Cabin in the Woods Review

Cabin in the Woods Review
By Ryan Casey

Horror movies are unfortunately most often than not, ridiculous and this usually results in filmmakers intentionally spoofing the genre. With examples of mainstream horror parodies such as ‘Mars Attacks’ and the ‘Scream’ series, director Drew Goddard and writer Joss Whedon’s Cabin in the Woods is the latest high profile excursion into this satirical realm.

At face value Cabin in the Woods offers no major variations to the standard plot of your average slasher movie. Five varying teenage stereotypes; Curt the jock (Chris Hemsworth), Marty the stoner (Fran Kranz), Jules the slut (Anna Hutchinson), Holden the nerd (Jesse Williams) and Dana the innocent virgin (Kristen Connelly) head out on a weekend trip to an isolated cabin in the woods.

Soon enough a mysterious evil is alerted to their presence and begins a ghastly mission to systematically hunt and destroy each of them. As the quintet attempt to escape the clutches of this demonic force, the nature of their predicament begins to unravel, unveiling the shocking truth behind the origins of the cabin itself.

To begin my rant, I literally could not stand any of the main protagonists, each being as irritating and instantly forgettable as the next. Don’t get me wrong, I know given the nature of the movie these characters are designed to be brutally murdered, so building up an empathetic relationship with the audience is pretty pointless, yet this did not stop me cringing every time Marty the stoner decided to open his waste man mouth and attempt to tell an over intellectual witticism. This ‘Cabin in the Wood’en script left me so cold I think for a brief moment I may have craved even the varnished pine dialogue of ‘The Phantom Menace’.

Falling into the category of the horror satire meant Cabin in the Woods had to deliver in being scary and funny; unfortunately for me it didn’t meet either criteria. The horror elements of the movie are either far too predictable or presented in such an explicit fashion that they make the mindless gore of the ‘Saw’ franchise series seem like the works of Shakespeare.

My review partner Simon on the other hand wholeheartedly disagrees with my review. He thought the whole premise of the film was very clever and excellently executed. [SPOILER AHEAD] The idea of all the famous horror characters being stored in a facility and released when needed was an stroke of genius with wonderful little nods to other horror films, his favourite of which being the obvious parody of the Cenobites from ‘Hellraiser’. On the whole I think Simon really enjoyed this one.

In my opinion the films comic relief is tedious and misplaced and because of this I feel that if Cabin in the Woods had refrained from any humorous satire and concentrated on being solely a physiological thriller the end result would have been a much more satisfying movie. Simon disagrees and thinks the script was polished and the tongue and cheek humour worked really well. Clearly this one divides opinion but I feel Whedon was too busy trying on Thor outfits with Chris Hemsworth to really focus on this project.