Not that there aren’t bare breasts, cheap thrills and a blood-orgy of gore — what else do you expect when you send a bunch of college kids into the sticks for a little countrified fun? Cabin in the Woods chews on this moldy cinematic trope that’s fueled movies for decades, from Deliverance to Don’t Go in the Woods to The Blair Witch Project, then regurgitates it all with a peculiar relish that testifies to the moviemakers’ love of genre film.
You already know the story, or at least part of it. Five archetypical students — the jock, the scholar, the virgin, the whore and the fool — pile into an RV for a weekend of fun. They head for a cousin’s cabin, which is conveniently located off the grid. Along the way they stop at a decrepit filling station operated by a creepy weirdo, and that’s just the beginning.
There’s the dark cabin, the almost-definitely-doomed blonde, the creaky stairs leading to a dank cellar that could double as the devil’s antique shop — even the inevitable sexy-weird game of truth or dare. But all these standard-issue horror motifs get slyly turned on their horned little heads as Cabin spins up into something bigger, and far better, than a lowest-common-denominator slasher flick.
It’s nerve-wracking at times, but in terms of tone, it’s far more Evil Dead than Saw. And that’s a good thing.
[Spoiler alert: Plot points follow.]
This goes far beyond a twist ending. In the trailer — and, indeed from the very beginning of the R-rated film, which opens Friday — we see that somebody is behind the scenes, pushing the buttons, monitoring and manipulating the nightmare unfolding for the group of friends. Aside from effectively moving Cabin into the rich realm of meta-horror, the plot provides plenty of opportunities for dark humor. Even the gas station’s tobacco-chewing hillbilly harbinger of doom, who prattles on about appeasing the “ancient ones,” gets pranked.
That black take on the movie’s bleak events makes Cabin in the Woods bubble with energy. For that you can thank co-writers Joss Whedon [The Avengers] and Drew Goddard, who douse the film with witty banter, creative twists and [eventually] boatloads of blood. Cabin should thrill Whedon fans, who’ll thrive on the clippy, quippy dialog that lifted Firefly and Buffy the Vampire Slayer to cult status. [Whedon and longtime co-conspirator Goddard, who makes his directing debut with the film, wrote the script in three frenzied days, cramming their horror film with self-aware humor.]
The actors bringing all that witty banter to life do a fine job, with Chris Hemsworth doling out the kind of meathead charm he brought to Thor and the fetching Anna Hutchison milking her turn as the requisite “horror-movie whore.” Dollhouse’ s Fran Kranz plays the fool — a stoner with the world’s coolest stealth bong — and his dope-smoking philosopher is more cerebral than Spicoli [and not as eternally funny and memorable, although his more subtle approach serves the story better than a broader caricature would have].
Veteran actors Richard Jenkins [The Visitor, Six Feet Under] and Bradley Whitford [The West Wing] nail the bureaucratic malaise of seen-it-all drones pulling strings behind the scenes, and a surprise cameo toward the end should put a smile on the face of any genre fans who haven’t had it spoiled for them by witless movie critics.
Ultimately, Cabin in the Woods is not really about the acting. It’s about horror movies, what they can be and, to some extent, what they’ve become in an era of endless sequels and cloned concepts. [Whedon called the film a “very loving hate letter” to the genre in an interview with Total Film.]
At the risk of over-hyping the film, here’s what Cabin in the Woods is not. It’s not predictable. It’s not stupid. And it’s not a dreary exercise in torture porn.
Instead, it is a smart, sarcastic and deliriously fun journey into the belly of the horror beast — and probably the only movie you’ll ever wish could be delivered in a “choose your own adventure” style on Blu-ray.
In other words, it’s the Joss Whedon horror movie you always wanted.
WIRED Speakerphone prank; electrified fourth wall; elevator from hell; crafty Japanese schoolgirls; best office pool ever.
This Looks Familiar: If Curt [Chris Hemsworth], Holden [Jesse Williams], Jules [Anna Hutchison], Marty [Fran Kranz] and Dana [Kristen Connolly] resemble the cardboard cut-out college students who prove expendable in so many horror movies — well, that's intentional. Diyah Pera/Lionsgate hide caption
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Diyah Pera/Lionsgate
Cabin In The Woods
- Director: Drew Goddard
- Genre: Horror, Thriller
- Running Time: 95 minutes
Rated R for strong bloody horror violence and gore, language, drug use and some sexuality/nudity
With: Kristen Connelly, Chris Hemsworth, Fran Kranz, Richard Jenkins
[Recommended]
Are we in the right theater? That was the first fleeting thought that went through my head during the opening few seconds of Drew Goddard's Cabin in the Woods, as Steve and Richard [Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford] — two middle-aged, middle-management types — engage in banal conversation over a water cooler, in what appears to be a quasi-military scientific facility. Didn't we show up to see attractive young people getting killed creatively in a rustic, natural setting?
