The Cabin In The Woods Review
The Cabin In The Woods is a science fiction comedy horror movie, directed by Drew Goddard and written by Joss Whedon. It starts with a very familiar formula. Five college students go on vacation to a cabin deep in the woods. However, the cabin isn't an ordinary one, and beneath it lies a scientific laboratory headed by two technology experts ( Bradley Whitford and Richard Jenkins ).
They monitor everything and even push buttons or adjust levers to influence the fate of the college students. The laboratory is part of a worldwide organization, that sends horror characters ( Zombies, Werewolves, Ghosts, etc... ) to controlled areas in order to utilize the victims as a sort of sacrifice to feed ancient gods.
The movie can be compared to a ''loving hate letter'' to horror movies because it is an experiment on the genre itself. The lab and its workers can be compared to directors and writers who are changing things to see what the characters will do. Therefore the Whitford and Jenkins characters represent writer Whedon and director Goddard.
Whedon: ...it's a serious critique of what we love and what we don't about horror movies. I love being scared. I love that mixture of thrill, of horror, that objectification/identification thing of wanting definitely for the people to be all right but at the same time hoping they'll go somewhere dark and face something awful. The things that I don't like are kids acting like idiots, the devolution of the horror movie into torture porn, and into a long series of sadistic comeuppances. Drew and I both felt that the pendulum had swung a little too far in that direction.
The movie offers a refreshing and unique concept to see for a movie that got a wide theatrical release. It's quite surprising that a film like this aired in so many cinemas because of the distinctive idea and plot which at surface level seems simple but offers various interpretations. This was clearly a movie that was made out of love for the genre rather than for financial success.
One of the biggest things Cabin In The Woods lacks is suspense. Right at the beginning of the movie, the audience is introduced to the lab, so we constantly know what's about to happen. We know that the college students are stuck with the zombies and do not have any way of escaping because everything is controlled by the scientific laboratory. This somewhat ruins the suspense and things aren't as exciting because the audience knows that everything is predetermined.
The Cabin In The Woods is an interesting deconstruction and parody of slasher horror tropes and shouldn't be taken too seriously. It's not scary, nor is it super funny but it offers an interesting view of horror movies and their clichés.
