Movie Review: The Cabin in the Woods

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I’ll start off this review by noting that the genre of this film is listed as “horror comedy.”  And while that may sound totally contradictory, it accurately reflects a movie that repeatedly contradicts itself, and is the reason why I wanted to start off this review by mentioning it.  Though “contradicting” most of the time is a negative thing, it works for this movie.  Without giving anything away, it has frightening scenes while also making a mockery of horror films.  And if that doesn’t make any sense at all, which I’m sure it probably doesn’t, you’ll just have to watch the movie to see for yourself exactly what I’m talking about.  Whether you’re a horror movie fan or not, you’ll most likely have positive things to say about The Cabin in the Woods because of its unique take on the genre.

It’s always tough to describe the plot without giving spoilers away, but it is especially tough with this movie.  In any case, here it goes: A group of five college students decide to spend the weekend at a remote and abandon cabin in the woods.  It’s so remote that even GPS signals cannot pick up the location, so the group is truly off the grid.  After they arrive and get settled in, strange occurrences begin, piquing fears and/or curiosities from the characters.  When a cellar door mysteriously opens up out of nowhere, these fears and curiosities get taken to the next level.

As you can imagine, each of the characters venture down into the cellar and discover all sorts of strange and creepy objects.  The simple task of picking up and examining these objects, however, is what kicks off the action in this movie.  After an old diary is read aloud from one of the members of the group, it incites the evil horror that seeks to kill them all.  For the remainder of the movie, the group just tries to escape the cabin in the woods with their lives.  But while this sounds very basic, twist after twist is unraveled in the movie, leaving the viewer very intrigued as to what will happen next.

Lionsgate

If I provide any more details about the plot, the movie will slowly begin to be spoiled because the movie is pretty uniquely written.  It may not sound unique, though.  The plot sounds very similar to hundreds of horror movies throughout film history, but that is exactly what the writers of this movie were going for.  They mocked many traditional aspects of the horror genre while actually making it a genuine horror film.  The characters were your classic horror genre characters (the jock, slut, nerd, stoner/loser, and virgin.  The situations they found themselves in were your classic horror genre situations.  But the two things that separates this movie from those hundreds of prior horror movies are the subtle mockery and the vast depth.

I’ll attempt to touch a little on the “depth” part now.  On the surface, everything about this movie is simple.  But as you get further and further into the movie, things get far more complicated.  You get several big plot twists and these twists are what make the movie worth watching.  Before you know it you will be pulled to the edge of your seat, wondering what is going to happen next.  For the first half of the movie I was quickly thinking I would give this movie a terrible review.  The characters were so cliché and annoying and it felt like a effortlessly made horror movie.  But as I got deeper into the movie, my opinions quickly changed.  The second half of the movie is very interesting with things you didn’t see coming.  And I think that’s exactly what the writers were shooting for: to set up the viewers in the first half and right as they begin contemplating finishing the movie, give them a “gotcha!” and quickly reel their interest back in.

Lionsgate

So, my main advice to anyone who decides to watch the movie is just to stick it out.  The characters, scenes, plot, and pretty much everything will seem simple and worn out at first.  But it is all on purpose to set you up for the second half of the movie and especially the ending when everything is revealed.  I also would really like to give a more in depth review than this because I feel like it’s been somewhat confusing and vague, but I am just not able to do so without spoiling the movie.  One review I read before even watching the movie said that the less you know going into it, the more you will enjoy it.  That didn’t totally make sense to me then, but I understand it now.  And while I wouldn’t consider this a must-watch movie, it is definitely worth the watch.  It’s also not too long, at just 95 minutes, so you won’t have to invest a lot of time in it.  I think overall, though, you’ll be satisfied with watching it and dissecting its unique angle on horror films.

Rating: 2.75/5

Garett