Amusing thriller subverts the horror genre in a way that is wholly appreciated. Five friends on a vacation take a trip in an RV up to the proverbial cabin in the woods. There’s the stock archetypes: The Athlete, The Whore, The Scholar, The Fool, and The Virgin. Well, at least they embody those stereotypes at first glance. Soon after they arrive they begin playing Truth or Dare. Then bad things start happening. This was directed by Drew Goddard who was the scribe behind Cloverfield. His frequent collaborator Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel) writes and produces here so you know this isn’t going to be a straightforward idea. The Cabin in the Woods was shot in 2009 and then shelved until April 2012 due to the financial difficulties of parent studio MGM. Lionsgate ultimately stepped in and purchased distribution rights. Luckily the oft delayed release date has nothing to do with the quality of the picture. What starts out as your basic clichéd setup evolves into something much more unpredictable. It’s a nifty little film, but the details of what happens next is something best discovered by watching the movie.
Most of the events are rather standard horror action on the surface with a modified twist. The general milieu is stridently self aware. Tension builds and is then diffused with humor. So The Cabin in the Woods is essentially a horror comedy. It’s rarely scary, but it is genuinely funny and much more intelligent than the films it’s satirizing. It spoofs clichés so as to expose them. It’s a fine line however. There’s always the danger that the story may fall victim to the very targets it’s parodying. There are moments where the proceedings adhere so religiously to genre conventions that it indeed succumbs to those traps. We’re going to go have sex in the woods, not because we‘re lustful, but because we want to show how stupid kids always do that sort of thing in these types of flicks. As long as we’re watching teens getting naked, I’m not sure there’s really a difference. Likewise, the cast comes off as your run-of-the-mill attractive twenty-somethings, but special mention must go to actor Fran Kranz as Marty, the requisite burnout. He somehow takes a character that could have been an annoyance (and is at first) and turns him into someone engaging.
The Cabin in the Woods is closer to a horror spoof than anything resembling actual terror. Yes, this is one of those oh-so hip-it-hurts movies that deconstructs the genre much in the same way that Scream played with conventions back in 1996. This is the horror of the new millennium. Updated and revised. Scream was scarier. Cabin’s plot is so wrapped up in tongue in cheek sensibility that the half hearted attempts to build suspense are routinely undercut with laughs and sarcasm. It’s pretty smug. Yet if Scream was more frightening, The Cabin in the Woods is smarter. The script goes further as it questions society’s ease with violence as entertainment. True, that isn’t a concept that is as original as the filmmakers seem to think it is, but gosh if it isn’t compelling as all get out. A polarizing work – this has become the darling of critics and fanboys alike much to the puzzlement of mainstream tastes. What really takes this to the next level is the final third that quite frankly, blew my mind. It follows through on what it sets up in a most satisfying way. Again I won’t reveal anything here. Let’s just say that it’s a dazzling display.
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