The Cabin in the Woods (2011) Reviews

Fast-paced, gory, and with a razor-sharp sense of humor, "The Cabin in the Woods" borrows elements from older horror films and twists them around, making them it's own. Never since "Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil" have I seen such originality and creative scriptwriting in a modern horror-comedy.

"The Cabin in the Woods" is truly a marvel to watch, and stands as an excellent addition to co-writer Joss Whedon's repertoire. The plot starts out 'typical' and soon reveals itself to be a lot murkier (and more awesome) than it initially seemed.

Five friends- innocent Dana (Kristen Connolly,) 'cool dude' Curt (Chris Hemsworth,) slutty Jules (Anna Hutchinson,) amusing pothead Marty (Fran Kranz,) and sensitive guy Holden (Jesse Williams) go off on a trip to a cabin in the woods. Marty quickly establishes himself as my favorite, with his pseudo-profound pot-addled ramblings and surprising perceptiveness.

But wait! Something is amiss! As the gang break the various rules of horror-film etiquette (Don't have sex. Don't go in the basement. Don't wander off...) they find themselves fighting for their lives. But it gradually becomes clear that a lot more then the lives of a couple of college kids may be at stake.

Naturally, the pothead gets all the best lines- from the very beginning, Marty establishes himself as a humorously addled and continuously likable presence, even if half the time you don't know wat the hell he's talking about. The acting is good, not extraordinary, but decent particularly for this kind of movie.

One of my favorite character actors, Richard Jenkins is here, as an ethically dodgy and somewhat dirty old man. The script is funny, cool, and sometimes willfully ludicrous, as characters get bear traps in the back and somehow get up with little to no permanent injuries.

"The Cabin in the Woods" is definitely worth a watch to anyone who wants to see a new twist on an old story. You actually root for these kids to live, which is a rare occurrence in a dead-teenager movie. The script is often funny, sometimes hysterical, and worth a go alone for the killer-unicorn sequence. My professional opinion? Watch it, and don't take it too seriously.

Except the part where the pothead makes his jokes, this movie was a huge waste of time, nothing against movies with crazy plots, but this is not particularly captivated me.

You guys can watch at your own risk.

I wasn’t really planning to watch this movie so soon but Nick, my step-son, bought it so I eventually ended up watching it with him. I remember that the trailer was pretty intriguing so I thought it could be an interesting watch. Eventually, to be honest, I thought it was not bad but nothing really mind-blowing. Basically, it is a slasher flick which plays with the rules of the genre and goes pretty far with those rules but, unfortunately, even though the makers obviously tried to make us believe that the whole thing was really smart, I was not really convinced.  In fact, I even thought it was actually rather pretentious. I will try to discuss this without spoiling the whole thing… Right from the start, there was obviously something fishy going on, they didn’t make it a secret, that’s for sure. So, you basically wait during the whole duration for some kind of explanation and what you get at the end was just really preposterous and not really satisfying. I mean, the number of plot holes were just mind-bobbling. Still, I cannot dismiss this feature. Indeed, at least, they did try something different, there were some pretty neat things visually speaking and I was fairly entertained from the beginning until the end. To conclude, even though it was not as revolutionary as the makers would like you to believe, it was still a decent and entertaining flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

"I'm drawing a line in the fucking sand. Do NOT read the Latin!"

The Cabin in the Woods is an exceptionally hard motion picture to review. Audaciously unique, it's highly recommended that you seek to watch this movie at the earliest opportunity...but I can't tell you the exact reasons why. When you watch Cabin, you should be completely oblivious and without any idea about what to expect. This review will be very light on spoilers, but I recommend you watch the movie before reading the rest of what I have to say. Trust me, you need to get The Cabin in the Woods in front of your eyes as quickly as humanly possible. The directorial debut for Drew Goddard (Cloverfield scribe) who penned the screenplay with Joss Whedon, this is a smart film which reinvigorates stale slasher archetypes whilst always remaining engaging and amusing.

At the beginning of the film, five college pals - sensitive intellectual Holden (Williams), virginal good girl Dana (Connolly), stoner Marty (Kranz), jock Curt (Hemsworth) and Curt's promiscuous girlfriend Jules (Hutchison) - set out for a weekend getaway to an isolated cabin in the middle of nowhere. Suffice it to say, they find various unnerving eccentricities upon arriving at the cabin, and their alcohol-drenched, drug-laden activities are soon interrupted when deadly forces become unleashed.

The Cabin in the Woods uses a mind-blowingly original idea as the set-up for a commentary to highlight that horror movies aren't often original or imaginative. It starts out in the most hackneyed way imaginable, ticking off all the eye-rolling slasher clichés in the book as a bunch of attractive college students with stereotypical personalities converge for a weekend getaway at some secluded cabin. On the way to their destination, they encounter such clichés as a hostile local and dilapidated roads, and, as the group start having fun at the cabin, they find themselves under siege by some malevolent force. Admittedly, Cabin is a little slow to start during this period, but intrigue levels often remain high and the film soon picks up steam. When the full scope of what's actually happening - and what could potentially be happening - is revealed, The Cabin in the Woods completely cuts loose and goes bonkers, leading to one of the most creative, delirious and jaw-dropping final acts in motion picture history.

