Film Review: The Cabin in the Woods
By Alejandra Ortega
After seeing “The Cabin in the Woods” there are only four words I can say to fully express how entertaining this film was: Joss Whedon is back. Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog) is known for his strange humor, monsters and wild fantasy. His latest film offers all of this and more.
There are some who claim “The Cabin in the Woods” is the end of horror films we have come to know. I would prefer to think of it as more of a kick-start to a new style of horror. It certainly gives cheap horror films a run for their money, raising the bar for a more smart, witty, thriller instead. “The Cabin in the Woods” makes fun of your typical horror films from the order people are killed, to the fact that you need to split up instead of sticking together.
To completely explain the plot would be to ruin the point of the entire movie for anyone who even remotely has an interest in the film. The most I could say is it focuses on five stock horror film characters – the slut, the athlete, the scholar, the fool and the virgin- who are as stock as any stock character could possibly be, who then pack up their things for a trip to a cabin. They find a vast assortment of objects in the cellar, and their choice essentially results in the terror that follows the rest of the film.
What makes “The Cabin in the Woods” so unique to other horror films is the fact that it doesn’t focus on the five characters trying to escape their villains. It starts in an office building with three characters dressed in typical work attire discussing plans that the audience won’t understand until a third of the way into the film. It’s the cut between the horror and the office that makes this story like no other horror film ever seen before. To explain the office setting would be to ruin the film. All I can say is, Whedon wrote an interesting, funny script for Drew Goddard (Cloverfield) to direct.
Goddard and Whedon all in all managed to tackle the cliches of horror film, and use them to their advantage. Any Whedon fan will adore the cast. Fran Kranz (Dollhouse) brought his usual comic relief to the film, while appearances of Amy Acker (Angel, Dollhouse) or Tom Lenk (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) were nice treats to smile at their appearance on the big screen. As usual, Whedon reuses his actors from the past. His work on “Avengers” (due in early May) brought on Chris Hemsworth (Avengers, Thor, Star Trek) as the athlete. With a small special appearance of Sigourney Weaver.
While I would highly recommend this film to any horror lovers out there, I will say for warning there are bloody parts to the film that are not for the faint of heart. It was these creepy death scenes that left me with a mix of love and “what the?” feeling after watching the film. With this in mind, it is obvious this film is going to last beyond its box office success it had this weekend.