Five college-aged individuals head up to the titled destination for a brief respite from their traditional college lives. They meet up with a deranged yokel who warns them not to go to the cabin. They want to party hard dammit, so they continue on and arrive at the cabin. They find peculiar features all around plus a ton of creepy, old junk down in the basement of the cabin. One read through a beat-up journal and shouting out some Latin words at its last entry later, strange things begin to pop out from the ground just outside the cabin.
With such a lackluster title and the above plot description that is brilliant for a pitched Syfy Original Movie, why is it that THE CABIN IN THE WOODS is going to be well remembered and dissected for present and future special screenings and genre film essays? Simple, this film is out to get you, the viewer, and actively loathes you. When the vast general public who will go out and thankfully see this film return to the outside environment, the majority of them will easily display their red-hot tempers and strain all of their facial muscles with their utterly disgusted expressions. This movie throws a pipe-bomb out to the audience, annihilating your accepted manners and thoughts when it comes to horror movies, yet still gives you the mighty and delicious cake you requested. Call it a game-changer, a massive display of deconstruction, or a piss-stained notice to the hacks in the horror film business. Regardless of any special labels you give it, it is still an effective horror-comedy sure to bring a "wow" to your lips.
Though I did go over what actually happens in the main action, with fantastically funny performances by all five actors including a pre-THOR Chris Hemsworth, I didn't mention the secondary plot that ties a hard noose around the film. This plot, which involves distinguished character actors Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford, is showcased in the very first scenes. It then keeps popping up whenever it feels like it, until it assumes absolute control over the proceedings in the third act. It is this storyline, which I won't spoil, that will prove to be a mean cattle prod to everyone's tastes. If you take the initial shock, follow the chosen direction of Drew Goddard and move along with the movie, you will surely love what will come next. Other viewers might rather choose to be forlorn lost souls, enduring the plentiful finger-points at the smoke and mirrors of it all before asking for a refund.
What made me really enjoy the film, besides being very funny, is how the tone and mood rapidly move back and forth throughout, never standing still and never giving you the chance to truly like only one set of characters. As the violence greatly intensifies to the point where there is more spilled blood then paint on the walls, you'll be alternating between satisfied glee to grim sadness, wondering why these people now must suffer the consequences of others' actions. There is no black and white morality to stand by here, only expert use to abuse your feelings. Stoddard and co-writer/producer/nerd-bait juggernaut Joss Whedon certainly give it their all to make a horror film with actual complexity.
There are some big problems that severely halt this vicious working machine, most unfortunately being the cinematography. Several important moments are vastly under-lit and hard to pick out what you're seeing. For a film that gives a crushing blow to modern horror film outputs, the fact it can't accomplish this easy technique is truly sad. Add this to the fact that this long delayed film was going to be re-purposed for 3D screenings and it becomes abysmal. Then there is the bizarre yet annoying addition with a deus ex machina that is literally a giant red button, but that will lead to spoiler talk. Despite these grave misgivings, make sure to check this out before our spoiler-friendly culture ruins all the surprises. THE CABIN IN THE WOODS obliterates everything put forth by the SCREAM franchise to stand out as the king of post-modern horror.
FINAL REVIEW: 4 / 5
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