Actors: Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, & Bradley Whitford
Synopsis: A group of five friends go for a break at a remote cabin in the far reaches of a wooded wilderness for a vacation. Together, they must discover the truth behind the cabin in the woods.
Thanks to the success of films like Saw and Hostel, the horror genre has been dominated by countless amounts of cheap clones. “Torture porn” as it has been dubbed, has de-evolved the genre. Even remakes of classic films appeared to serve only to beef up the gore and slacked on the writing. The American horror movie, that was intended to scare the audience, had now put all its focus on grossing them out. It seems that it has become more of a rare occurrence that a film comes along that seems to get it right.
Enter: The Cabin In The Woods
Anyone that knows me, knows that I make no secret about my feelings for horror films, specifically the 80’s. For me, that decade was the genre’s heyday. This ten year span was responsible for some of the greatest franchises in horror history. Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm St, and my absolute favorite, The Evil Dead were all released in this time frame. After seeing The Cabin In The Woods, it’s quite obvious that Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon share in my feelings.
It’s hard for me to divulge too much into the plot of the film because I feel that the advertisers already ruined some very key components of the plot in the trailers. So rather than spoil the film even more, I’ll say this much about it. The film definitely borrows the same basic concept from the Evil Dead. Five friends head up to a cabin located in a remote part of nearby woods. What starts out as a weekend of relaxation, fun, and debauchery, quickly turns into an ultimate nightmare. I’ll stop there as to not spoil the surprises even though the film itself kind of gives itself away almost immediately.
It took awhile to sink in, but I feel this film was created to serve as a blueprint for future horror films to come. It did pretty much everything right. Although it wasn’t a straight horror, which I’d prefer, it showed perfectly how to blend in the comedy elements. I stated last night on my Facebook “if you like Evil Dead 2, go see The Cabin In The Woods” and I stand by it. Evil Dead 2, in my opinion, is the absolute pinnacle of horror-comedy. Raimi, Campbell, and Tapert were able to create such heightened states of tension and then immediately slap you in the face with something insanely funny, then go right back to scaring the bejebus out of you. They were able to go over the top, yet still keep everything within reason. Now it’s not exactly on that same level, but I feel that this film achieved the same effect. Both films, as with a lot of horror from nearly 30 years ago, were able to introduce characters that you ultimately felt for. Even the “whore” of the bunch garnered some level of sympathy instead of just being fodder for the bodycount.
This film comes highly recommended and I’m very much pulling for its success. If this film does exceptionally well during it’s release, or atleast becomes a cult hit once on DVD, there is a good chance that the horror movie could return with force. Obviously this film can’t carry the weight of the genre on its shoulders but I feel this is a good starting point for a revival. Fans of the classics will definitely appreciate it as there are tons of homages to the greats, especially Evil Dead. Hopefully the new audience comes on board and we start to get some fresh ideas again.
Joss Whedon irked me with his critique of "torture porn" and how it's devolved the horror genre. First of all, it's called exploitation, and it's existed for 40+ years. Torture porn is some weird label it was given because this fantastic genre was forgotten about in 1987ish and movie reviewers wanted to rename it something edgy that would get their reviews read. When Eli Roth and co brought it back, people couldn't fathom horror movies being oh so depraved, as if anyone's obligated to watch a movie that's been marketed as such. It pisses me off when people say that the horror genre was devolved by this. The horror genre was revitalized by it, and even famous critics agreed on that back when Hostel came out. Saw and Hostel were the ones that broke the monotonous tone of Scream and shitty modern pseudo-slasher films. Horror movies in the 90s and early 00s were fucking terrible. They still are, save for the occasional great one (Wrong Turn and Wolf Creek come to mind). There have been maybe 3-4 legitimately good exploitation movies made in the last ten years, so I don't know what Whedon (and Wren, I guess) are bitching about.
I really want to see Cabin in the Woods, but fuck Whedon's remarks and anyone who buys into that mentality.
Edit: Syntax
I agree with this. Point still stands.
Notice the sentence that I used the phrase "Torture Porn" in. I used the words "as it has been dubbed" because that is what those types of films are being called. While I'll give the first Saw and Hostel credit in being game changers, as they left the polished over Scream like clones that had been going on for most of the 90's, there is a big difference between the bullshit that is being put out now and what was perfected in the 70's.
Take a movie like I Spit On Your Grave or Last House On The Left. Those films are pretty brutal even in todays standards. However, the difference between that violence and the uber-gore of all the "torture porn" of today is there was more of a reason behind it other than just to gross out the audience. The rape scene and even the castration scene in the original Spit wasn't over the top blood and guts but still drove home the point. What "torture porn" relies on is just the kills. People don't go to see the 50 Saw sequels to see the story play out, they want to see how they kill off characters now. There is no connection to anything other than the blood anymore. True exploitation films atleast gave the audience a connection to the characters.
The only film recently that was able to pull off both being true to the rules, so to speak, from the early exploitation films while keeping the gross-out factor up was the first Human Centipede.
The sad thing is, good recent horror films like Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon, pass through the theaters without much of even a whimper but Saw 14 will break box office records, even though now it's the dog that is carrying out Jigsaws work.
I loved this movie, but I thnk that the ultimate point was to make a goofy Lovecraftian Cthulhu-esque movie in every way but name. Sure, it's a metacommentary on the genre, but it's really about appeasing elder gods with human sacrifice, which rules. This is pretty much the first Lovecraftian movie ever made that actually had a budget, decent acting, and promotion.