Having not been to the local cinema in a while, I decided it was high time to go check out something on the big screen. The initial idea was to finally go catch The Hunger Games. So it was off to Rotten Tomatoes to check local show times. I took a detour, however, when I noticed the Tomatometer rating for The Cabin in the Woods. I was aware of the existence of The Cabin in the Woods, but had assumed that it would be a schlocky horror flick that I’d catch were I in the particular mood to see such a thing. But when I saw that it had garnered 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, I decided to look into it a bit further. What I discovered was that this isn’t simply another Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Friday the 13th - far from it. After watching the trailer and paying closer attention to it, I decided I’d see The Cabin in the Woods rather than The Hunger Games.
The Cabin in the Woods was co-written and produced by Joss Whedon and directed and co-written by Drew Goddard (writer on Buffy and Lost). Whedon is most well known for his TV fare, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, and Dollhouse. All of which I enjoyed greatly. But he’s also directing the upcoming Avengers film from Marvel Studios. If Cabin in the Woods is any indication, Marvel’s Super Hero group is in deft hands. The story starts off in a high-tech lab replete with lab coats and panels covered in buttons, knobs and switches. Hadley (Bradley Whitford) and Sitterson (Richard Jenkins) are preparing for their work day at the lab by engaging in idle smalltalk. Lin (Buffy and Dollhouse’s Amy Acker) asks them about more serious work issues, which they shrug off and hop into a golf cart to go to their office.
Cut to a college aged girl (Dana, Kristen Connolly) in her dorm room, packing for a vacation. Shortly, a friend (Jules, Legend of the Seeker’s Anna Hutchison) arrives and starts giving her grief about her recently terminated relationship with a professor and her nerdiness. Jules is followed by the arrival of her boyfriend Curt (Thor’s Chris Hemsworth), the stoner of the group (Marty, Dollhouse’s Fran Kranz), and the intellectual (Holden, Grey’s Anatomy’s Jesse Williams), with whom they’ve set Dana up for the weekend. The plan is to spend the weekend at Curt’s cousin’s cabin in the woods, away from technology and distractions. Before arriving at the cabin, the group (one could be forgiven for referring to them as “The Scoobies,” after Whedon’s group of teens in Buffy, since all of the requisite character archetypes are present) stops at a creepy gas station, where they’re met by Mordecai (Tim De Zam of Lost and Madmen) who is actually creepier than the decrepit gas station. Foreboding warnings are given and ignored and the group embarks on the final leg of the journey to the cabin.
It’s at this point where the audience is made aware that this is not your typical slasher film. Despite having all the tropes of the genre firmly in place, something is very different here. As the group’s Winnebago passes through a tunnel, an eagle enters the frame and flies past the tunnel. Until it hits an invisible wall and is vaporized. The group arrives at the cabin, picks rooms, and unpacks. Holden notices a large, gruesome painting in his room and decides to take it down, only to discover that it hides a two way mirror peeking into neighboring Dana’s room. The group does a bit of swimming, then, at night, plays a harmless game of truth or dare. During the game, the cellar door flies open, leading Dana (on a dare) to investigate. The cellar is filled with very old knick knacks. Each member of the group is drawn to something that appeals to their particular interests. Dana finds a young girl’s disturbing diary, Curt finds a puzzle sphere, Jules finds a music box, etc… Dana is the first one to call everyone else’s attention to her discovery and she starts reading aloud from the diary. It’s a horrific account of redneck, religious fanatics obsessed with pain. And it ends with a few lines of latin, which Marty vehemently argues should not be read aloud. Dana ignores his pleas and reads the lines aloud.
Cut back to the lab, where the staff has been placing bets and the winner has been crowned. The maintenance staff chose the redneck masochists. And the game is afoot. The rest of the film plays out as the zombies of the redneck family described in the diary arise from their graves and hunt down the teens, while the staff at the lab controls certain aspects of what’s occurring at the cabin. There is a larger scheme at work here, but I won’t ruing it with spoilers.
The writing in The Cabin in the Woods is, as one would expect from Whedon, snappy and witty. There are the requisite allusions to cultural memes both old and new. The characters are, on the surface, cliche. That’s intentional and central to the story. It’s also not entirely as it seems, which is also intentional and central to the story. The direction and pacing are spot on as well. There isn’t a frame of film where I wasn’t captivated and engaged. The performances (from the main cast all the way down to the incidental characters, many of which you’ll recognize from the Whedonverse if you’re a fan) are great. The only pieces that fell short were some of the special effects. Most of the makeup and effects are perfectly fine, but there is the occasional example of something that looks a little cheap. I can’t explain in any more detail without giving away a huge plot point, so I’ll just leave it at that.
The Cabin in the Woods is not a horror movie. It’s more of an homage and satire of the horror movie or, more specifically, slasher movie genre, with a little bit of conspiracy theory thrown in for good measure. But it’s also not in the vein of, say, Scream, which parodied horror while, at the same time, was horror. There are plenty of horror elements in The Cabin in the Woods, but it never takes itself seriously in that regard and often is self referential, almost to the point of breaking the fourth wall. I assure you, you’ve never seen a movie quite like it. That, in and of itself, would almost be a recommendation. It’s rare to see something truly original (even if it does owe its entire existence to other movies). But The Cabin in the Woods deserves your attention for more than just being original, you should see it because it’s very good and highly entertaining. And if The Avengers brings the goods like this does, I’m going to be one happy camper in two weeks.
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