But soon enough, we're presented with the good-looking collegians we expected: They're all meeting up at the house of Dana [Kristen Connolly] for a weekend off the grid, packing into an RV to head to a remote mountain retreat. Even before they make their debut, though, it's clear this is the right movie: There's no mistaking the familiar tone of producer and co-writer Joss Whedon's trademark witty banter in that opening scene.
From there, things proceed, on one level, exactly as expected: some quick expository banter in the RV to establish the characters, a stop at a rundown gas station that seems drawn equally from Deliverance and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and eventual arrival at the cabin, shot to evoke the Evil Dead series.
In the basement of the house, during a game of truth or dare [of course], the gang find a collection of creepy trinkets, baubles and assorted ephemera that looks like a horror-movie attic sale: sepia-toned photos of a long-dead family; a diary describing their violent past; blank-eyed porcelain dolls and puzzle boxes. Each one is a portent of bad things about to happen, which only the group's resident stoner conspiracy theorist, Marty [Whedon regular Fran Kranz] seems to realize.
The catch is that as this crew of slightly too-stereotypical archetypes goes through the horror movie motions, their every move is being monitored by Steve and Richard back at that facility, along with an army of supporting staffers and technicians, both observing and working to influence the proceedings. Nothing in this film is quite what it seems.
A horror-movie attic sale is, in essence, exactly what Cabin in the Woods is, an attempt to exorcise the genre of its formulaic possession by stuffing the movie full of its most overused and predictable elements — and then dumping them through clever skewering.
It would be unfair to speak in any kind of detail about the precise nature of the interaction between the cabin and the observers, or about some of the crazy images that Goddard manages to put onscreen during the chaos of the film's completely insane climax. I will say that I was watching through tears of laughter flowing so freely that I probably didn't even catch the entire parade of the bizarre in that sequence.
But part of the pleasure of this movie — one of a great many pleasures, as it's the most entertaining and satisfying horror movie I've seen in a long while — is to see how that relationship unfolds, and to be completely surprised by those images. Goddard and Whedon have created a wonderful puzzle of a film that is loving in its appreciation of good horror, even as it takes the genre [and its blood-lusty audience] to task for the unimaginative banality that has been too typical of recent scary movies.
There's a serious and smart critique here, and life-or-death stakes that only come from characters one genuinely cares about — a neat trick, given that they're set up to be so generic. But Whedon, the creator of a vampire slayer named Buffy, has always excelled at clever one-liners set against backdrops of unspeakable and ancient evil. Goddard, in his first turn as director, matches the verbal wit with memorable visual set-pieces that are as hilarious as they are horrific.
It's true that the symbolic connections drawn here aren't exactly subtle, but subtlety in subtext has rarely been the prerogative of even the best horror. Neither is the movie particularly scary, but that's not the aim here, either. Whedon and Goddard create a self-contained universe that plays by its own rules to serve its own critical agenda, and does so with smarts and skill.
For all of its intellectual pleasures, though, Cabin in the Woods is a visceral roller coaster of a movie at heart. And like the best thrill rides, when it's over, you just want to get back on and go again. [Recommended]
What is the message behind cabin in the woods?
The film satirizes horror movie tropes, depicting horror movie monsters as interchangeable and mocking the conventions of the genre. The climax of the film serves as a commentary on horror movies as a whole, with the protagonists outwitting the organization but ultimately losing to the monsters.
Why is cabin in the woods so popular?
The Cabin in the Woods is a satirical horror film that celebrates and critiques the tropes and clichés of the genre in the early-2000s. Despite being a critique, the film successfully stands on its own, earning critical acclaim and audience support, with awards and high scores on Rotten Tomatoes.
Is The Cabin in the Woods a good movie?
A self-aware twist on haunted cottage slashers, the movie contains a lot of secrets, and oh-what-fun the audience will have discovering them in this funny, shocking, and intriguing arena. Leave it to Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard to take the genre, turn it on its head, and give it a good shake.
What is the plot to cabin in the woods?
When five college friends [Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams] arrive at a remote forest cabin for a little vacation, little do they expect the horrors that await them. One by one, the youths fall victim to backwoods zombies, but there is another factor at play. Two scientists [Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford] are manipulating the ghoulish goings-on, but even as the body count rises, there is yet more at work than meets the eye.The Cabin in the Woods / Film synopsisnull