The Cabin In The Woods

Expectations will either make or break a movie. Sometimes you hear stuff about the movie and go in and find out everything you heard was complete bull...I am looking at you The Orphanage. Then sometimes you go and expectations are met and even beat to beyond our imaginations. This my friends is how I felt after walking out of The Cabin In The Woods which may be my new favorite film of the year! We rarely get to see smart, intelligent, well paced, mature, and unique horror films these days. Unless it is from Japan or Korea and at a time Italy, we generally can expected just slasher horror that can barely entertain an audience. The Cabin In The Woods will hopefully change that, it should be a game changer, that will bring new minds and new perspectives to the horror genre. I have high hopes for where the genre is headed after this film, but for now read on to get my specific thoughts.

The Cabin In The Woods is written by Joss Whedon and co-written and directed by Drew Goddard. The films stars Chris Hemsworth, Kristen Connolly, Anna Hutchison, Richard Jenkins, and Bradley Whitford.  The films follows every horror cliche in the book, we find a group of teenagers on the way to a vacation in a (guess what) cabin in the woods. Still, not everything is as at seems. Random occurrences seem more ordered and planned rather than coincidental. As the story unravels we learn not everything is as it seems and this is not merely some cabin in the woods. I would tell more but the less you know about the film the better.

I rarely have so much fun at the theater as I did with The Cabin In The Woods. Now that doesn't mean I don't see good movies in theaters, I enjoyed Shame for example but not the film you should have fun at. Back to my point, TCITW (The Cabin In The Woods) might just be the funniest, most intelligent film of the year that I think EVERYONE can enjoy. The premise is brilliant and the execution even better as Whedon and Goddard takes the audience on one hell of a wild ride.

Smart films, the best films, will make the audience think they know what is happening. I know I got caught up in this, thinking I knew everything as the film moved on. What makes this movie great though is that when you finally think you understand everything, you don't know anything at all. As the film progresses we learn detail by detail of whats going on behind the scenes and as the teenagers learn more so do we. Still the more we learn, the more we get dragged into the film and soak everything in like a sponge.

Further more be careful of SPOILERS from this point on. The hardest part of creating a movie based on this premise and one that slowly drags you into its mystery is that it has to pay off. If a film like this cannot pay off by the end then the audience will feel cheated and we will backlash like there is no tomorrow, for better understanding then watch The Happening. Luckily the pay off works and I know I actually enjoyed it. The story takes us behind the scenes of the cabin and shows us that everything fromt he villains to murders is all planned by a secret organization. Everything from hair dye to dumb down a blonde to pheromones to cause sex, everything is planned and put into action by people to murder these teenagers.  The blood and the killing of teenagers makes sense and we learn they are there to entertain the ancients. The kids are sacrifices in order to satisfy the ancients so that they will not destroy the earth. All of the sudden, in a flash, this movie creates an explanation of every single horror movie ever made. The best part is that it works! I really enjoyed it and I thought of every single horror movie with this idea in mind.

I must admit that I have become a big fan of Goddard and his work. He was a screenwriter on Cloverfield, the film everyone talked about that was finally made, and now directed this. I am very excited to see where he goes next. He crafts the films very intelligently as we flow back in forth from the teenagers to the organizations running the murders. We move from horror to comedy in some sense that created an entertaining mixture in my opinion. I admit there were points where the theater was quiet from the murders and the film would cut to the organization celebrating and drinking to the kids death and it made me laugh. Some very dark humor here and it works if you accept it.

There are also some incredible shots in this film that I adored! The tracking shot in the warehouse of all the different horror scenarios and creatures was just plain awesome! The last shot really took me away and I just loved the feel and mood of it all. Overall the direction is spot on as it is able to maneuver between classic horror film to the mystery of this organization. Not enough can be said to praise him for organizing the chaos that breaks out when all the creatures are released, the best scene in the film for sure!

It is heart warming to know that there are still unique and original ideas out there and that they can be executed to this level. TCITW will be an instant classic and be enjoyed for years to come. I can't remember the last time I walked out of a theater really, really, REALLY enjoying a film as much as I did this one. Its creative and a wonderful film to watch. Everyone should go see it because it is HIGHLY enjoyable!

4/4