It's fascinating to see Cabin unfold before your eyes, as Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard's spot-on script introduces fresh ideas into the slasher genre whilst simultaneously adhering to the standard formula. (You have to see the film to understand how this is achieved.) This is not a smug satire of horrors like Scream; instead of an air of superiority, Whedon and Goddard aimed for a euphoric sense of invention. Through this, the script demonstrates that hackneyed clichés can still be effective if they are applied in an original fashion. On top of the creative storytelling, the script is smothered in witty dialogue and features surprisingly complex characters. As with any Whedon screenplay, chief among the film's pleasures is its healthy sense of humour.

Luckily, Goddard's filmmaking is every bit as sure-footed as the writing, resulting in a technically competent motion picture with attractive production values. Furthermore, the cast is sublime from top to bottom. Chris Hemsworth, who looks awkwardly younger here than he did in The Avengers, actually filmed his role of Curt back in 2009, long before he was known as Thor. Newfound fans of Chris should bear in mind that he is part of an ensemble here, and is by no means the central character. Fortunately, his performance is great; Hemsworth makes for a good jock. But the standout, easily, is Fran Kranz as the token stoner character. The little-known Kranz - who said he couldn't stop smiling for days after reading the script for Cabin - is terrific with one-liners, and he inhabited his role of Marty to great effect. (At one point in the movie, Marty's character radically changes, and Kranz effortlessly sells it.) Meanwhile, Kristen Connolly espouses tremendous charisma as Dana, and Jesse Williams did a solid job as Holden. Also in the cast is the perpetually-reliable Richard Jenkins, who absolutely hit this performance out of the park. I can't tell you exactly who he plays, but rest assured that Jenkins took the role and ran with it.

Production for The Cabin in the Woods wrapped in 2009, and the film was completed by the year's end. But delays ensued, as the film was targeted for an ill-advised 3-D conversion that never came to pass (thankfully), and the studio, MGM, did not have the money to fund a marketing campaign or proper distribution. Thus, it sat on the shelf for years, leading to speculation that it was a total dud. Thank God Lionsgate were able to buy the rights from MGM and distribute the picture, as The Cabin in the Woods is anything but a dud. Goddard and Whedon's movie is a fucking triumph - an endlessly enjoyable and dazzlingly daring motion picture experience unlike anything you've ever seen before. If you like horror movies or movies in general, or, fuck, if you just like having fun, take a chance and watch The Cabin in the Woods. You will thank me.

9.4/10

The Cabin In The Woods begins identically similar to horror hits The Evil Dead and Texas Chainsaw Massacre as it follows a group of youngsters taking a road trip where danger beyond their wildest dreams await them. Plus, like those films, the title “The Cabin In The Woods” had become an immediate attention span seeing as not just for a horror film but in general, it is not safe to go to a cabin in the woods, really, is it? On the other hand, there was what one could call a subplot featuring technicians with their highly advanced technology who happen to be watching the group in that cabin. This is where The Cabin In The Woods was in connection with another film - Peter Weir’s The Truman Show. Nevertheless, Drew Goddard and co successfully managed to swerve round a very unorthodox combination and make a fun, well-acted horror hit.


Like all horror films, The Cabin In The Woods attempts to deliberately scare the viewers to the point where they feel emotionally terrorised, but there is no denying that it takes quite a number of aspects from particularly Sam Raimi’s previous work with the genre. For example, the over-use of violence and gore had that comical, unrealistic and perhaps humorous touch. On occasions, the humour took over completely and, therefore, the suspense and terror lost its grasp. Intentional horror-comedies are able to balance the two genres, but in the case of The Cabin In The Woods, it was more or less split in half and then separated with one half coming across as scary and the other as funny. The separation between the genres was literally like the film itself. It actually consisted of two plots (the cabin in the woods and inside an unknown facility) but the film cannot entirely tell which one was more important that they wanted the audience to focus on.


Almost every time that we see a horror or a comedy with youngsters portraying the primary characters, we are introduced to some new talents. After previously appeared as more or less an extra in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening back in 2008, Kristen Connolly took the leading role in The Cabin In The Woods as she portrayed the young, beautiful and sensitive Dana. Female characters are often the main protagonists in horror films because it makes the film even scarier as it penetrates that sense of innocence and beauty. In the past, we’ve seen from the likes of Sissy Spacek, Mia Farrow and Jamie Lee Curtis deliver some of the most innocent but mesmerising performances within a horror film. Kristen Connolly does not even come close to said actresses in their roles, but Connolly does express the fright and vulnerability of Dana as a terrorised victim rather well. Therefore, it is an impressive start to her acting career.


In addition to Dana within the group, we are introduced to more youngsters. First, even before he took on the role of Thor, Chris Hemsworth took on the role as Curt, the muscle man of the gang. Considering that this was, in fact, filmed before Thor and The Avengers but released in-between, we still got a good first glimpse of what was in store with a heroic but natural performance. Yet, he still had that typical rebellious and mischievous side to him like young people do today. Anna Hutchison gave a good performance as did Jesse Williams and Fran Kranz, Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford provide such strong chemistry together who each add a sense of humour and psychopathic touch to their roles as technicians Richard Sitterson and Steven Hadley. Finally, Sigourney Weaver makes her presence known in a vital role too.


Overall, The Cabin In The Woods may have taken a few pieces from other sources but still remained a delightful treat for viewers to sit down and enjoy for 90 minutes. You may notice its connections but Joss Whedon & Drew Goddard still craft together a new original horror story of their own which is scary and fun to watch. Goddard’s directorial debut went off to a good start and Whedon’s story ideas and script techniques improved even further leading to The Avengers.