I'm going to start this review right now by saying there is really no way to talk about this film without spoiling it. So what I'll say to the curious is go see it. The movie starts out as a standard horror flick with five teens heading into the woods alone, and evolves in ways you would never have anticipated. There, now go see it. Even non-horror fans will get a kick out of it. So, spoilers ahead. You've been warned.
Ok, so now into the Cabin in the Woods, the new (relative term, really) film co-written and produced by Joss Whedon (who's Avengers just smashed the weekend box office with $200 million) and co-written and directed by Drew Goddard (who penned Cloverfield). I say relatively new because this film was supposed to be released two years ago, but MGM's bankruptcy forced the movie to be shelved until now. But finally, its out.
The movie starts out as two parallel stories. One involves the five teenagers, which include the whore (Anna Hutchinson), the Virgin (Kristen Connolly), the stoner (Fran Kanz), the jock (Chris Hemsworth), and the sweet slightly nerdy guy (Jesse Williams), heading out to someone's cousin's cabin in the woods for a weekend away from school. On the way they stop at a threatening gas station, where a creepy redneck is quite unfriendly. You've in all likelihood seen this movie before.
The second involves Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford as two white-collar workers whose business seems at first to be ambiguous, but soon you realize they are more connected to the teenagers then previously believed. In fact, they are leading this teenagers right into the very horror film we're expecting to see.
Its this twist that provides the film with a new, fun aspect. Sure, the characters are murdered one by one, but watching Jenkins and Whitford banter while this is all going on, placing bets on which monster they will unleash and the like, is what keeps this movie afloat through its middle half. Normally this would be enough for a horror film, but Whedon and Goddard take it one step further and actually have two remaining characters unearth this conspiracy. And then what happens is almost too hard to describe.
The movie is not without its flaws. There is some genuine tension in the horror film that gets interrupted by our puppet masters; there are convenient plot devices used to get an easy laugh (a gas makes one character change his mind from a stick together plan to a split up plan); and in the end, there's a big, red purge button that unleashes all the horror monsters you've imagined onto the people running the show.
Early on, the five characters descend into the basement of the Cabin and discover a whole series of crazy trinkets, which when handled a certain way, will unleash a particular monster. It is unfortunate that, in an homage to Evil Dead, a latin phrase is read from a book unleashing a Zombie Red Neck Family. Apparently a Merman is on the menu, and I would have preferred the film maybe not taking us on a retread of Friday the 13th.
At the same time, the patient ones are rewarded by a cornucopia of monsters being unleashed in the end, and Whedon and Goddard set out to make every horror film ever made. Its a mass frenzy of beautiful chaos that you don't quite believe while you're seeing.
I should also mention the reason this is all happening: an angry god demands the suffering and sacrifice of five young people every year, or else it will rise up and end humanity. And so the movie poses a serious ethical question: what happens to these kids is horrible, but at the same time, its what has to happen for humanity to be saved.
The movie also touches lightly on our carnal need for blood. We are, at our core, a violent species that used to send Gladiators into the arena to die for our amusement. Now technology can satisfy that urge in less destructive ways, whether it be through video games or horror movies. But what inherent pleasure is there in seeing young people gutted and murdered horribly? I admit to Evil Dead being my favorite of this type of film, but whats the point? How can we be so entertained by something so awful?
Cabin in the Woods is an enormously refreshing take on horror, a blend of Truman Show and Scream taken about as far as you can go. Yes, the movie isn't perfect. But I can forgive the imperfections of a film that kept me guessing as to how much the limits would be pushed. About as far as you can imagine.
