The Cabin in the Woods - Review

 "DO NOT read the Latin!"

The Cabin in the Woods makes for a great time at the movies.  Its success depends largely on a knowledge of basic horror stereotypes.  As in any run-of-the-mill horror movie, we're presented with "the whore, the hero, the scholar, the fool, and the virgin" (the movie's vocabulary).  The filmmakers use these and other familiar horror staples to flip the genre on its head... and then some.  Right from the get go, we're clued in that this is no typical horror movie, but we don't know what's in store for the next hour and a half.  To say the film takes an unexpected turn is quite the understatement, but it's hard to say too much else without spoiling the fun.  Suffice it to say that we essentially get a metaphorical peek behind the curtains into the imagination of horror film directors.  The film poses the question of free will in horror films.  Are the characters in horror films really given the option of free will, or are they stock characters who essentially are written to do drugs, drink alcohol, have sex, and then get killed?  The film poses this and other questions as it picks apart the horror genre to create a film that's both imaginative and fun.  I love and appreciate movies that surprise viewers with something unexpected.  The Cabin in the Woods certainly does just that.

They're not like something from a nightmare.  They're something nightmares are from.

SPOILER ALERT: In The Cabin in the Woods, the facility employees in the film act as stand-ins for the film's creators, pulling the strings along the way to manipulate the characters.  The "ancient ones" could be the horror film audience itself.  We've been around for years (as long as the genre has existed), and we've grown accustomed to the typical horror film.  As Marty states in the film, maybe it's time to give some new life a chance.  Filmmakers like Goddard and Whedon are certainly allowing exactly that - breathing new life into the horror genre and subverting it to no end.  The film was fittingly released on Friday the 13th.

5 out of 5 (because it's just so darn fun)