The Cabin in the Woods

15

2012

Director Drew Goddard

The Cabin in the Woods is about as scary as a hug from Cheryl Cole. However, as a witty, knowledgeable and intelligent investigation of the oversaturated Horror genre, it is one of the more interesting blood ‘n’ guts offerings in recent years.


It focuses on five cosmetically pleasing adolescents spending a weekend in the titular dwelling. As per usual, bloody shenanigans ensue, but is there more to the sadistic teenage torment than meets the eye?

The Horror genre is arguably the most predictable of all of Hollywood’s sturdy pillars, and yet it seems to be the one churned out with increased frequency. The deaths may be gorier and the suffering nastier, but the formula remains the same: attractive young people being picked off and hacked up one by one. There is certainly plenty of literature surrounding this morbid human cinematic fascination, but writers Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon are the first pair to really challenge this psychopathic phenomenon within a mainstream context since Wes Craven’s superlative Scream (1996) well over a decade ago.

Cabin is inferior to Craven’s piece, which was able to maintain the chills, whilst also adding in laughs, nods, winks, raised eyebrows and brain-teasers. Cabin walks a similar scarlet-stained path to Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell (2008). The knowledge and love of the genre bleeds from every reel. Whedon has proven himself to be a master of adding life (and death) to dying genres; he has done it for Science-Fiction on both the Big and Small Screen with Serenity and Firefly, and, most notably, with Horror itself in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Similarly Goddard is no stranger to this genre focus either, having worked with Whedon on Buffy and Angel, and also on J. J. Abrams’ spy series Alias.

The walking talking clichés that comprise Cabin’s characters are made bearable via this fascinating debunking. There is a reason for Chris Hemsworth’s (Thor, 2011) buff jock, just as there is for Ann Hutchinson’s slutty blonde and Fran Kranz’s stoned nerd. The narrative accelerates into a violent overdrive in the film’s final third when the mystery begins to unravel in earnest. It isn’t entirely successful. The creature effects in this portion begin to look rushed and the crimson cacophony borders on ridiculous.

But The Cabin in the Woods is aware of the kind of monster it is and revels in both its sublime and silly nature. Divisive and polarizing amongst Horror fans certainly, it is nothing if not an absolute feast of blood, guts, gore, and, most importantly and praiseworthy of all, originality.

*** ¾ / *****