Cabin in the Woods is one of the latest examples of pointing out the tropes in horror films in an original way. In 1996 horror fans were asking the very serious question is horror dead? We hadn't seen a strong new contribution to the genre in some time. Most of the classic 80's boogeymen had become tired or almost a parody of themselves. It had been quite a long time since something had taken America by storm.
However in December of 1996 we were treated to the re-birth of the horror genre and a new take on how to scare a modern audience. Director Wes Craven who if their were a Mount Rushmore to horror directors would be on it without any question had been trying to move away from the genre when he was approached by brothers Bob and Harvey Weinstein to direct a thriller from first time writer Kevin Williamson. The clever Weinstein boys didn't stop there by putting a fabulous script with a first rate director. Next they then went out and spent the money on a group of actors who were not only well known but could also shockingly act. This combination of things would later be used and copied in other movies such as The Ring and The Conjuring films. The finished product is one of the best horror films of the 90's that spawned three sequels up until 2011. All of them were directed by Craven the fourth being his last film in 2011. We of course are talking about the game changing 1996 classic Scream.
It would have been a great script regardless but it doesn't hurt that Craven turned it into a phenomenal movie. Craven is a genius when it comes to the horror genre. The man invented Freddy Krueger for god sake. He is the modern day Hitchcock of horror and showed us that he was not out of ways to scare us when it came to Scream. He was a fantastic choice and everyone shines because of the direction he gave to them. He knows how to pace a movie and keep the scares coming but not over saturate them to where you feel numb to the terror.
The film is not just a horror movie but it is a film about horror movies. It takes place in a small town and opens with Casey Becker (Drew Barrymore) getting ready to watch a movie when the phone rings and she is slowly talked into a deadly game of survival with an unknown caller who tells her she has to play a game if she wants to survive. After torturing her over the phone the killer finally strikes revealing himself to be a man in a black cloak with a mask very similar to the scream painting. Casey is eventually chased down and killed and the movie goes to our true main character Sidney Presscott (Neve Campbell).
The genius of this film is that before you got into the theater before you saw one frame, the marketing, and the poster had you believing that Barrymore would play a major role in the film. She was the first person on the poster and the biggest name at the time. It was a huge shock to the audience when she was killed within ten minutes. This clever device put the audience in the position of never being able to tell who was safe in the film. It also made it near impossible to guess who was the murderer was. This film was the first to not make every male a dumb jock or nerd and not make every girl a whore or a uptight virgin. Instead Williamson flipped the script and made them very aware of their surroundings and give them prior knowledge of past horror movies. The film is a cornucopia of pop culture references to other horror films.
It was also the first movie to use technology to terrify people. A cellphone had never been used in a film as a tool to work terror into a scene. It gave the killer a sense of power like he could be anywhere at any time.This film still holds up and makes you love the genre in a way that no other horror film can. Truly a film where everyone including Craven are at their best.
So that wraps up our film for today. Tomorrow we will step deep into the past and discuss the children of the night and what music they make. For High Weirdness I'm Benjamin Kolton reminding you "It's Only a Movie/" "It's Only a Movie."
No comments:
Post a Comment