The day has arrived. THE CABIN IN THE WOODS, the film many of you have been waiting years to see, has finally made it to theaters. If you've chosen to, you've read virtually unanimous positive reviews, but hopefully you played this one smart and went with the advice of many of us who saw this a while back to stay away from any reviews or descriptions of the film, whether they have spoilers or not. There is something to be said for the days when the most you could ever know about a film before sitting in the theater to watch it might have been one trailer and one or two TV commercials. And few people have benefitted from the less-is-more approach to movie promoting like director and co-writer of CABIN, Drew Goddard, who last writing gig, CLOVERFIELD, seemingly came out of nowhere.
But THE CABIN IN THE WOODS is a different monster entirely. No, it isn't a game changer that is going to set the horror movie-making community on its head and make it rethink the way it operates from here on out. But the film clearly comes from a place of frustration with, as well as love of, the genre. It lets those who make horror films know that we see into their bag of tricks, their basements filled with artifacts that may trigger any manner of scary creatures, their paint-by-numbers approach to knocking off young victims, their loud music crashes that make us jump at nothing.
I've seen the film SCREAM tossed about as an example of a self-referential work that CABIN resembles, but I think Goddard and co-writer Joss Whedon owe more of a debt to MEN IN BLACK. Both films acknowledge the odd foreground (terrorizing creatures, aliens) as well as a group of unseen (by the general public) players that attempt to control the foreground. In CABIN's foreground, we have a group of five college students, including ones played by Chris Hemsworth (THOR, the upcoming SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN) and Fran Kranz (Whedon's "Dollhouse"), who travel to the titular cabin for a vacation weekend. In the background, we have Bradley Whitford and Richard Jenkins, who appear to be manipulating events from a control room to mysterious ends. The juxtaposition of the cabin-based dwellers' terrifying story and humor that the pencil-pushing workers controlling things is fantastic.
And that's all I'm going to tell you about THE CABIN IN THE WOODS. The film uses the audience's knowledge of the way horror films work to its advantage, and it takes these films' predictable nature to, in a way, manipulate us. Every time you think you have an idea what's going on, you probably don't until that moment when all is revealed. This film is a shining example of a horror film that isn't afraid to show us its brains. It's proof positive that the genre is still capable of giving us something original and smart, and quite frankly, if you don't see this movie, something may be wrong with you. I will admit, the scares aren't that scary most of the time, and when the film does turn bloody, it's so cartoonish (most of the time) that it's tough to imagine that those of you who tend toward the squeamish will be bothered by any of it.
I was so genuinely impressed with THE CABIN IN THE WOODS that I can't imagine not going back to see it again and again. I've seen it twice now, and knowing all there is to know when you go for a repeat viewing turns it into an entirely different and equally great movie. I was especially impressed with the way Kranz plays the stoner character Marty, whose depth and perception go far beyond what you might expect. He's the breakout performance here, and I can't wait to see what he bring to Whedon's post-AVENGERS feature, Shakespeare's MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHINGS. THE CABIN IN THE WOODS is so perfect in so many ways that I'm actually eagerly awaiting the naysayers just to see how quickly they are beaten down by the fans of this wildly entertaining work.
