The Cabin in the Woods--Fan Review

Well the title doesn’t lie, there is definitely a Cabin in the Woods

         

          Horror movies can usually go one of two ways.  Either straight up terrifying scares, like The Exorcist, The Omen, and The Ring.  Or a combination of horror and humor, like An American Werewolf in London, Scream, or Shaun of the Dead.

The directorial debut of Drew Goddard writer of Cloverfield comes The Cabin in the Woods. Co-written by Joss Whedon, this is a horror movie like no other.  It starts off like the hundreds of horror before it, five kids in the creepy woods, drinking, partying, and then the things come out of the darkness.  You get the blood, the gore and then you get a little bit more.   Then it takes the genre and twists and turns it into something…well something we still have kinda seen before, but its combination of genres is fun and entertaining as hell.  In a lot of ways this feel like a version of a Buffy/Angel season without Buffy and Angel, this is just about the side characters and they are crammed into an hour and a half creature feature.  It’s clear that fan favorites Whedon and Goddard are having fun here, it really shows up in the last portion of the film, which is truly insane.  What bothered me the most though was while it played with the stereotypical elements of a slasher movie it still fits into the box of the typical.  I was hoping for something more original, but what I got was entertaining enough.  Not sure how audiences are going to react. They will laugh, the script is very funny, though they may walk out saying, “that was pretty good.”

I will admit I am very biased.  I really loved the film despite its flaws.  I’m usually on board with anything Joss Whedon does.  He wants to write an X-men comic, I’m there.  He wants to do an internet musical short about Neal Patrick Harris as an evil genius, I’m there. (By the way do check out Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along- Blog, it’s really good)  He wants to make a horror movie, I’ll see it again and again (With the commentary track on) The Cabin in the Woods does not rank with the classics listed at the beginning of this piece; but it’s very entertaining and is more than enough to tide me over until his masterpiece that will be The Avengers.

--Robert L. Castillo