap from guarded friendliness to homicidal maniac was so sudden and illogical.
17.5 Of course, why leave your psycho kid who bites people out in the front of a public store? Even after this has already been pointed out to you by an asshole like Jeff? On the other hand, Bert should have been more careful with this kid - after all, he saw him bite Paul earlier.
18. (earlier) Paul and the brunette lay down and f*ck instead of doing anything useful. This in fact accelerates the disease symptoms in the brunette.
19. Paul murders the 3 men who come for Bert.
*Although he didn't have much choice, going out of his way to impale the last one and jamming the screwdriver in the head of the 2nd one was perhaps a little over the top. He could have immobilized them or similarly tied them up instead turning one involuntary manslaughter case into quadruple-murder. This act feels like the final immorality that damns Paul for good.
20. Paul went on from there to the underage party... first mistake: the policeman is there partying, not doing his duty and forgetting about the tow truck.
*Again, this would have saved everyone early on.
21. The police on the scanner describe a murder spree and disease, saying to shoot the youngsters on sight. Surely this response was waaay too extreme.
*A better bulletin could simply have warned about them being sick and contagious, and perhaps armed/dangerous, without ordering them to shoot them on sight (especially if they were unarmed, like Paul).
22. The hippie guitarist, who has just met Paul, immediately yells at the officer to shoot him - how cold and unfeeling is that? What a bastard.
23. Of course Paul had been careless enough to hit a deer in the road (simply bad luck, hey?) and then slow enough to sit still for a few minutes while it bled on him, making him look like an insane serial killer on a murder spree.
24. Paul and the partiers resort to violence again, although who started it was unclear. This results in one partier heavily contaminated - the partiers then drive off, of course spreading the infection - and the death of one or two of them. The policeman is also knocked out, which leads to worse things down the road).
* Paul, knowing very well the potential for misunderstandings and violent tragedies with this sort of situation, should have taken a cautious approach. If he had handled himself differently, surely he could have convinced the policeman to ride in the back of a car, unarmed and not in contact with anyone, just for a ride to the hospital. How hard would that have been? He could have explained, immediately after the radio message, that it had been a misunderstanding and he was in fact very sick, not a serial killer at heart (well, not EXACTLY, but killing the 3 was pretty damn damning).
25. The police and doctors ask none of the right questions, or else Paul is too delirious to mention the simple word "WATER." As a result, the tragedy of his circle is expanded (or the circle of tragedy is expanded?), perhaps to spread to the ends of Earth?...
*Of course they should have asked 'how is it spread?'
26. The policeman vengefully dumps Paul into the river, perhaps after killing him. This selfish act leads to the (further) contamination of the water supply.
*The doctors and other policeman who didn't bother to confirm Paul's arrival are also at fault here. Clearly with such an important patient the destination hospital would have been notified....
27. The cops shoot Jeff on sight, without any question as to his health or sanity. In fact, he seemed pretty darn normal when they shoot him something like 16 times. Instead of having a survivor to warn others and help elucidate the disease origin/properties, they gunned down an innocent (although total asshole) boy. (Interesting parallel to Night of the Living Dead, though).
28. Then the cops go to celebrate and take a break after their 'hard work' (you would think they'd be in no mood to socialize, or at least slightly disturbed over the fact that they just shot and killed a young man.
29. Finally, everyone parties and dances and drinks lemonade and the big national water shipping company drives by, all under the hanging pamphlets reading 'health alert,' which, perhaps, no one bothered to read. Oh well.
*Of course, you would hope that the water company, upon reading of the health alert, would cancel or at least suspend their shipments from the very area in which the outbreak occurred... but somehow I think they won't.
30. Perhaps this was because there was no formal report of where the outbreak occurred - perhaps the 3 policeman who killed Jeff simply tried to cover things up, just as the camping group had done much earlier.
Aaaand that's about it.