Sunday, April 15, 2012

Cabin in the Woods


The degree to which you will enjoy this film probably has something to do with how many straight versions of this tale you've sat through (endured). As you probably know the film is a tangled riff on the story in which a party girl, a jock, a nice guy, a stoner, and a nice girl (sometimes known as the "final girl") go to a cabin in the woods. From there it enters all sorts of twisty territory, some comic-Kubrickian and some apocalyptic.

I enjoyed it all immensely, although I think the film would have been better if the first half were longer and the second half were shorter; in fact, this should be the general rule for all modern-day horror films. They need more tease and the pay-off shouldn't go on as long.

This isn't a criticism, exactly, but this being a Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard (Buffy, Dollhouse, Lost, etcetera) production, I knew that it would be witty and well-written. But I didn't expect this film to be as cold as it is. Intentionally cold, of course, and bordering on cruel at times, but that's the point. In this film the darkness definitely wins.

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