Sometimes a little fourth wall breaking or someone in a movie winking to audience is just what you need to make a movie that much better. Movies that are self aware and play between that idea of fantasy and reality are wonderful. The Cabin in the Woods is one of those movies that pushes the boundaries of winking into the camera to the 10th degree. Now while no one is aware they are in a movie it is still a film that examines the horror genre to such an extensive degree.
The story follows five friends heading up to a cabin for a relaxing weekend. Sound familiar to anyone? We have the jock (Chris Hemsworth), the scholar (Jesse Williams), The blonde (Anna Hutchison), the stoner (Fran Kranz) and the virgin (Kristen Connolly). It's the perfect group of people to be heading up for a fun filled weekend. At the same time we are shown a group of people working in some government facility with a deadline that they are all trying to meet. The government group is lead by two men Sitterson (Richard Jenkins) and Hadley (Bradley Whitford). The gang finally reaches the cabin and it seems like a normal fun time until they discover the cellar of the basement. Sound familiar to anyone. down in the cellar is a slew of items that seems to be there and should not be disturbed. One of the group opens up one of the items and it seems to cause a chain reaction letting loose an unspeakable horror. We soon discover that the people at the government facility have placed the items in the cabin in order to set off a chain of events that will lead to all of the groups death in order to serve a higher purpose. The group gets picked off one by one until Kranz and Connolly are left and discover the Cabin and the people who run the government facility are closer then we think.
I am trying to not say too much about this film because it will spoil the over all surprise at the end. I can say that when I saw a movie called Cabin in the Woods my first thought was oh great the horror genre has lost all credibility when we are not even trying to be clever about the films title anymore. I was completely wrong and the title is one of the most brilliant parts of this film. The entire film is a twisted look at the idea that maybe every horror movie we have ever seen is a scenario like the one in this film. Nothing is off the table when it comes to doing a clever twisted look at the horror genre. It is a very smart and new take on an old subject. It takes on tropes of horror movies both old and new keeping you guessing the entire time.
The casting of the film is great as well. Outside of a few people who were famous a little later on this cast feels like a group of unknowns which makes it feel all the more real at times. Even though Hemsworth was in Thor a year earlier this film was made way before he became the god of Thunder. He is still the charismatic good looking guy but when this was shot he was a relatively unknown actor. It is hard to say if this film was a reason that he had got the lead in Thor because Joss Whedon who oversaw the first phase of the Marvel Universe co wrote Cabin in the Woods. It is very much a Whedon film with clever writing and amazing characters. At the same time all the credit can not go to Whedon. Director and co-writer Drew Goddard keeps his half of the script going with great use of mythology and wonderful pacing in a very well timed 95 minutes.
All in all we see a wonderful film with tons of amazing performances and a tight script. This is one to watch with a group of friends and get a drinking game going of how many tropes you can spot.
Well its time to leave the woods after four long days and head back to civilization with a film tomorrow that will truly make you shriek, or some other word similar to it. For High Weirdness I"m Benjamin Kolton reminding you "It's Only a Movie." "It's Only a Movie."
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