So I went to see "The Cabin in the Woods" yesterday.
And OH-LEE SHEEEEET!!!
Beware, might contain SPOILERS! - though I'll try to avoid them nonetheless.
Cabin in the Woods is an horror film Drew Goddard & Joss Whedon.
You might know the latter from the recent Avengers movie or my all-time favorite show Firefly or even the cult web-musical Dr. Horrible. Goddard was a former from J.J.Abrams' "Bad Robot" crew, wrote the screenplay of the fantastic Cloverfield and worked in the past on Whedon shows' Buffy and Angel.
Cabin in the Woods is a big play and deconstruction of the torture pr0n genre, and more of a tribute of the classic 80s slasher films.
I really dislike the likes of Saw, Hostel and company , movies that just threw the "slashers", the iconic slashers out of the video just for the sake of graphic and extreme violence. It's like they said, fuck it, do we need a plot/characters/justifications? And just keep throwing nudity, torture, mutilation and sadism. I know Final Destination got its fans but I prefer a good ol' silly cheesy 80s slasher like Jason Voorhees or even a classic non-gory 30/40s horror such as Frankenstein instead.
Anyway.
Like Joss Whedon said:
On another level it's a serious critique of what we love and what we don't about horror movies. I love being scared. I love that mixture of thrill, of horror, that objectification/identification thing of wanting definitely for the people to be alright but at the same time hoping they’ll go somewhere dark and face something awful. The things that I don't like are kids acting like idiots, the devolution of the horror movie into torture porn and into a long series of sadistic comeuppances. Drew and I both felt that the pendulum had swung a little too far in that direction.
For once in an horror movie, you kinda like the characters actually, they aren't just cannon fodder for the monster(s). They also try to think rationally and act with sense...to some extend.
But this movie, like to either play with tropes or either make sense of them.
It sorta starts like one of those torture pr0n I mentioned above. People observing from an external point of view the situation, alongside the audience. Sadism, people getting killed in the most gruesome and inhuman ways.
But all the way through a fan of the 80s horror movies-lens. Lots of homage and references. From allusions like a recreation of the Evil Dead-cabin in the woods, to shots from Friday The 13th, nods to Hellraiser, etc.
Finally the last 3rd act throws everything outta the window and we're in the middle of a crazy horror film-love letter. I haven't seen something as crazy since Critters or Gremlins. Times x1000!!
An horror film for fans of horror films.
The film doesn't just stop there.
It has a great cast of characters that appeared so 2-Dimensional at the first glimpse but feel and behave like real people for once.
You feel like rooting for those "losers", thrown in such crazy situations.
But I didn't expect any less from Joss Whedon, if he does something right each time it's getting his characters.
The movie is also oh-so very meta.
You can take the story literally, monsters around, ancient gods, people keeping the world a certain way at peace. Or just say the puppeteers for what they really are.
Horror film makers. ("We need them to get separated!" "Show us the boobies! Come on!")
Without saying too much, and I'll leave you at that, it was a purely fantastic and very entertaining movie.
What horror movies really needed.
A much deserved break and an out-of-the-box look at this beloved underrated genre.
Oh, and it was really fun.
It's easily up there along Evil Dead 2 in my eyes.
It has the same idea as Tucker & Dale vs Evil too, but goes into a totally opposite direction to play along.
It reminded me of Tim Seeley's Hack/Slash own in a way, specially the last act, but less "on-going" and more meta.
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