THE CABIN IN THE WOODS Review

 

THE CABIN IN THE WOODS Review

By Darin Skaggs

     I’m not a big fan of horror films.  The popular ones are just basically the same thing over and over again.  If I search to watch a horror film, I search for a film that is trying something different.  Drew Goddard’s The Cabin in the Woods does just that.

     This story is the normal way that many horror films start.  A girl with some irrelevant problem is packing for a trip to a cabin in the woods.  She meets up with her friend and her boyfriend.  Then another friend of the boyfriends comes too.  This is normally the love interest for the main girl and then of course the “stoner” character or the comic relief through most horror films.  These are the normal characters that are in the popular horror films.

     The first scene of the film however starts as what looks like two scientists talking about something vague that comes into place later.  They start driving away on a cart and one of them says “Are you even listening to me?” Then the title comes up in surprising way and that’s when I realized I was in for a treat.  I don’t want to spoil the film, but I will say we follow two stories: the cabin story and these “scientist” story.  The scientist story is very interesting and it has some of my favorite parts in the film.

     Your basic horror film scenarios happen throughout this film.  The kids meet an old man that warns them not to go any farther and even just the setting being in a cabin is part of the horror film cliché.  This part of the story sticks to the cliché way that horror stories work, but it adds a reason why they are always the same type of characters (jock, “blonde” chick, virgin, nerd, comic relief) and it gives a reason of why they’re always making bad decisions and letting the “killers” get the upper hand.  Without getting into spoilers this film explains why there are many different monster films and why the monsters are attacking these people.

     Another thing about the film, it’s hilarious which should not be a surprise because it is co-written by Josh Whedon who wrote Buffy, Firefly and recently The Avengers.  He is always a very funny writer and it shows in this film.  The writing is not the only thing that makes the film funny, the acting helps it out as well.  The second story plot actors were some of the best performances of the film.  Also the main characters are really good at playing the clichés of the horror genre.

The second story plays out very well and takes the horror cliché to a whole new level.  The third act of this film, for me at least, was just pure fun. The film left me wanting more of that particular scene.  The ending of the film was a very satisfying conclusion to this very fun, hilarious and interesting ride.

I went into this film knowing almost nothing about it and that was the right way to see it.  I enjoyed it very much and was glad to see a “meta” kind of approach to the horror genre.