The Cabin in the Woods (2012)

I like movies. That is, after all, why I have devoted so much of my time to writing on this infernal website while making zero money. However, movies have been around for a very long time, and as a result they have become rather predictable. Perhaps it’s the fault of the filmmakers, but there’s also the possibility that maybe there just aren’t that many ideas left. That is why Drew Goddard’s The Cabin in the Woods is so brilliant. Instead of coming up with a brand new idea, he goes ahead and uses all the ideas over the course a single film. The result is paradoxically one of the most creative, unpredictable, terrifying and hilarious movies in ages, yet it embraces all of the horror clichés that we have come to know, love, detest and occasionally love again. Not only does The Cabin in the Woods work as a fantastic horror film, but it also deconstructs the genre in ways I can’t begin to describe without ruining the entire thing. There are few sensations more exciting to a movie fan than the feeling that you are seeing something that has never been done before. That is why I loved The Cabin in the Woods so very, very much.

Those of you who have read this blog for a while know that my second paragraph is normally devoted to a plot summary. If I were to do that here, it would be an incredible disservice to all of you. The Cabin in the Woods does not merely have a twist ending. The very first shot is, in its own way, a twist. From the second the film begins, you will have no earthly idea what is going on, and about a hundred more curveballs come as a the movie goes on. All I will say is that it involves a group of young people (pictured above) that go on a camping trip to a cabin… in the woods. Then some things happen. And then, some even more ridiculous things happen. That is all I will say about that. As I sit here and reflect on where the film begins as opposed to the final shot, I am even more impressed. Let no one spoil this movie for you, or else the experience will be ruined. I will list the cast, but I won’t tell you who they play, what they do, or how they relate to each other: Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchinson, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford, among several others.

This film is first and foremost the child of writer/director Goddard, who is a rabid fan of the horror genre. (This enthusiasm was clear in a Q&A he did after the screening I attended, and I cannot describe how giddy he was that this movie was finally seeing the light of day.) However, many fans will likely be drawn to The Cabin in the Woods because of their love for nerd icon Joss Whedon, who co-wrote with Goddard as well as produced. His stamp is unmistakable here, and he was likely largely responsible for a large chunk of the dialogue. Yet what puts the movie over the top for me is the infectious energy with which Goddard fills every frame.

Make no mistake: this movie walks a tightrope the likes of which you rarely see. It has to be so many things at once: it has to be an ultraviolent horror film while also poking fun at said genre. It has to make us care about the characters but not so much so that we can’t have a little fun at their expense. Some moments have to be shocking, hilarious and tragic all at once. In lesser hands, The Cabin in the Woods would be an exercise in infuriating tonal whiplash. Yet what Goddard and Whedon have made is so unique and so full of life that it does almost nothing wrong when it could have—and probably should have—done everything wrong. How they were able to take this movie to the places it goes without losing the audience is an absolute marvel. It doesn’t just go over the top. It blows the top to pieces, keeps going and leaves nothing in its wake.

The story of The Cabin in the Woods is also amazing because for a while it seemed like it would never get released. It was shot all the way back in 2009, and its release was delayed multiple times thanks to the bankruptcy of MGM. The film was pushed back and pushed back until Lionsgate decided to distribute it and now here we are. (At one point, the film was even going to get a 3-D conversion, but the studios wisely backed off.) You might think that the decision to delay a movie like this might mean that isn’t that great, but you would be wrong. So, so wrong. I do not consider myself to be a die-hard horror fan—some subgenres of horror films I won’t even bother with—but The Cabin in the Woods works because it is first and foremost ridiculously entertaining. Some modern filmmakers have made the curious choice to remove any sense of fun from their horror movies and instead make them humorless symphonies of violence. Goddard makes no such error. This is a very scary movie, but it is also a fun movie. The two are not mutually exclusive.

It is some kind of miracle that this movie exists. I’m shocked that Goddard and Whedon got the money to make it, and I’m shocked that it is getting a wide release in its current form. This is not a particularly challenging movie per se, but it is without question an incredibly strange and ambitious movie. Mainstream Hollywood films are the result of a system, and most of them come off the conveyer belt as mere products created by that system. Each of them may be slightly different, but they all come from the same factory. In the case of The Cabin in the Woods, something went horribly, horribly wrong at the factory, and the result is certifiably insane in the best possible way.

Grade: A


The Cabin in the Woods comes out on April 13, 2012.