A Review of Cabin in the Woods; Death of a Sub-Genre?

**I'll try to keep this spoiler-free, in the interest of those who haven't seen this movie, as I very much want people to go see it. If I can help that with this review, even better.**


This might be the year that Joss Whedon takes over the world.

Unless you have been living under a rock (in a basement, on the moon, of Earth 2), you are aware that the Avengers movie is coming out this year, in less than a month in fact. That movie alone will put Whedon's name on the map of not just the cult following he has, but the entire mainstream world. As a filmmaker, Whedon has yet to really make his mark on anyone other than Browncoats, the devoted fan base of his masterpiece Firefly who made Whedon's first film Serenity a reality in the first place. While that was a wide film release, and saw some successes in box office and DVD sales, it could be argued that he still hasn't made the transition from TV to film, even with Buffy, Angel, Firefly, and Dollhouse under his belt.

After this year, that argument is over. And it starts with Cabin in the Woods.

CITW has been finished and caught in post-developmental hell for about a year, and finally found its way to a wide release this April through Alliance and Lionsgate (I'm writing a Thank You letter as we speak). The trailers and marketing campaigns show this movie as a new way to approach the 'cabin in the woods' horror sub-genre, made famous by films like Friday the 13th. However, anyone following the development of the film, or anyone who knows Whedon's work for that matter, expected more of a tongue-in-cheek satire of sorts. So before I go on, let me say this: THIS IS NOT A HORROR MOVIE. The negative criticisms made by people who have seen this movie basically surround how they 'thought they were going to see a horror movie'. The fact that this movie is as good as it is and people can still hate it based on that drives me insane. It's the same attitude people brought to Drive, hating it for not being Fast and the Furious. There is a reason these expectations were not met, and it is because THESE MOVIES ALREADY FUCKING EXIST! Seriously, anyone going into CITW expecting a new Friday the 13th, don't go. Don't pay your money to be disappointed (or do, because I want this movie to make money). Just go to your closest movie rental store and rent a couple of the LITERALLY THOUSANDS of movies that belong to the 'cabin in the woods' sub-genre. It is entirely possible that the marketing of the film is at fault for this attitude, and that's fine. I could see that, and have been burned by similar misconceptions based on trailers and the like. So shame on whoever let the audience think this satirical masterpiece was just another manipulation of jump-scares and torture porn.

Now it might seem that I'm giving Joss Whedon all the credit for Cabin, and that's wrong. Total kudos goes to director Drew Goddard, who also co-wrote the film with Whedon. The film looks and flows greatly, and even the parts that look 'bad' do so for a reason, like a lot of the less-than-perfect elements of the film. Goddard has worked with Whedon in the past on his works, and is probably most famous for writing the (under appreciated, in my opinion) film Cloverfield. Considering that CITW is his directorial debut makes me all the more impressed with the film.

The plot synopsis, as stolen from Joblo.com, is as follows: Five friends head to a cabin in the woods for a weekend of fun, not realising that forces outside of their control have vastly different plans for them.In the interest of what I said earlier about expectations, I'll go on record saying that this is a pretty weak sum-up for this movie. Also, to be fair, I went into this movie just because I knew Whedon wrote it and I loved it, and pretty much everyone who has gone with me to this movie did so with the same motivation. I could have known absolutely nothing about this movie except for that and still would have gone in with every expectation of awesomeness, but I can accept that not all people have that faith. While the idea of turning a film sub-genre (ESPECIALLY a horror sub-genre) into a satire of itself is hardly original, this movie has done it better than most. I hesitate to use the word 'spoof' as a way to describe this movie because at times it comes off as such, but it's much more than just that. Besides, using 'spoof' to describe a good movie died with 'Scary Movie'. I'll use 'satire' because much of the humour in relation to the sub-genre it's referencing is much more subtle than a spoof like Scary Movie 'Young Frankenstein'. I would describe CITW as more of a 'Galaxy Quest' for horror movies, only R-rated and WAY darker, in that the humour and satire is strongly present but there's enough elements of the genre in the story that the film could and should be considered a part of it. Basically, at the end of the day, if I have to decide whether to put CITW in the 'Comedy' or the 'Horror' section of the movie store, it's going in 'Horror'. 

My question is this: What happens to the titular cabin?

The 'cabin in the woods' motif that this movie plays off of has been a part of scary movies since (at least) the 1970's, with classic films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday the 13th. Granted, these two films alone have been sequeled, remade, and rebooted to True Death, never mind the constant reuse of the motif in MUCH lesser films. It could even be said that Evil Dead (the film I believe CITW emulates most) was satirical towards this sub-genre, and is now considered a classic horror film in it's own right. Despite this, there really hasn't been a significant 'cabin' movie in some time, probably since Eli Roth's 'Cabin Fever', a breath of fresh air into the genre that, while great in and of itself, didn't help anything in the big picture. The sad news is that the horror genre is dying, with the mainstays being 'Zombies', 'Remakes', 'Torture Porn', and 'Paranormal Activity'. Vampires have been slowly castrated over the last decade, and while I could make an argument about how Whedon might be a little responsible for that, I'd rather be a hypocrite and blame Twilight, because I believe that all the world's problems are either Twilight or World-of-Warcraft related. The need desire for major film companies to make money over quality horror films typically result in a lesser rating, maybe something in a PG-13. This results in:

1. less language, blood/gore, sex (don't kid yourself, it's necessary for horror films)
2. a hard and swift kick to the balls of the filmmakers, fans, and the films that preceded them.

Now, as I said before, making fun of horror happens all the time, and it's never hurt that much before. Evil Dead turned out to be a satire almost by accident, but picked it up and ran with it and made the genre stronger for it. 'Shaun of the Dead' breathed new life into the 'zombie' sub-genre, which as we can see today is all over the goddamn place. But I don't think that CITW is going to have the same effect. Why? It simply might be TOO good.

Think about it: back in the day, movies like TCM and Friday the 13th were unprecedented and state-of-the-art horror films. No one had seen anything like them, and the movies scared the ever loving shit out of just about everyone. Then the darkness came. Sequel after ripoff after reboot, the motif became less and less effective up to now, with the walls of Family Video lined with direct-to-DVD releases with ridiculous names like MURDERDEATHKILLEXTREMEBOO-AH-AH-AH-AH hanging out beside the newest Hellraiser sequel or whatever. This particular sub-genre may never see better days than people like myself watching these movies ironically amongst highly intoxicated friends laughing at nothing in particular. And while that sucks, what may be worse is to have two outsiders come in out of nowhere with a movie that is not only better than 99.999% of all 'cabin' movies, but picks apart and makes fun of every recognisable trope within said movies, and to have that movie be such a critical and financial success (again, as it deserves to be) that it executes the coup de gras on the legacies of Jason and Co. As a movie fan, I don't want that to happen.

So yes, go see 'Cabin in the Woods', knowing that it is not a straight-up horror film. Expect to laugh, if only at the absurdity of it all. Appreciate the talents of Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard behind the camera, as well as the performances of those in front of it, like Chris 'Thor' Hemsworth, Amy Acker, and Fran 'I steal ALL of the scenes' Kranz. Then go home and decide if this will be the 'Shaun of the Dead' of the 'cabin' motif, or does it make Friday the 13th look ridiculous.

Next week, I'm throwing my hat into the 'Hunger Games VS Battle Royale' debate. After that, expect a whole lot more Whedon ass kissing as I address the Earth's Mightiest Movie (May 4th!).

And for fuck's sake, don't split up.

Knight Owl