Cabin in the Woods (15.)
Directed by Drew Goddard.
Starring Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Fran Kranz, Anna Hutchison, Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford. 95 mins
In The Cabin in the Woods the writers of Cloverfield and Buffy The Vampire Slayer combine to (for the word I am about to type please forgive me) deconstruct the horror film and, in the process, make the first riotously entertaining film of the year.
Even its poster is magnificent – a wooden cabin spinning round like a Rubik cube. It’s a striking image that few films could live up to but the way it all fits together is ingenious and enlightening. Audiences are accustomed to having our simple minded entertainments served up to us with a post modern, self reflexive twist, but this is something far more thorough. It doesn’t just parody the tropes of the scary film but also analyses why we enjoy them and the purpose they serves.
This inspired horror comedy doesn’t leave reviewers much – every smart and witty insight you might possibly make about The Cabin in the Woods is contained within its ninety-five minute running time. Best just to say as little about it as possible.
I was going to restrict myself to a description of the first two scenes but even that feels like it gives away too much. It’s enough for you to know that an archetypal five teenagers go off to spend the weekend in an archetypal remote cabin and find themselves terrorised in archetypal ways, watched on by two white coated scientists in an underground laboratory.
It should be emphasised that this is more comedy than horror and if there is a criticism it is that while the comedy spirals off into all kinds of strange areas, the scares it generates are fairly generic.
Though the film is a meeting of two production companies – JJ Abrams’ Bad Robot (Director Goddard wrote Cloverfield and for Lost,) and Joss Whedon’s Mutant Enemy (Buffy, Firefly, Dollhouse) – the resulting film seems like pure Whedon. While Abrams’ star has risen steadily in recent years, Whedon had seemed to be on the decline with a run of cancelled TV shows and then having this film spend two years on the shelf after the MGM bankruptcy.
It’s great to have him back. Few people can shape a one liner like him; even fewer can dissect popular culture and put it back together with more love and insight than seemed possible.
Directed by Drew Goddard.
Starring Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Fran Kranz, Anna Hutchison, Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford. 95 mins
In The Cabin in the Woods the writers of Cloverfield and Buffy The Vampire Slayer combine to (for the word I am about to type please forgive me) deconstruct the horror film and, in the process, make the first riotously entertaining film of the year.
Even its poster is magnificent – a wooden cabin spinning round like a Rubik cube. It’s a striking image that few films could live up to but the way it all fits together is ingenious and enlightening. Audiences are accustomed to having our simple minded entertainments served up to us with a post modern, self reflexive twist, but this is something far more thorough. It doesn’t just parody the tropes of the scary film but also analyses why we enjoy them and the purpose they serves.
This inspired horror comedy doesn’t leave reviewers much – every smart and witty insight you might possibly make about The Cabin in the Woods is contained within its ninety-five minute running time. Best just to say as little about it as possible.
I was going to restrict myself to a description of the first two scenes but even that feels like it gives away too much. It’s enough for you to know that an archetypal five teenagers go off to spend the weekend in an archetypal remote cabin and find themselves terrorised in archetypal ways, watched on by two white coated scientists in an underground laboratory.
It should be emphasised that this is more comedy than horror and if there is a criticism it is that while the comedy spirals off into all kinds of strange areas, the scares it generates are fairly generic.
Though the film is a meeting of two production companies – JJ Abrams’ Bad Robot (Director Goddard wrote Cloverfield and for Lost,) and Joss Whedon’s Mutant Enemy (Buffy, Firefly, Dollhouse) – the resulting film seems like pure Whedon. While Abrams’ star has risen steadily in recent years, Whedon had seemed to be on the decline with a run of cancelled TV shows and then having this film spend two years on the shelf after the MGM bankruptcy.
It’s great to have him back. Few people can shape a one liner like him; even fewer can dissect popular culture and put it back together with more love and insight than seemed possible.
