Escape to the Movies: Cabin In The Woods

[RedDeadFred]

meh, in all honesty I can't stand Whedon as a writer. Not because he's incompetent, but because he lacks professionalism and has a bad history of pointing fingers at everyone ELSE whenever something he was involved in goes wrong. It strikes of a man who has a thin skin and is severely insecure about his own abilities.

I completely dislike Whedon too, everything he's done seems so... samey. And I just hate the way he write characters, I'm half expecting the ditsy bimbo's in this are going to end up doing some kungcrap halfway through the film, beating the shit out of monsters with badly choreographed fight-scenes with quipy repertoire interwoven between their breathing.

But I'm still going to see this, it may be the first thing he's done that I genuinely like. If he can hold off on his fetish that is.

I assure you, the ditsy bimbo does not go kicking any monster ass. All I will say is that this is the best horror movie I have seen in a long time. It goes from normal, to bat shit insane.
It's also really funny.

 

[Therumancer]

[

*SPOILERS*

Unfortunately I cannot take credit for this interpretation.

"The 'ancient gods' are the audience. The international house locations are the various countries that have been submitting regularly to the horror genre in the last decade or so. Granted, Sweden and France probably should have had a bit more of a nod, but the reference makes much more sense in context.

And the whole 'eight minutes until sunrise' bit?? Guess what happens eight minutes later? Yup, lights up in the theater. The movie, and the world within it are over?everyone is effectively dead."

To me it ended in the only way it could have - they had an idea and ran with it. And since the movie doesn't take itself seriously, it completely worked. They weren't trying to create some deep and profound movie that makes you think - they were trying create a fun cinematic experience, to which I feel they accomplished perfectly. I had tons of fun.

*Spoilers*

It's an interesting theory, but to be honest I don't think that was the intended interpetation, though I suppose it could make sense in a very "meta" way. I think that the movie's internal mythology makes sense in of itself, blending multiple themes of horror with the comedy, without the need for a meta definition. Especially seeing as the arguement your making would rely on RL occurances which could not be guaranteed. For example most theaters I have frequented won't turn up the lights until after the movie has been entirely over for a few minutes. Indeed, now that I think back I don't think they turned them on when this movie was over.

I think the movie was intended to speak entirely for itself internally.

 

[CroutonsOfDeath]

I rarely ever listen to "Go see now!" prologues, but for some reason this time I listened to Bob. Oh hell yes, yes, yes, yes. "Getting it in front of your eyeballs immediately" as he puts it is the next thing you should do, so long as you like the horror/comedy genre. I didn't think it would top "Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil" which was my most favouritist underrated film of 2010 AND one of the best, if NOT the best horror/comedy since Army of Darkness & Braindead... but alas, Cabin in the Woods even beats Tucker & Dale (Though I still recommend that hidden gem.) and is awesomesauce.

 

[Deacon Cole]

I just got back from seeing this movie.

I hated it so much, I'll probably never see another movie in a theater ever again. It is probably the worst movie I've ever seen in a theater and I've seen Battlefield earth in a theater. I understand this movie is written by the guy who will be directing the Avengers movie. Based on this, I believe that movie will suck.

That is all.

 

[SamElliot'sMustache]

Spoiler

I'll be honest in saying that I was also less than impressed by the ending, namely because once I realized what it was borrowing from Lovecraftian horror it was kind of predictable, espcially given the generally left wing morality being espoused in the media today, though this isn't really a political rant per se.

See, the whole set up makes it pretty clear that the people in the cabin have to die for humanity as a whole, creating quite a conundrum as the survivors realize the reality of the situation. As a result I kind of felt that the "final girl" stereotype should have shot the stoner, or the stoner, who was basically supposed to be a good guy, should have shot himself. I could have dealt with the ending if they had made some point about breaking the cycle and perhaps being able to defeat this evil in the modern age, and themselves survived, but the whole "whelps, the right thing to do is to die ourselves but do it in such a way that humanity has to face the wrath of the Old Ones anyway" was just plain out F@cked up and oddly enough seemed out of character for the guy who was in the position where he needed to die to begin with.

If you respond to me about the ending (please keep it polite, even if you disagree), or other elements, please remember your spoiler tag.

Actually, I thought what happened made sense considering:

Spoiler

The stoner had said at the beginning of the movie, and I'm paraphrasing, that society was finding the cracks "and filling them in with cement." This seemed like a reference to the internet/surveillance culture, with the implication of that scene being that maybe it would be better for society to come apart than to continue getting more monolithic and impenetrable, a view that strikes me as more libertarian than liberal. It's kind of an Anti-Hero's Journey for both him and the final girl, since they realize that the stoner is right (even more than he imagined) and their puppeteers, representing the government/religion/big business/media/other big thing, are forcing them into little boxes and acting out-of-character (the "Virgin" not actually being a virgin, etc.) all to appease some ancient tradition.

