The Cabin in the Woods

The Cabin in the Woods is the first horror film that I've seen in the cinema since Paranormal Activity. I guess I was attracted to it by virtue of its supposed genre-bending meta story and Joss Whedon's involvement. Curiously enough, I'm not a big Whedon fan. While I loved Firefly, I've never seen Buffy or much of anything else he's done excluding the first episode of Dollhouse which inspired me to avoid the second installment. As a bonus, director and co-writer Drew Goddard wrote several episodes of LOST so I figured it would at least be an interesting addition to the horror genre.

The story begins in an unidentified office complex with a pair of technicians flinging braggadocio and jokes at a female co-worker about an upcoming assignment before speeding away in a golf cart. Meanwhile a group of college students prepare to head out on vacation to the titular hideaway in a ramshackle RV. Two comely ladies, Dana (the bookish type) and Jules (the ditzy blond), will be accompanied by Curt (handsome jock), Holden (geek), and Marty (stoner). The slasher flick conventions codified by John Carpenter start early as the camera gives us a peek into Dana's bedroom as she packs for the trip clad in underwear and a t-shirt. Youthful sexuality must be punished!

A stop at a rundown and seemingly abandoned gas station provides a hint of what is to come with the scarred old proprietor warning the sybaritic travelers of their destination. They finally make it to their destinati and settle in for a night of drinking and whatever fun that may follow. Meanwhile our techies, Sitterson and Hadley, settle in for a night's work. Their job is to turn an innocent bit of adolescent fun into a nightmare. Cameras are scattered about the cabin so that they can direct the action. Hitting a switch opens a door in the cabin's floor. The revelers can't restrain their curiosity and descend into the darkness where all manner of ephemera litter the dank and dusty basement while the techies are taking bets with co-workers on how the kids will react. Scattered around the basement are various items which, when used, will unleash a horror. There's a puzzle box, a conch shell, and a diary, amongst many other things. Dana reads from a diary that supposedly belonged to one Patience Buckner. Unbeknownst to them, this brings to life the Buckner family – as zombies.

Most of The Cabin in the Woods is a deconstruction of the slasher genre. While cinematographer Peter Deming, a confidante of David Lynch, does his level best to create some incredibly spooky visuals, Sitterson and Hadley undermine it by simply going about their jobs which are to use all the technology and gadgetry at their disposal to ensure that our partiers live out their last minutes in accordance with the genre's tropes. And so some kind of pheromone is released so that Jules and Curt get all randy. We get a glimpse of Jules' breasts on the big board and her youthful sexuality is punished. Fully aware that they are beset by some very awful creatures, Curt wisely suggests that they should all stick together. However, a gas is released which causes him to change his mind and instead he opines that they should split up. Plus in LOST fashion, there was a whiteboard listing the possible badies the students may unwittingly unleash that was shown only briefly. But one could still see “Witches”, “Sexy Witches”, and “Angry Molesting Tree” amongst the choices. All of this post-modern posturing is great fun. I found myself laughing and enjoying the self-referential bits to the point where the horror really wasn't particularly horrifying.

The true terror comes in the film's finale as those who have escaped the Buckner's wrath discover that they are puppets being manipulated. I don't want to spoil too much here but fans of a certain American horror author hailing from Rhode Island will catch on to phrases like “eternal sleep” and understand exactly why Sitterson and Hadley are in an underground bunker making sure that a group of college students are being killed off by zombies. At the push of a button all hell breaks loose and the movie smoothly changes gears from poking fun at the horror genre to immanent doom.