Former Fresno resident Nadine Crocker gets ‘Cabin Fever’

Nadine Crocker admits that she isn’t the bravest person you’ll ever meet. But that hasn’t stopped her from being such a fan of horror movies that when she moved to Los Angeles to be an actor, her big dream was to make a film in the genre.

It’s taken a few years of small roles on TV and in independent films, but Crocker, who attended Clovis West, has finally gotten her wish. She’s starring in the remake of Eli Roth’s “Cabin Fever.” The original film was released in 2002.

The IFC Midnight movie about five friends whose trip to a cabin turns into a deadly battle with a flesh-eating virus will be in selected theaters and available On Demand starting Friday, Feb. 12. At this time, no local theater is showing the movie.

“I remember seeing the original film when I was a child. There was a surreal moment when we were filming and I was doing the bathtub scene that I remembered how much the scene had scared me. I couldn’t shave my legs for a week after seeing it,” Crocker says.

“Cabin Fever” is one of three movies that Crocker has coming out this year. She previously starred in the Up cable channel romance film “Rodeo and Juliet” and can be seen in the gritty independent film “ToY” set to start hitting film circuits in March.

This success has been the result of a lot of hard work by the actress who lived in the central San Joaquin Valley from age 4 until 17. She was born in Nashville because her father, Bob Crocker, was in Music City chasing a career as a musician.

It was her father’s music career that got Crocker interested in acting. She would sit with her father as he wrote and played music. When they would watch country music videos together, Crocker always wanted to be “the girl in the story.”

After her family moved to Sacramento and then Fresno when her mother, HaLenda Crocker, got a job here, Crocker started a modeling career – doing both print and TV commercials. She was in the third grade when she signed with an agency in San Francisco.

Crocker worked for several years for companies in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Fresno. At the same time she was participating in the drama program at Clovis West. She finally moved to Los Angeles and made a living working in restaurants and doing behind-the-scenes jobs on small films.

Crocker began to land roles on “Hannah Montana,” “No Ordinary Family,” “10 Things I Hate About You” and “Castle.” “Cabin Fever” is both one of her biggest breaks and one of her favorites because of it being a horror movie. Crocker got her first big opportunity to work with special effects makeup.

It took more than five hours for her to get the full body makeup needed to show her battle with the virus. Because the prosthetics covered her head-to-toe, front and back, Crocker couldn’t sit down. They gave her a stool she could lean against.

One of the good things about how much makeup she had to wear was that while her character was supposed to be naked, the prosthetics covered some very strategic areas.

“When I first looked at the makeup I thought ‘This is awesome.’ But, later on I caught a glimpse in a mirror of what they had done to my lower half and it made me a little nauseous,” Crocker says. “The hardest part ended up being the filming outside because it was so cold and then being zipped up in a body bag.”

This wasn’t the first time Crocker had gotten ill during a shoot. “Rodeo and Juliet” was filmed in New Orleans during the middle of summer. That would have been hot enough but the movie was set during Christmas and she faced the high heat while wrapped up like it was winter.

Those are small prices to pay for being able to do the career she’s wanted all her life. And, it’s even better now that she’s broken into the horror genre.

This story was originally published February 11, 2016 at 2:01 AM with the headline "Former Fresno resident Nadine Crocker gets ‘Cabin Fever’."