The Cabin in the Woods [2011]
Directed by: Drew Goddard
Written by: Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon
Starring: Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford, Brian White, Amy Acker, Sigourney Weaver
Horror is one of the genres with less appeal to me as a film buff and budding critic. There have been few movies in this genre that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed and even less have really and truly frightened me.
The Omen remains my favorite scary flick, The Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby are undisputable classics and I love how Sam Raimi juggles terror and comedy in Drag Me to Hell.
But aside from that Top 4, I struggle to find other satisfying titles among my limited forays into the genre. After months of glowing reviews, I sort of expected Cabin in the Woods to join the list but, despite some shining moments, it falls short.
I’ll give this meta-horror/comedy/sci-fi points for originality. It offers an interesting, unorthodox spin on a tired genre and its characters, even though they’re stock, are well-developed and easy to identify with.
It has fun with horror tropes and mixes things up just enough to separate itself from other spoofs/parodies/homages. But, for a movie that’s supposed to take the genre and its conventions and turn them on their heads, it sure falls prey to the same clichés and trite techniques. After a promising start and an exciting second act, the film unravels rapidly towards its messy climax and weak ending.
This is the same thing that ultimately crippled Chronicle. Mayhem in your story doesn’t mean there should be mayhem in your storytelling, and that was Whedon and Goddard’s biggest mistake. Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford are great in their roles and the movie, though imperfect, flies by, so you won’t be asking for your money back.
I’m with you on this one Fernando; was extremely disappointed having expected it to be a lot funnier and a lot more clever. The Innkeepers and The Woman in Black are the two horror movies that have stood out for me so far this year – http://letterboxd.com/brnicholson/list/films-of-2012/
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Thanks, Ben. I agree. It was going well for me, but I though it all came downhill at the climax. Such a mess and the twist was awful. Boo, Sigourney!
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Good write-up here Fernando. I agree with almost everything you said. As it went, I actually quite liked the ending. I was expecting more though but I still had some fun with it.
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Thanks, Mark! I think it was just too much for me. They threw too many things at once.
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Aww, darn. I hoped you would like this movie. This is the kind of film that, in my opinion, would guarantee someone who can merely tolerate the horror genre far more enjoyability than someone who appreciates the genre head over heels. I’m kind of in the middle, maybe a little toward the former, but I really enjoyed this one. We brought up some of the same points, but our main disagreement appears to regard the writing. I LOVED it! In my opinion, just about everything in the writing worked well. Sad that you thought the ending was messy, also, and even compared it to the ending in Chronicle. Yes, Chronicle did end on a very lackluster note, but the final 20-30 minutes struck me as one of the most bizarre yet succinct ways to thoroughly encapsulate a film’s entire message. Still, great review.
P.S.: No special mention for Fran Kranz? 😦
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Thanks. I didn’t love it as you (and I) thought I would, but I certainly didn’t hate it. There’s some good stuff here.
Guess I just need my horror to be scary (which it rarely is) or maybe I’m just not sensitive to it. I thought the writing was very good at first but then it fell apart. And that climax and ending were awful and unimaginative. About Fran Kranz, he was good but I didn’t love his performance. Plus, I kinda had a feeling he’s like that in real life, haha. And I didn’t really like the character.
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I’m not a horror fan but I’m curious about this one because of Whedon’s direction. Interesting that you didn’t like it as much as others, seems like a lot of the reviews I’ve read praised it. I’ll make sure I don’t expect too much then when I do see it 🙂
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Just one thing. Whedon didn’t direct, he wrote it. But yeah, his mark is visible in CITW. And yes, many have praised, but it just wasn’t very good for me. It plays with conventions but makes many of the same mistakes. I still enjoyed and it went by pretty fast.
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Nice write up. It does get very chaotic at the end but I did enjoy it. I do think it’s a film that would perhaps benefit from a second viewing perhaps.
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Thanks, man! And yeah, maybe I’ll give it another shot someday.
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Great review, Fernando! It’s a shame you didn’t enjoy it as much as I did though. It’s still one of my favourite films of 2012, although that may be because I hardly knew anything about it before seeing it. I still need to check out Drag Me to Hell, Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist but I fear I’m too much of a coward to get through them!
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I knew very little as well before seeing it but I guess it just didn’t fully work for me. It was going well but I thought that it came apart at the climax. Haha, and you should check out Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist, they’re chilling classics. So good. And DMTH is very fun. Super hilarious but still very creepy.
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nice review Fernando. agree with this. its original but the storytelling could have used some improvements.
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Thanks! 🙂
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“the film unravels rapidly towards its messy climax and weak ending.”
I had a much different take. For me, what really takes “The Cabin in the Woods” to the next level is the final third that quite frankly, blew my mind. It’s a brilliant payoff to a generic horror setup.
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Haha, I guess we look for different things in our horror but I hated that, Mark! I thought it was unimaginative and a disaster.
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Glad I’m not the only one who didn’t see what all the fuss was about. Nice write up dude 🙂
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Thanks, Tyson!
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I actually liked this one. It had the same tone and humor as the best Buffy episodes (of which I’m a fan). Is it scary? No. But great fun. I was surprised how well it worked for me considering that horror isn’t my favorite genre and most of the references were lost on me.
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It was working great for me as well but I didn’t like the way they closed things up and explained the twists and everything. They lost me there.
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I with you Fernando – I’m not a fan of horror films as many of them are predictable and frankly dull. Cabin had a really good go at poking fun at the conventions and succeeded, although there were still many of the same cliches which it was supposed to be parodying. Loved the blood-soaked scene with the elevators!
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Thanks, Andy! And that scene was fun and tense, but it came amid total chaos, which I didn’t really appreciate, as you can see, haha.
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This, sir, is one of my personal favorite movies of the entire year. I was absolutely blown away by it. One of those “better than sex” movies.
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Wow! That is some high praise, man! Glad you loved it. As you can see, I didn’t enjoy it as much.
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I do see that, but you have have HAVE to be a Whedon-fan, and know how he ticks to enjoy it. There was so much hidden messages within this movie. People are all like “oh it was so predictable” it was supposed to be…that was the entire point.
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Yeah, maybe that’s it. I’m not a Whedon fan. Granted, I haven’t seen a lot from him, but I didn’t enjoy The Avengers!
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Completely agree with your top four, completely disagree with your view on this movie. If you only watched it once, I hope you give it another chance; first time I thought it was only okay, but every time I rewatch it, it climbs my list as I laugh my ass off. Your top 4, Cabin in the Woods and Texas Chainsaw Massacre (original) are easily my top six.
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Thanks for commenting, Nick. Glad we share some favorites in the horror genre. And while it didn’t drive me crazy the first time around, I actually think this one would improve with another viewing.
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