New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

The Cabin in the Woods, the directorial debut of Cloverfield writer Drew Goddard, which was co-written by Buffy creator and all-round geek idol Joss Whedon, is great. It's genuinely fantastic. It's a thrilling, wildly inventive horror film that plays beautifully off genre clichés whilst also managing to make those clichés work in its own interests. It's a horror comedy that is both scary and uproariously funny, and I would be very surprised if there is a better mainstream American film released this year.

Unfortunately, it's also the sort of film that cannot be discussed without ruining all the fun. It's not that it is a film that hinges on a twist which, if revealed, would completely suck all the joy out of the experience, but the various turns it takes are so much fun that they are best enjoyed with as clear a mind as possible. Yet it isn't really possible to say what is so great about the film without talking about all the stuff that should be left undisclosed, for fear of ruining the experience.

To that end, I am going to say right now that this review will contain spoilers, so as to best examine what makes the film so great. They won't be major, and I'll try to skirt around as much as possible, but there's only so much I can do. So, if you don't want to know anything going in, stop reading now. If you're wondering if you should see The Cabin in the Woods, then take this as a hearty recommendation that you should because you will not regret it.

Everyone else: you've either seen the film, or failed to heed the warnings. And, as the film demonstrates, bad things happen to people who fail to heed the warnings.

Right from its first scene, The Cabin in the Woods pulls the rug out from under its audience. After a short sequence in which the names of the cast and crew are formed in blood script over images of human sacrifice, we are introduced to two white-collar guys named Hadley (Bradley Whitford) and Sitterson (Richard Jenkins) as they talk about baby proofing and the problems that they are having with their wives over coffee. As they walk through a sparkling and modern facility that could not be further away from the cabin of the title, we learn that they are working on some project, that they are competing with the Japanese, and that there are high stakes. The scene ends when the title of the film appears to the sound of screams. Already, Goddard and Whedon are gleefully toying with us, and they're only getting started.

The film leaves Hadley and Sitterson along for a while at this point, and introduces us to the main characters, a group of college students who are heading up to, let's say a small wooden house in, let's say a forest. There's Dana (Kristen Connolly), a bookish redhead who has recently been dumped by a professor that she was seeing, her best friend Jules (Anna Hutchinson) who is experimenting with a new blonde hair dye, Jules' boyfriend Curt (Chris Hemsworth), a sociology major who excels on the football field, and Curt's friend Holden (Jesse Williams), who Curt and Jules are intent on pairing up with Dana. Finally, there's Marty (Fran Kranz), a truly exceptional stoner who gets most of the best lines in the film. (My favourite, delivered when talking to a typical creepy hillbilly character about the benefits of the railroad: "The streets'll be paved with actual streets.") The five load up their camper and head out to the small wooden house in the forest, unaware that they are being watched, and that there are forces at work they cannot comprehend.

Continued:       1       2