Cabin in the Woods

"That's not fair! I had zombies too!"

"Yes, you had 'Zombies,' but this is 'Zombie Redneck Torture Family.' Entirely separate thing. It's like the difference between an elephant and an elephant seal."

Cabin in the Woods was a great surprise. Given the pedigree behind the movie, my hopes probably should have been higher, but the trailers looked terrible and I just couldn't bring myself to be excited for this movie. Once the critics started raving about how good it was and I heard that it was more than what it seemed, my interest was piqued again, and I am very happy I gave it a second look.

Cabin in the Woods is not a horror movie, and is unclassifiable by normal genre conventions. The best I can do is say it is a horror movie satire with some scary moments, but to define it any further would ruin the movie. This movie's main draw is the eventual discovery of what it is really about, and I wouldn't dream of talking about that here. The movie is the invention of Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon, who worked together for years on  Buffy and Angel. Goddard went on to direct the successful Cloverfield and once again takes the directing helm here, while Joss Whedon serves as co-producer and co-writer. Between this and Cloverfield, Goddard has proven himself as someone to keep an eye out for.

The film begins with a group of college students heading out to a remote cabin in the woods for the weekend. They get lost, encounter a creepy man at a gas station who gives them vague warnings about the cabin, finally get there, start partying, and strange things start happening. It sounds like every horror movie you have ever seen, but that is part of the gag. Even the trailers for the movie are in on the joke. Suffice to say, if you are looking for a horror movie to scare the pants off you, you should look elsewhere. There are a handful of scary moments, but they are scattered amongst such absurdity that most of their impact is lost. 

Cabin in the Woods stars Kristen Connolly, tennis-player turned actress, who does a fine job here and this should definitely earn her some more roles (she stars in another horror, The Bay, coming in November). You will also find a non-Thor-looking Chris Hemsworth and several TV actors rounding out the other chracters. The cherry on top is Richard Jenkins, whose credibility is required to deliver some of the more ridiculous plot explanations, and the final twist of the film is delivered with a fantastic cameo.

This movie is completely bananas and is entirely aware of it. There are scenes in this movie where I could almost hear the writers sitting around in a room high-fiving each other over how awesome it was going to be. Cabin in the Woods makes fun of the last thirty years of Hollywood horror movies, more recent Japanese thrillers, and all of the silly tropes that we have come to accept from this genre. This movie serves as the perfect cap to what appears to be a dying genre that is starved for any breath of creativity (hence the success of the recent Paranormal Activity films). It will be hard to go back and watch any of the movies that Cabin in the Woods makes fun of without thinking of this film, and that's exactly the point.