What I think the ending is saying is that it's better to let these sorts of corrupt cultural institutions fall apart rather than continuing to feed our young to the machine {note the leader of the facility even says they're being punished for being young). It's kind of like the ending of Escape From New York (or L.A.), with that choice between continuing on with this corrupt society or wipe the slate clean. Definitely fit with the more "Fuck you, Old Gods" tone of the script to end that way than for the leads to pull some sort of "Kirk on the Kobayashi Maru test" at the end.

The happier version of this movie would probably be Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, which you might want to check out if you haven't seen it already. Has the same deconstructionist attitude towards horror Cabin in the Woods does, and both make it a point to actually be deconstructionism with a purpose, rather than Scream and its billion knockoffs that were all "Look, we're pointing out cliches, aren't we clever? Har har" which got old fifteen minutes after the first movie ended (possibly earlier than that).

Speaking of which: I'm surprised Bob didn't mention or hint at any of that, given his hatred of the Scream movies and love for sci-fi/horror movies that aim for some kind of social relevance. It's kind of hard to talk about without spoiling this movie, but I think it would have been worth it, since Whedon gets unfairly roped into the so-called "meta" crowd, when usually (usually) his "meta" jokes have more purpose beyond showing off his nerd cred.

 

[SoulChaserJ]

This movie was good right up until the last 20-30 minutes. The twist flat out sucks.

 

[shadowstriker86]

I'm just going to say it: I don't like Joss Whedon.

It's the same problem with the "You're a dick" line from X-Men. He substitutes a marginally clever (at best) witticism where actions would work much, much better.

What I hate about Whedon is that I never really feel suspension of disbelief in his writing because there's self-referential, and then there's being self-referential while at the same time pointing out "oh, look at how CLEVER this is". That's how I feel constantly when I watch anything that Whedon has anything to do with, that people who find it amusing, entertaining, whatever "get it" and the rest of us, well, it's like getting told "you had to be there" as if referring to something that happened at a party the "cool" kids said you weren't "cool" enough to be invited to anyway.

(Not that I think there's anything particularly wrong with you if you like it...I know really cool Buffy fans, and I know really douchey Buffy fans. More power to you for liking what you like. Just don't be down on me for not liking what you like. It's just a turn-off to me when writers do that sort of thing and don't find it "mind-blowing" that Whedon thinks he's making soup just because he puts a bunch of stuff in a pot and starts stirring.)

As for this movie? I've read the spoilers, and frankly it strikes me as a

**SPOILER**
Rube Goldberg plot device. It's an awfully complicated setup to do an awfully simple thing. I have a word for that. And that word is "contrived".
**END SPOILER**

wouldnt convuluted be a better word than contrived?

 

[Srkkl]

My guess from the trailers was that it's gonna break the fourth wall or something and 'turns out, it was you'. Or something like that.

Also yea, how exactly did Chriss look so much younger in this, that's the first thing I thought when you were showing clips, he looks about 5-10 years younger than he did in Thor.

*Facepalm* I'm pretty sure at the beginning of the review Bob says that the movie was finished 3 years ago and was finally just released.

 

[Gatx]

I spoiled the "twists" for myself by reading the Wiki article. Decided I HAD to see it when I saw that there would be Lovecraftian elements in it. Sorely disappointed in that aspect though, I mean what the hell was that? That was not a Great Old One, that was the god damn lava titan from Disney's Hercules.

Still it was a highly enjoyable movie from beginning to end, and the sheer spectacle of what happens before the movie ends was the highlight of it for me.

This movie was good right up until the last 20-30 minutes. The twist flat out sucks.

The movie's been "hyped" up for the twists but the only real twist is that it looks like a generic horror movie but it's actually not. I mean, it's hinted at constantly throughout the movie what the purpose of the whole setup was, so the revelation at the end isn't really a "twist" just a more detailed explanation of what happened.

Also personally I was expecting the girl to turn out to NOT be a virgin, and that the geeky stoner actually was, but alas.

 

[Freakzooi]

Don't listen to people bitching about Joss Whedon being a bad writer. THIS film is well written, which is good enough for me.

Saw it last night, and liked it a lot. It's a whole lot better than Stay Tuned (which I saw a few months ago on the tele). Damn that film was mediocre in what it tried to do, and definitely has NOT aged well. Really, Cabin in the woods may be a bit of a rip-off of Stay Tuned in that respect, but I don't care since it's actually a better film.

I'd recommend it to anyone with a love (or mild hate) for the horror genre. It's not very scary, so don't let that get in your way of seeing it.

 

[warprincenataku]

Ok, I took your advice and will see it when it comes out in a few weeks. I'll watch this then. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[artanis_neravar]

Caught the midnight showing of this last night.

