Choose Your Own Horror

Say what you will about Joss Whedon, the man can write—in addition to being able to execute a vision as a director (he did not officially direct this film), and having a rare talent for not only finding amazing actors but the loyalty to bring them into everything he does. Somehow this man has succeeded in bringing brilliance to the small and large screens, and I am here for it! Cabin in the Woods is a brilliant take on the question why does horror exist, or, why is there so much media related to human sacrifice? This is one of those movies where it is way too easy to give something away. I am going to try to do this as spoiler free as possible.

The movie takes so many tropes from the horror genre that one might suspect that Whedon put all the tropes into a hat, shook it up, and grabbed a fistful out to play with. There are five friends, “the whore” (Anna Hutchison), “the athlete” (Chris Hemsworth), “the scholar” (Jesse Williams), “the fool” (Fran Kranz), and “the virgin” (Kristen Connolly). There is, as the name implies, a remote cabin in the woods, and there is a lake. Similar to, Deliverance (1972), The Evil Dead (1981), Sleepaway Camp (1983), Lake Placid (1999), What Lies Beneath (2000), Cabin by the Lake (2000) Funny Games (2007), and Eden Lake (2008). This particular cabin has a basement full of crazy. The audience is clued in right away (if you didn’t watch the previews and picked your movie based on the movie poster at the theatre and its convenient start time), seriously, I worked ticket sales in a movie theatre for nearly 3 years you’d be shocked how many people spend their money that way, that outside forces are in control of what is happening to the five chosen ones. The event that is taking place is so important that they have failsafes built into the system by having multiple scenarios running throughout the world in various countries. Ever felt like the person on the screen could be you, in this movie you’re right! Only one country has to get it right. Japan and the United States are the most accomplished at completing the task. According to Hadley (Bradley Whitford) we (the United States) try harder.

Joss Whedon’s ability to bring people back after working with them in the past is definitely seen in this movie, and allows for some comfort recognition while bringing strong characters to the table. He brought in Amy Acker as Lin, a scientist (previously on Angel and Dollhouse). Tom Lenk as an unpaid intern (previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel). Already mentioned Fran Kranz (previously on Dollhouse), and you’ll never guess who has a minor role that he worked with back in 1997! While Joss was likely working with Chris Hemsworth on Marvel’s Avengers (2012) while Cabin in the Woods was filming it is also possible that this was his first time working with Thor.

This movie gets a 4 out of 5 stars for me. The ending makes the movie. There are so many little moments that even on a rewatch get you to chuckle, or give you a chance to see something you missed. I watched this when it first came out to rent (I didn’t want to pay movie theatre money for something I possibly couldn’t handle no matter how much I enjoy Joss Whedon’s writing). I know I watched it two or three times during that rental time and I still found new things to see when I watched it before writing this article. The way this film makes fun of the horror tropes without going all the way to Scary Movie (2000) style is brilliant. The twist and turns it takes along the way always give you something to laugh at and make this an enjoyable watch.