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My Rating:
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REVIEWED: The Cabin in the Woods (2012)
Starring: Kristen Connolly | Chris Hemsworth | Anna Hutchison | Fran Kranz | Jesse Williams | Richard Jenkins | Bradley Whitford Genres: Horror IMDB Synopsis: Five friends go for a break at a remote cabin, where they get more than they bargained for, discovering the truth behind the cabin in the woods. |
Here be spoilers.
This is shaping up to be the greatest spring Joss Whedon will ever know. Even before it's premiered, Marvel's The Avengers is already the movie to beat at the box office... and probably from the critics, too. But even before we get our first taste of The Avengers, Joss has treated us to a smartly written horror movie called The Cabin in the Woods. The film stars Chris Hemsworth – Thor of the aforementioned The Avengers – although I'm not suggesting that his inclusion was Whedon's way of teasing us with what's to come.
But I know it was. In my heart, I know it was.
The movie starts off in an unexpected way for a horror flick. We find ourselves trapped in the midst of a tedious conversation between two engineering-types complete with pressed white shirts, unimaginative ties and clip-on magnetic badges. If you're new to Whedon's work, then your first and understandable reaction is probably: "Hey, there's no cabin, no woods and these guys don't look like their going camping anytime soon. What gives?"
Don't worry. Ten minutes later you're on well-trod ground as we're introduced to five college students getting ready for a long weekend in the country. Although the faces may be different, the students themselves are very familiar. They've been in every horror / mad slasher film produced since the 1980s. (If you've read my blog entry. Hemsworth is the good-natured jock who brings his teammate-cum-sensitive scholar (Jesse Williams) along for the ride. The jock has a beautiful and overtly sexual girlfriend (Anna Hutchison), who in turn has a beautiful-but-damaged best friend (Kristen Connolly). Rounding out the group is the burnout with the soul of a vulgar poet (Fran Kranz), the "Shaggy" to the cool kids in this Mystery Machine. These are our victims, and though the precise nature of their fate is at first unknown, we can be confident it will be horrible and senseless. These kids have died a hundred times in a hundred other horror movies. Why would this be any different?
Well, because Joss Whedon is an expert at taking a film archetype and spinning it on its head.
The fivesome plan to spend a long weekend enjoying alcohol, pot and uninhibited sex at Hemsworth's cousin's mountain cabin. But the the forested retreat is anything but charming. It's decorated with horrendous oil paintings and contains a basement stuffed with creepy artifacts, some of which seem to belong to the homstead's original owners, a family of occultist cannibals.
Worse still, those engineering-types we saw in the first scene appear to be watching and controlling what's happening to our unsuspecting college kids. Is it a lab experiment? An elaborate psychological examination to see how young, hot people react to weird shit? Nah, Whedon has more devious plans for his audience, which becomes clear when the beautiful-but-damaged girl inadvertently ressurects the zombified family who once lived there.
And the blood starts a-flowing...
I won't reveal the surprise ending to the film. Suffice to say that Whedon and director Drew Goddard do a masterful job of taking you from the familiar to the unexpected. They also get some major props for producing one of the funniest horror films that wasn't intended to be a parody. Not an easy trick, to be sure. The ensemble cast is also excellent with noteworthy performances by Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford as the engineering-types behind it all.
The Cabin in the Woods offers no easy resolutions. The horror doesn't necessarily end with the rising of the sun as in other films of this genre. Like a laboratory maze, the deeper you get in, the harder it is to get out.
Go see it.
This is shaping up to be the greatest spring Joss Whedon will ever know. Even before it's premiered, Marvel's The Avengers is already the movie to beat at the box office... and probably from the critics, too. But even before we get our first taste of The Avengers, Joss has treated us to a smartly written horror movie called The Cabin in the Woods. The film stars Chris Hemsworth – Thor of the aforementioned The Avengers – although I'm not suggesting that his inclusion was Whedon's way of teasing us with what's to come.
But I know it was. In my heart, I know it was.
The movie starts off in an unexpected way for a horror flick. We find ourselves trapped in the midst of a tedious conversation between two engineering-types complete with pressed white shirts, unimaginative ties and clip-on magnetic badges. If you're new to Whedon's work, then your first and understandable reaction is probably: "Hey, there's no cabin, no woods and these guys don't look like their going camping anytime soon. What gives?"
Don't worry. Ten minutes later you're on well-trod ground as we're introduced to five college students getting ready for a long weekend in the country. Although the faces may be different, the students themselves are very familiar. They've been in every horror / mad slasher film produced since the 1980s. (If you've read my blog entry. Hemsworth is the good-natured jock who brings his teammate-cum-sensitive scholar (Jesse Williams) along for the ride. The jock has a beautiful and overtly sexual girlfriend (Anna Hutchison), who in turn has a beautiful-but-damaged best friend (Kristen Connolly). Rounding out the group is the burnout with the soul of a vulgar poet (Fran Kranz), the "Shaggy" to the cool kids in this Mystery Machine. These are our victims, and though the precise nature of their fate is at first unknown, we can be confident it will be horrible and senseless. These kids have died a hundred times in a hundred other horror movies. Why would this be any different?
Well, because Joss Whedon is an expert at taking a film archetype and spinning it on its head.
The fivesome plan to spend a long weekend enjoying alcohol, pot and uninhibited sex at Hemsworth's cousin's mountain cabin. But the the forested retreat is anything but charming. It's decorated with horrendous oil paintings and contains a basement stuffed with creepy artifacts, some of which seem to belong to the homstead's original owners, a family of occultist cannibals.
Worse still, those engineering-types we saw in the first scene appear to be watching and controlling what's happening to our unsuspecting college kids. Is it a lab experiment? An elaborate psychological examination to see how young, hot people react to weird shit? Nah, Whedon has more devious plans for his audience, which becomes clear when the beautiful-but-damaged girl inadvertently ressurects the zombified family who once lived there.
And the blood starts a-flowing...
I won't reveal the surprise ending to the film. Suffice to say that Whedon and director Drew Goddard do a masterful job of taking you from the familiar to the unexpected. They also get some major props for producing one of the funniest horror films that wasn't intended to be a parody. Not an easy trick, to be sure. The ensemble cast is also excellent with noteworthy performances by Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford as the engineering-types behind it all.
The Cabin in the Woods offers no easy resolutions. The horror doesn't necessarily end with the rising of the sun as in other films of this genre. Like a laboratory maze, the deeper you get in, the harder it is to get out.
Go see it.
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