Escape to the Movies: Cabin In The Woods

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

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.

No, it was pretty bad. It had poor ratings even when being put into a good time slot and the STUPID premise that was played way too seriously made the show come off as intriguing as a bowl of stale porridge. Eliza Dushku's "acting" also didn't help. Not that Whedon would ever admit that, thin-skinned man-baby that he is.

 

[Deacon Cole]

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

Holy shit, me too. It's kind of sad when you can think of better things to happen than was in the actual movie, right?

That is a problem with the movie. It all turning out to be a human sacrifice ritual to appease the old god things was the big twist the whole thing is hanging on but they did absolutely nothing with it. How the movie should have gone is the first act was the traditional horror movie with the gimmick of chumps at NASA controlling everything from behind the scenes. In the second act, the remaining characters find their way into the complex. Then the third act, after they learn the whiole purpose for this whole thing, they figure out an alternative and permanent means to deal with the old gods once and for all. It didn't need to work, but the idea was not taken to its fullest, which leaves it flaccid and limp and ultimately dissatisfying. Even the stoner turning out to be the real virgin would have been enough of a twist to make me not hate the movie. But they pussied out and that's the most unforgivable sin in a movie like this.

 

[AgentNein]

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.

No, it was pretty bad. It had poor ratings even when being put into a good time slot and the STUPID premise that was played way too seriously made the show come off as intriguing as a bowl of stale porridge. Eliza Dushku's "acting" also didn't help. Not that Whedon would ever admit that, thin-skinned man-baby that he is.

He actually comes off in interviews and commentaries as a fairly self-critical (and frequently self deprecating) person. He frequently points things out that he realizes could've been done better, or differently. I don't get where you get this whole thin skinned idea.

Is it because he doesn't take credit for the trash that was Alien Resurrection? You do realize how much scripts can be fucked with once they leave the hands of the original writer don't you? I personally would make no bones about making sure people realized when something bad wasn't my doing.

 

[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.

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"

Seriously!? That is hilarious. Shows how artistic society is nowadays.

 

[Orekoya]

Just got back from seeing it, instantly clicked with me as a supernatural horror version of Operation: Endgame. Loved every minute of it.

 

[Social Pariah]

Brilliant film, just watched it and I loved it.

 

[Duffeknol]

"The Cabin in the Woods" is the most BORING film I've ever seen.

When I wasn't laughing at the pitiful jokes, I was scratching my head and wondering "What did I just watch?!"

This movie is over-hyped and underwhelming.

SAVE YOUR MONEY!

***DO NOT WATCH THIS FILM***

Yep. You didn't get it, did you?

 

[Duffeknol]

"The Cabin in the Woods" is the most BORING film I've ever seen.

When I wasn't laughing at the pitiful jokes, I was scratching my head and wondering "What did I just watch?!"

This movie is over-hyped and underwhelming.

SAVE YOUR MONEY!

***DO NOT WATCH THIS FILM***

Yep. You didn't get it, did you?

That's just it... I DID get it and it still SUCKED!

Nah. Even the guys from Redlettermedia enjoyed this movie, making it objectively speaking not suck.

 

[Spongebobdickpants]

I just watched this film, and i can say that this IS a black comedy and not a horror. Any moments that begin to resemble a horror scene are immediately parodied and mocked.

This is one of the best films ive seen in ages. Go watch this movie

 

[Alar]

Not too worried about reading some spoilers, so when I see the talk of how the ending kind of works and other things in the movie, I find myself more interested. I'm not a huge fan of pure horror, but horror/comedy dark comedy is something I really enjoy watching. I might check this one out, as I haven't seen a movie in a while.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

Not my favorite movie of the year and Tucker and Dale is better, but still quite fun!

I only had three issues:

1) Too much generic slasher movie. I get what they were doing. I do. But it's kind of like when Seth McFarlane tries to be funny by making his characters act out a scene from something else line for line and point for point.

*MASSIVE Spoilers Below*
2) Lack of explanations. Energy shields? Ghosts? Supernatural crap? Where did all that come from? From the "Ancient Ones"? What kind of sense does THAT make? They send up monsters so that they can be kept chained in the abyss? And even if they DID do it, where did the stuff like the killer robot come from?
And why was Sigourney Weaver just sitting around down in the pit waiting for some asshole to stumble down there?
In a virgin sacrifice the virgin can live? Since when?
A button that released every horror in the building? WHY WOULD YOU INSTALL THAT???

3) Of all the awesome and terrifying monsters they could have sent..... We wound up with Redneck Zombies.

 

[SkullKing84]

*MASSIVE Spoilers Below*

*MASSIVE Spoilers Below*

In a virgin sacrifice the virgin can live? Since when?


3) Of all the awesome and terrifying monsters they could have sent..... We wound up with Redneck Zombies.

The "Virgin" can live cause in all generic horror movies the last survivor, usually the innocent good nature one is the one to kill/lock away the monster. In some movies they die.

And the dumb kids choose their death via... random item. Though that mermaid would of been interesting. I wonder what item they would of picked to summon the robot or the scarecrows or the eyeless doctors or whatever?

 

[Eric Morales]

The big question is "If you really DON'T like slasher movies can you still enjoy 'Cabin in the Woods?'"

I definitely don't like slasher movies. Make no mistake, for all its wit and cleverness and fantastical framing device a formula horror movie DOES play out more or less in full. Not to beat around the bush, I don't get why someone would want to see a screaming young woman being bloodily murdered. I'm going to quote Yahtzee wildly out of context here: "It's the same feeling I get from watching midget on giraffe porn, a sense of 'I'm certainly not getting off on this but I know someone in the world is and THAT'S what makes me uncomfortable."
I don't want to make too big a deal out of this, but for what it's worth I think slasher and torture porn can fuck right off.

That being said, the third act makes Cabin in the Woods worthwhile. It's a clever premise, well executed and even a little thought provoking. I'm not about to go around calling it the greatest thing ever, but if overall even I can have a positive experience with Cabin in the Woods, I think that counts as a recommendation.

 

[IcyTicey]

Slight Spoiler:


*I'm curious, which one of the little Japanese girls was "The Whore"?*

 

[IcyTicey]

*MASSIVE Spoilers Below*

*MASSIVE Spoilers Below*

In a virgin sacrifice the virgin can live? Since when?


3) Of all the awesome and terrifying monsters they could have sent..... We wound up with Redneck Zombies.

The "Virgin" can live cause in all generic horror movies the last survivor, usually the innocent good nature one is the one to kill/lock away the monster. In some movies they die.

And the dumb kids choose their death via... random item. Though that mermaid would of been interesting. I wonder what item they would of picked to summon the robot or the scarecrows or the eyeless doctors or whatever?

After the lottery scene, I was hoping to see some of the other options, either as bonus content on dvd release, or alternate versions of the movie. (Dragon Bat caught my eye; wonder what would summon it) The final act made me happy in that sense.

On a side note, did anyone else get the feeling that the puzzlebox/gearman was a nod to Pinhead?

 

[Chloe Berg]

Slight Spoiler:

*I'm curious, which one of the little Japanese girls was "The Whore"?*

Spoiler

My guess would be none. I'm under the impression that the rituals are different from culture to culture, and that (in the movie's universe) they inspired each's "mainstream" horror movies.

Oh, and for the record, I agree with Bob, fantastic movie that is best seen totally unspoiled.