Horror movies have never been my bag. I scare way too easily and the handful I have seen still haunt me to this day. When I was four I saw a three second clip of Chuckie in CHILD’S PLAY and I've been traumatized ever since. Case in point: after seeing PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3 I was afraid to turn my back on the kitchen for fear that everything would disappear and then suddenly drop from the ceiling. Irrational? Yes, but that's how it is. So needless to say I don’t really go out of my way to seek out horror, but there was something rather intriguing about Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard’s THE CABIN IN THE WOODS that caught my attention. Maybe it was the extremely vague synopsis about five friends going into a cabin and bad things happening. Maybe it was the fact that there was hardly any details making their way out, even by those who had seen it, only that it was a different type of horror film and was awesome. Maybe it was those same people's emphatic direction that the less you know, the better. Now color me curious. I was willing to suck it up and watch through my fingers if needed to see what all the mystery and hubbub was about.
Score one for overcoming my phobia of horror flicks, because while THE CABIN IN THE WOODS was scar at times, it was also funny, inventive and just plain genius. I laughed, screamed, laughed again, screamed some more and enjoyed every minute of it. To really get into the plot to any degree would spoil big parts of the movie for you, so I’ll keep it simple. Five college kids plan on spending a fun filled weekend at a cabin in the woods but things go decidedly south.
CABIN starts off with your typical setup for a slasher movie what with the isolated, creepy cabin and group of stereotypical kids inhabiting it (the jock, the virgin, the dumb blonde, the nerd and the stoner) but as the movie progresses, Whedon and Goddard take everything you’ve come to expect from a movie like this and flips it on you. It becomes a horror movie that also makes fun of what we've come to know and expect from horror movies. It acknowledges the stupidity that typically takes place amongst the characters like a group splitting up in a dangerous situation or the hot couple running off to hook up in the dark, scary woods, but then it turns around and gives these horror tropes a reason for existing, slowly unfolding into something bigger. And it’s that grander meaning that makes CABIN so brilliant. We’re given glimpses of the grander scheme as it unfolds piece by piece until the final act explodes into a whole new level of hilarious and mind-blowing insanity.
Besides its "different" story, it's up to the cast to make it all work. Whether it's Chris Hemsworth or Kristen Connolly bringing their stereotype to life, Whedon’s witty and playful banter is smoothly delivered by all to give the film its unique voice. I was partial to Fran Kranz as Marty who came across like a conspiracy theory, pseudo-intellectual version of Shaggy from Scooby Doo, yet it was Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford stealing the film as an absolutely hysterical duo who hold some of the cabin's secrets.
Bottom line - what Goddard and Whedon have put together is bloody brilliant and so much fun to experience. It’s a horror movie that feels as fresh upon repeat viewings as it did the first time around, and, coming from someone who isn't a horror fan at all, this is one that I'd go out of my way to see over and over again.
