The Cabin In The Woods

THE CABIN IN THE WOODS

Year : 2012

Director : Drew Goddard

Genre : Horror

Rating : ***1/2

For many months now, I have heard many mixed things about 'The Cabin In The Woods'. Some telling me that it is the greatest meta horror movie since 'Scream', and some saying it is one of the worst movies of the year. Now that I have finally watched it, I can tell you that is certainly won't be in my 10 worst films of the year, but then again won't be in my top 10 either.

'The Cabin In The Woods' tells the classic story of a generic slasher movie where a group of teenagers go to a log cabin in the middle of nowhere and they are slowly taken out one by one. However, the reasons why they obey the conventions that horror fans have now grown so bored of are changed, and not everything is as simple as it seems. I'm not going to write any more about the plot because I don't want to ruin the movie for those who haven't seen it, and it is a genuinely fantastic twist on the slasher subgenre.

The producer and screenwriter of this movie is Joss Whedon, who was originally known as the creator of the extremely successful 'Buffy : The Vampire Slayer' but is now known as the director of the fantastic 'The Avengers Assemble' (see previous post). Whedon is currently one of the most adept screenwriters at the moment, and he can take a genre of movie and transform it into something much more. He did it with 'Avengers', and he has now done it with 'The Cabin In The Woods', where a traditional and conventional slasher movie has been turned into a postmodern horror movie with a commentary on conventions and torture porn. It is obvious that the filmmakers love horror movies, and there are many references to classics, the greatest being the cabin resembling to a tee, the cabin from 'Evil Dead 2 : Dead By Dawn'. In fact, a lot of this movie might as well be called 'Evil Dead 4'. However, not only does this movie reference slasher movies, but also creature features and folk horror movies such as 'The Wicker Man'. This is where 'The Cabin In The Woods' overtakes 'Scream' in terms of postmodernism because 'Scream' took a convention and pointed it out to the audience in a very blatant way. Whereas 'The Cabin In The Woods' manipulates the characters in such a way that the conventions are put upon them rather than them performing them. In the same way that 'Scott Pilgrim : Vs. The World' didn't mock it's subject matter but was rather a love letter to video games, this movie doesn't demean horror, but makes you see it in a different light.

The cast are mixed, with 'Avengers' Chris Hemsworth and 'Let Me In's Richard Jenkins being the most well known actors in this film. The other actors and actresses are fine in their performances but nothing that is noteworthy, although Fran Kranz is fantastic comic relief as a drug addicted teenager. The main stars in this movie is by far the creatures that attack the cast throughout the film. Nearly every famous movie monster turns up, and each have there own shining moment. The deaths in this movie  are very creative, and some are really funny too. As a whole, the script is fantastically well written, with a lot of 'Whedonisms', deconstructing horror conventions in a very clever and entertaining way.

It may sound that I love this movie, and in some ways I do. But it doesn't seem to fit together as a whole piece. Unfortunately, I cannot exactly say why. The final act, even though it is more interesting than the first hour, doesn't fit together with the beginning. The twists and turns the plot takes do feel contrived, and doesn't parody horror in an intelligent way as much as 'Scream' does. To me, 'Scream' is the pinnacle of postmodern horror, but 'The Cabin In The Woods' is in second place. It may not be perfect, but it is definitely one of the most entertaining films of 2012, just not one of the most coherent.