Cabin In The Woods sounds like your typical horror film. A bunch of stereotyped college kids go crash at a cabin in the woods where they are slowly off'd one by one. As the tagline says: "You think you know the story"...but you really don't. Cabin in the Woods takes the go-to premise of your by-the-numbers horror film and builds upon it in ways you could never imagine.
So, what's really going on in the film? Well, I can't do an adequate review without spoiling some things, so I'll try to keep the spoilers as minor as possible. I'll put an alert near the end of the review when the spoiler material is over so skip there now if you don't want to know anything about this special little film.
There is a shady company that specializes in the ritualistic slaughter of kids, teens, and college students. In each group that they monitor, the victims must fit into stereotyped groups: The Whore, The Virgin, The Athlete, The Fool, and The Scholar. Since no human being perfectly fits any of these stereotypes the company has to manipulate each victim in such a way that they BECOME that stereotype. Why are they doing this? Who do they work for? What is the true secret behind the cabin in the woods? I'm not telling, you'll have to watch and see for yourself.
In the group we focus on there is Marty (The Stoner, as portrayed by Fran Kranz...Marty is easily my favorite character), Curt (The Jock, as portrayed by Chris Hemsworth, the marketing would have you believe he is the main character here...but is he?), Jules (The "Fun" girl, as portrayed by the super-hawt Anna Hutchison who has a phenomenal ass), Dana (The "pure" girl, as portrayed by Kristen Connolly), and Holden (The Smart One, as portrayed by Jesse Williams).
Unlike other horror films, Cabin in the Woods actually builds up these characters and adds a little depth to them so they aren't just "The Funny Stoner", etc. These are human beings that we get to watch as they are slowly transformed into stereotypes during the course of the film. We are given time to know these characters and form bonds with them, so the deaths actually have weight behind them. You will care when a person dies.
Most of the film deals with how these people are manipulated, and the inner workings of the shady company. This makes for a pretty interesting film, but it wasn't quite all I had wanted it to be until the last act when they push this baby into overdrive. I won't say what exactly happens but shit gets real, we get some answers, and what is quite possibly the ultimate showdown occurs.
NO MORE SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT
Cabin of The Woods is a film that holds it's cards closely to its chest. It makes many bold choices that most other horror films would never dare to make (and I respect that), it re-defines the horror genre and how we view horror films, it saves the best for last, and it has one "out-of-left-field" cameo that had me cheering with joy. Quite simply, it's the horror film I have been waiting for. It's bound to generate discussions amongst horror and non-horror fans alike. You've never seen anything like it.
Honestly, I think a suitable replacement title could have been The Last Horror Film, because it really is exactly that.
Cabin in the Woods is a creative, fun, and original horror film that is a guaranteed treat for all.
5/5- BETTER THAN SEX
ALSO: If the Cabin in the film looks familiar, that's because it's the very same Cabin used in The Evil Dead 2
No comments:
Post a Comment