The Cabin in the Woods

Logline: Five friends go for a break at a remote cabin in the woods, where they get more than they bargained for. Together, they must discover the truth behind the cabin in the woods.

Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Kristen Connolly, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams

Directed by: Drew Goddard

Back for another Monday review & surprisingly it comes to you early. 1 a.m. early. Hopefully when I wake up I can get a productive day in, but we'll see. 

I chose a movie I happened to catch in theatres on opening weekend. I had originally saw the trailer and thought to myself - man, this looks like the most corny addition to the horror genre yet. However, after hearing so many great things about it from screenings, I decided to give it a go. In fact, I was quite excited to hear that it was going to change the standard for horror movies from this point forward.

Did it live up to that hype?

Summary

The Cabin in the Woods is written and directed by Drew Goddard. If you do not know his name yet, he did some screenwriting for the hit TV show Lost and penned the ever-so-hated-and-loved found footage movie Cloverfield. This is his debut from the director's chair.

It was made very clear in the trailer than this isn't your typical stuck-in-the-woods type horror movie where a group of partying teenagers is haunted by the undead. There are weird things happening. Really weird. An eagle is shown flying and dropping dead after apparently hitting an invisible wall in the sky. What? It kind of had a Lost vibe to it, but you didn't need to go through countless hours to find out if the ending was worth it. It also wasn't your typical horror. In fact, it's hardly even a horror, yet, it's scary. Huh.

A group of teenagers set out to party in a cabin in the woods. When they get there, we are shown sequences of people watching them from what seems to be a secret lab/office. We find out gradually that they're running a show for people to watch. There are a ton of people behind the operation. Many things are planted in the cabin and whichever the group discovers will determine the monster the people are going to release on them. I can't give away anymore. That's just the gist of how this works. Watch and find out.

Review

This was my most pleasant surprise of the summer.

Ever have one of those movies where you watch it, then you get home and you can't stop thinking about it? It sticks with you to the point where you just want to watch it again? Not for understanding purposes, but for pure entertainment? This is one I will watch again. Probably more than once considering I've already re-watched it.

The screenplay for this movie turns genres upside down and switches back and forth from being a comedy, horror, thriller, mystery, drama, and romance. It follows the typical horror formula (Act 1 distinguish killer and setting, Act 2- escaping the killer's attack, Act 3- Surviving the final stand with conclusion) and then it adds on more. It doesn't pussyfoot around the formula and concludes the story at around 40 minutes. Then from there on the survivors need to find out what they've been put through and why.

*Spoiler* There is a scene where a bunch of monsters are unleashed and wreak havoc on the bad guys, and it's as awesome as it sounds. *Spoiler*

Topic of the Day

Breaking away from the norm.

This is one of the hardest, yet most important aspects of creating a film. Most people are not content with watching a movie with characters, plotlines, and action sequences they've seen a hundred times already. With horror, it seems most directors are content with the fact that teenagers thrive for horror movies to bring their girlfriends to, or actually, just to see with a group of friends in general. Horror movies are making a decent amount of money still, so why switch up the formula? Well, I guess they don't really have to, but every once and awhile a nice twist on the genre is a breath of fresh air. This doesn't come without risk though; twisting a genre can go completely wrong. People still expect a good movie, so rambling and completely changing the flow of the movie can work against the film. See Silent House for more info on that. But when you take the risks, like Drew Goddard did, if done properly you can create something special. For this movie, Goddard grabbed a lot of attention from studios and his name has been popping up in movie news quite a bit recently. I personally can't wait to see what he has next.

Consensus

The Cabin in the Woods switches between genres perfectly. It takes the necessary risks to add a twist on the recently stagnant horror genre and each of them pay off beautifully. This is one of my favourite movies of 2012 and will be on my movies to watch again list, even after already re-watching it once already. Definitely give this a try, it's pretty much a classic in my opinion.

9/10