The Cabin in the Woods Review

When reviewing movies, a critic finds him- or herself strangely bound.  In discussing the strengths and weaknesses of a given film, it's necessary to pinpoint specific examples of said extremes in discussing whether a movie is worth seeking out or not.  This often involves mentioning particularly effective scenes, memorable bits of dialogue, or evocative shots or edits.  Thus, in reading reviews, movie-goers do themselves something of a disservice (assuming they read the reviews before seeing the movie for themselves). 

Personally, I think it's helpful - perhaps even advisable - to check aggregate scores on sites like Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic before seeing a movie, just so you can get your expectations in check.  Knowing whether a movie tends to please or repel critics can be a good way to get yourself in the right mindset for the picture.  However, by actually reading reviews, some of the best and worst of the movie is ruined, and thus, some of the surprise is gone, which may not affect one's opinion of a movie, but will certainly have an impact on one's enjoyment while watching it.  A good recent example is how widely publicized it was that Ben Kingsley was portraying Georges Melies in Martin Scorsese's Hugo, a plot twist that failed to be a twist because of the widespread reporting on the matter.

So, I find myself in a bit of a situation when writing these reviews for my friends' and followers' reading pleasure, but never so much as I do now, when considering Drew Goddard's The Cabin in the Woods.  The horror tale has long been one of the films I've "adopted" here on Such Moving Pictures, getting more excited with each new poster and trailer along the way.  As a huge Buffy fan, any project involving Joss Whedon (who produced and co-wrote the film) takes on an especially attractive shine of anticipation and promised glory, so my excitement was piqued from the moment I first learned of the film.

When it premiered a couple weeks back at SXSW in Austin, reactions were impassioned and, perhaps strangely, somewhat muted.  The audience was asked to spread the word about how great the movie is without spoiling the twists, turns, and jokes that made the movie such a memorable experience.  After the early screening I attended last week, Goddard and star Kristen Conolly asked us to do the same.  So, this review is something of a non-review, in that I will attempt to be as vague as possible while also attempting to communicate what a fully-wrought delight The Cabin in the Woods is.

Goddard, who has written for shows such as Buffy, Alias, Lost, and Angel, as well as the shaky-cam monster fest Cloverfield, makes an astounding directorial debut.  He and Whedon set out to craft a film that pays homage to a genre they both love: horror.  In crafting the screenplay, Goddard and Whedon started by throwing everything they love into the story.  What could be a busy mess ends up being a raucous homage to literally an entire genre.  Every sort of horror movie is accounted for in some way, and new sources of terror are explored in unique fashion.  It's a sort of mad parade that was probably just as fun to make as it is for us to watch.

Even more notable than the horror elements is the wit, which should come as no surprise to fans of the Whedonverse.  The film elicits more laughs than screams, and none of them come cheaply.  This is comedy at its most whip-smart, finding humor in the tropes of horror as well as in characters who are both archetypal and strongly drawn.  Dollhouse alum Fran Kranz steals scenes as conspiracy theorist/stoner Marty, who has a hunch something is going on long before the body count starts piling up.  Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford provide a hilarious chorus as scientists who watch the carnage unfold.  They play so well together and help to contextualize the film within the larger horror genre, creating a self-aware portrait that is reminiscent of Funny Games without being difficult to watch.

(The combination of the haunted cabin and sterile laboratory settings give the film a Buffy Season 4 vibe, but the result is much less divisive than that portion of the Slayer's story.)

The film is perfectly paced, starting with a group of characters who feel instantly familiar and building to a much larger scope.  There's a lot to be explained, and the film manages to do so without ever being expository.  The grand finale, with its final revelations, provides one of the film's most welcome surprises, one of many moments that garnered an enthusiastic round of applause from our enraptured audience.

For fear of giving anything away, I pull myself away from the keyboard and implore you to see this movie.  The marketing campaign paints The Cabin in the Woods as a fairly typical horror movie with some underlying sci-fi mythology, and while that's part of the puzzle, there's so much more to it.  Here we have a movie that fuses the disparate worlds of fantasy and technology, and does so in such a brilliantly funny, sexy, and scary manner, that it's hard to imagine a movie that is more perfectly catered to its built-in fan base, who will eat it up and ask for more.  I know I can't wait to take in a second viewing.

And really, we're lucky we even get to see it.  The Cabin in the Woods was set to release almost three years ago, but due to MGM filing for bankruptcy, the film was shelved indefinitely.  At times, it looked like it might never see the light of day.  But here we are, just weeks away from its theatrical release, and I'm happy to say whole-heartedly that it was utterly worth the wait.