*Warning: Spoilers Ahead!*
“Cabin In the Woods” is one of those movies you know is something special from the very beginning.
The film starts with an opening credit sequence brimming with blood and disturbing imagery, and then jumps to office workplace shenanigans, and then out of literally nowhere, the title is flashed on the screen in block red lettering with a sudden shriek of horror.
Can you name another film that does the same?
Surprises, not jump scares...
Cars run on gas, millennials run on snapchat, America runs on Dunkin’, and “Cabin In the Woods” runs on constantly surprising you.
It does this by introducing what the film is about and what’s at play early on, and then constantly upping the stakes throughout the entire runtime until they’re through the roof.
In the beginning, it’s not a whole lot more than just trashy straight-to-dvd slasher fare, and by the end, the entire world is at stake.
The best part? We as viewers never doubt it, it makes sense. And not only that, it’s incredibly fun to watch as the movie constantly one-ups itself.
“What else can we do? Where can we go from here?” the writers constantly seem to ponder.
Thinking such as this makes the plot one of the most interesting, one of the freshest, in years.
Too Much?
“Cabin in the Woods”, is easier to digest as a clever horror film rather than a horror comedy. This is for one simple reason:
It’s very, very violent.
It never turns into “torture porn”, which fortunately died out in the 2000s, but it does focus maybe a little too much on human suffering. Maybe even more than the slasher and horror films it takes to school.
However, this depends on the viewer, and for me it’s not too big of a deal, just something small.
Other than this, the film is virtually flawless.
Fran Kranz and Kristen Connolly smoke a fat one after killing Sigourney Weaver as the world ends.
What more do you want, horror fans?
Verdict
While it may be a little too oriented on human suffering at some points, “Cabin in the Woods” is a bizarre, twisted excursion into horror cinema that earns it’s spot on the list of horror films for people that want more than just a horror film.
This is wicked, highly original stuff.
It’s a must for anyone who’s dabbled in the horror genre.
Watch it.