Absolutely loved it and went in completely blind, save for the first trailer.

Was upset when the rest of the theater thought that the ending was bad, because I don't think that you could have ended the movie any other way without veering from the commentary that the movie is giving right from the start.

Excellent film. Will see again.

Really? The movie got a standing ovation in the theater I was in

 

[Deacon Cole]

Ok, I took your advice and will see it when it comes out in a few weeks. I'll watch this then. Thanks for the heads up.

You're wasting your time, then. Just saying. The final twist is pretty stupid and rather obvious if you think about it. Based on that alone, you can probably guess what the final twist is. Except you're likely to guess a version of that final twist that is better than what is in the movie. But that's not your fault. It is inevitable.

 

[naam]

I found this to be a rather predictable, boring movie filled with cliches and unlikeable characters :/

 

[Moeez]

Cabin In The Woods

The Cabin in the Woods may not be what it seems.

Watch Video

I'm an awful person for already being excited about this movie because it had Joss Whedon's name on it. I'm not trying to be a fanboy, but goddamnit, does he make bad things? I'm trying to find them, honest!

Dollhouse was pretty bad.

 

[Dastardly]

Cabin In The Woods

The Cabin in the Woods may not be what it seems.

Watch Video

I'm an awful person for already being excited about this movie because it had Joss Whedon's name on it. I'm not trying to be a fanboy, but goddamnit, does he make bad things? I'm trying to find them, honest!

Dollhouse was pretty bad.

Nah, I really enjoyed it. Good characters, a farfetched-but-interesting premise, and plenty of snappy dialogue (without feeling like an episode of the freakin' Gilmore Girls). Toward the end, it may have suffered a bit from the "Great, here comes the Cancel Hammer, let's try to resolve the story a bit faster," but I blame FOX for that.

 

[AgentNein]

Man, that movie sure was original. Not at all a rip-off of a freaking John Ritter movie made literally 20 years ago called Stay Tuned (1992)...

Alright, I'm not going to touch the rest of your post but that...that's a bit of a stretch.

Um, really? Let's do a checklist if you don't mind.

1) Broad archetypes used to deconstruct the genre and commenting on movie culture as a whole.
2) The major antagonist in the film is a middle management type whose job it is to construct reality TV shows that murder the protagonists using horror movie cliches for the sake of the target demographic 'downstairs' who turns out to be an ancient evil being.
3) The protagonists run through these horror movie scenes and cliches to bring down the evil organization in spite of or perhaps because of the evil organization's attempts to kill them.
4) The protagonists, of whom the main player is the stoner/fool archetype, must set the plot in motion themselves.
5) The bulk of the time spent with the evil organization is in a TV control room with the major antagonist who does it by the book and a more minor black character whose main job is to be reasonable and wonder whether or not they were doing their jobs the best they could up to and including the part in which they realized everything had gone to hell.
6) Stoner wins.

Sarcasm aside, I don't think it's at all a stretch to see the connections.

I'm not denying (some of these) connections, but utilizing similar ideas and themes doesn't mean the movie's ripping off the earlier one, does it? Do we really think anyone had the bright idea to rip of a shitty twenty year old John Ritter vehicle?

And to delve into it a little, Stay Tuned didn't really mess with horror movie cliches as it did parody television of the time, with 'hellish' versions of them. I also don't remember a stoner in Stay Tuned. And despite the few superficial similarities (the idea of Cabin in The Woods being akin to reality television for the evil powers-that-be was sort of a downplayed element of the movie) the two movies were actually about very different things, saying very different things.

 

[Gxas]

Caught the midnight showing of this last night.

Absolutely loved it and went in completely blind, save for the first trailer.

Was upset when the rest of the theater thought that the ending was bad, because I don't think that you could have ended the movie any other way without veering from the commentary that the movie is giving right from the start.

Excellent film. Will see again.

Really? The movie got a standing ovation in the theater I was in

Gah, you're so lucky.

I wanted to give a standing-O, but as soon as the credits hit, every single person around me apart from my sister were like, "Man, I knew it was going to have a shitty ending."

Never wanted to harm a group of people more.

 

[artanis_neravar]

Caught the midnight showing of this last night.

Absolutely loved it and went in completely blind, save for the first trailer.

Was upset when the rest of the theater thought that the ending was bad, because I don't think that you could have ended the movie any other way without veering from the commentary that the movie is giving right from the start.

Excellent film. Will see again.

Really? The movie got a standing ovation in the theater I was in

Gah, you're so lucky.

I wanted to give a standing-O, but as soon as the credits hit, every single person around me apart from my sister were like, "Man, I knew it was going to have a shitty ending."

Never wanted to harm a group of people more.

We did have 2 teenage girls show up 10 mins into the movie and then leave 10 mins later because "the acting was horrible and it was stupid"