By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Drew Goddard
Starring: Anna Hutchison | Chris Hemsworth | Fran Kranz | Jesse Williams | Kristen Connolly | Richard Jenkins
Country: united_states
Year: 2012
Running time: 95
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1259521/
Thom says: “Being a huge Josh Whedon fan (I’ve loved ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’, ‘Dollhouse’, ‘Firefly’, ‘Angel’, SERENITY, & hopefully THE AVENGERS I naturally had to see this with his participation in this horror film. First rate production and clever angle to the horror genre was not executed with enough flair. I had expected to love it and while fascinated throughout it was a little too flip for what I expected. Whedon stalwarts peppered up the proceedings but finally it was more of a slap against the genre rather than an homage. 4 cats”
Peter S. says: “Another movie about a bunch of college students piling into a car and driving out to an isolated cabin in the woods, for a weekend of drinking, sex, and debauchery, only to be violently murdered one by one by an evil something-or-other? They couldn’t even come up with an original title! This genre is completely played out!
“If anything along these lines has run through your head that might cause you to brush this movie off, I urge you to keep reading and reconsider! What we have here is writer/producer Joss Whedon‘s response to ‘the de-evolution of the horror movie into torture porn, and into a long series of sadistic comeuppances.’ In the very first scene, this movie plants a seed–letting you know that something more grandiose is at work here. Our main characters fit the horror movie trope appearance-wise, but it is clear that they all have more going on upstairs. Then, we get to the cabin and start going down what seems to be this very contrived, over-used path yet again, all the while this seed continues to slowly blossom. There were a couple of times where I started to lose faith. I thought, ‘I’ve been tricked! They told me this movie was going to be different than all the rest, but that was just a
lie to get me to choke down some popcorn while they’re laughing all the way to the bank!’ Any gardener (or Axl Rose) will tell you that ‘we just need a little patience.’
“As with any horror movie, good or bad, there are BM-worthy jump scares, some stomach-turning violence, and surprises galore. What is refreshing is that it doesn’t RELY on any one of these things to make the movie work. Even now, knowing the mystery behind the lone cabin, I can easily see myself being drawn into the intricate web that this movie spins. Along the way, we get the plot payoffs that keep it accessible, giving us one small piece of the puzzle at a time, as well as this great sense of humor that has just the perfect amount of self-awareness. Each jab at the genre gets a well-deserved laugh without taking away from the realism of the characters. Fran Kranz, who plays Marty, the lovable stoner, adds a touch of levity to some really tense scenes and, in my opinion, was the standout of the movie. Where Tucker and Dale vs. Evil was the perfect blend of horror into comedy, THE CABIN IN THE WOODS is inverse. What I find most interesting is the dichotomy that exists in this movie. There are these two stories going on, the least interesting of which takes place in the movie’s namesake. The second story is hinted at in the trailer but to go into any detail would likely be a major spoiler. Just believe me when I say that this part of the story is the shining glory of this movie.
“The movie isn’t without fault. If it was, it most definitely wouldn’t have been sitting in a vault for the last 4 years. This movie has been on my radar since it was shot way back in 2009, but got shelved indefinitely when MGM filed for bankruptcy. It has been shrouded in mystery for all this time and then in 2011, Lionsgate bought the rights to it and released it to the masses. It’s probably fortunate that it hadn’t come out under MGM because then-unknown actor Chris Hemsworth didn’t make his rise to stardom until Thor last year. While it was believable for him to bounce back from a major beating in that movie, it’s harder to accept here. Our protagonists quickly recover from knife wounds and bear traps with no physical repercussions other than blood-stained clothes.
“I walked out of the theater and I was stuck behind this mother and what appeared to be her pre-teen son and daughter. They were all going on about how ‘this was stupid,’ or ‘that didn’t make any sense,’ and I couldn’t help but think ‘No…you missed the point.’ This film is very clear in its thesis statement. The current state of the horror genre is done to death so maybe it would be best to flush it all down the toilet and start from scratch. Maybe it’s time we gave someone else a try. At the risk of over-selling this movie, I will go so far as to say that this is the movie that every other horror movie for the next 20 years will be measured up against. Stop what you are doing. Don’t read anything else about the movie or talk to anyone at the risk of having it spoiled for you. Go to the nearest movie theater and see THE CABIN IN THE WOODS today!”
If you enjoyed Peter’s review, visit his website, The Big Brown Chair.