Director: Drew Goddard
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Rating: A
I didn’t really know what to expect going
into this movie. I’m not really a fan of
horror films in general, and the trailers to this kind of suggested (at least
to me) that it was a slash and kill type movie.
Not really my thing. As such I
really delayed going to see this movie, but finally went for two reasons: 1) I
really like the cast and 2) it came out of the mind of Joss Whedon. While Whedon has his fair share of misses,
I’m pretty much always willing to give him a chance, no matter how many times
he disappoints me. I’m very pleased to
report that in The Cabin in the Woods
Whedon does not disappoint.
There are two basic premises to this
film. The one depicted in the trailers
is that a group of university students go out to a cabin where they somehow
trigger some kind of killing spree and end up all dying horribly violent and
bloody deaths. The second one, that is
set up very quickly, is that these university students are actually a part of
some kind of operation as conducted out by a bunch of people in suits. While they are not the ones doing any of the
actual killings, they do control the setting and are able manipulate the
protagonists into fulfilling the requirements of the operation. They are even
able to manipulate their personalities, through the release of pheromones, causing
them to fill the horror movie five-man band of the Whore (Hutchinson), Athlete
(Hemsworth), Scholar (Williams), Fool (Kranz), and Virgin (Connolly). As is typical in a horror movie, their lives
all go to shit as the operation progresses and they unwittingly release the Zombie
Redneck Torture Family. That is actually
what they’re called in the movie.
This film is actually really well done. It’s more than just a horror movie; it’s a
deconstruction of horror movies. Rather
than simply sending the protagonists to a cabin where they’re systematically killed
off by the redneck zombies there is more to this film. It takes you out of that simple setting and
shows you just why all these torture porn flicks happen. The premise of the
film is awesome because it provided some reason as to why the whole thing
happened – which to me is somewhat of a rarity in horror films. I loved the humour of this film. It’s very dark and twisted, exactly what you
would expect to come from Whedon. There
are a few brick jokes and a lot of things that are brought up earlier in the
film are referenced later. There is a
lot of continuity in the film as well; the redneck zombies are of the fast moving,
hard to kill type, and this is continued on later. The acting is also amazing. Once again, I saw this movie in part because of
the cast – Thor, Topher, Avery, Fred – I admit, I did spend a chunk of the
movie referring to the characters by these names, and at one point had a mantra
of “don’t kill Thor!” The movie is dark
and gruesome and bloody. It’s also funny
and thought provoking. The ending is
also amazingly well done. While I did
think that it was a little slow at points, particularly in the beginning, I
thought that overall it was awesome.
This is one of the best films I’ve seen this year.
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