MEDIOCREMOVIE.CLUB
  • Reviews
  • Side Pieces
  • Shane of Thrones
  • Podcast
  • About
  • Archives
  • Game of Thrones Fantasy

The Cabin in the Woods

4/11/2014

0 Comments

 

2.25
C+

"All this was like a personal checkbox, ticking off reason after reason why I don’t like the genre."
"We don't know much about these characters or care about them."
"I do love some self-aware movies"


“… And I feel fine.”

The Cabin in the Woods is a pretty tough movie to talk about to anyone who hasn't seen it, as it’s definitely a movie you want to go into knowing as little as possible.  The initial setup of the movie is a spoiler if you ask me.  That said, Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon manage to create a schlocky horror movie that keeps us engaged with a clever premise and a surprising payoff while adding no needless fluff to the events which transpire.

Right from the outset, this movie could have gone two distinct directions.  Rather than hiding the big reveal for act 3, Goddard and Whedon actually start us in a sterile quasi-government facility, offering no explanation of what we are about to see or how this organization will affect the titular cabin.  Actually having the control organization a part of the movie from the word go was a fantastic choice in my opinion. The actual story of the five campers was a boring retread by design.  Goddard and Whedon clearly wanted the campers’ story to feel like the bad horror movies we remember from the 80’s, right down to the cheesy, over-the-top acting.  

This decision puts the viewer in a decidedly different mindset.  Think about what this movie would have been like without knowing about the controllers until an hour in.  Would you have even bothered?  Odds are you would have gotten extremely bored by “another crappy horror movie.”  However, the ever present controllers force you to almost ignore the hacky store of the campers, instead forcing you to spend the bulk of the movie trying to figure out just what the hell was going on.  This really makes the movie dance the line of several genres.  I know it’s classified as a horror, but calling it a suspense thriller is almost as appropriate.

Fortunately, we don’t have to wait long to get to the big reveal that was skillfully teased throughout.  Would it have been crazy and entertaining to see everything about the controllers revealed in just the last act? Probably.  But would you have stuck with Thor & Co for an hour?  Probably not.  There would have been too much to explain at the end, and the method Goddard and Whedon used of explaining what was happening as we went made for a far more enjoyable experience.  Cabin also did a great job of explainingjust enough while maintaining a torrid pace to its conclusion.  Do we ever learn why this organization has an obscene amount of hellish creatures?  Sure don’t.  Do we ever learn what these “ancient” creatures are?  Barely.  Shit, I can’t even call the controllers by name because we never even learn the organization’s name.  While the level of explanation was great, it did take away from the large reveal at the end.  The very end was probably the weakest part of the movie as a result. 

What The Cabin in the Woods ends up giving us is a “plausible” explanation for why bad things happen to good people in all the horror movies we’ve seen in the past, right down to the “horror” which befalls them and the abysmal decision-making that comes with being pursued by any sort of horrors.    Initially, the conclusion annoyed me as we didn't learn enough about Dana & Marty to know what they would do in this extreme situation, but keeping it in the frame of mind that we were dealing with a stoner and a girl who had been huffing whatever drugs were getting pumped into that forest, it was at least believable in this movie’s universe.  

Final note: There were some genuinely laugh-out-loud moments in this movie.  Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford practically steal the movie.  The phone conversation with Mordecai and Whitford’s end were some of the funniest moments in any movie in recent memory.

Summary:

+ Great setup and premise
+ Wasted no time
+ Way funnier than it had any right to be
+ “Totally plausible” way to explain why every horror movie ever would happen
- Ending ends up suffering

Final Grade: A-
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Authors

    JUST SOME IDIOTS GIVING SURPRISINGLY AVERAGE MOVIE REVIEWS.

    Categories

    All
    2017 Catch Up Trio
    80s
    Action
    Adventure
    AI Trio
    Author - Blair
    Author - Bobby
    Author - Bryan
    Author - Chris
    Author - Cook
    Author - Drew
    Author - Joe
    Author - Jon
    Author - JR
    Author - Lane
    Author - Phil
    Author - Pierce
    Author - Sean
    Author - Shane
    Author - Tom
    Best Of 2016
    Best Of 2017
    Best Of 2018
    Best Of 2019
    Best Of 2020
    Best Of 2021
    Best Of 2022
    Comedy
    Culture Clash Trio
    Denzel Trio
    Documentary
    Drama
    Foreign
    Historical
    Horror
    Internet Docs Trio
    Mediocrities
    Movie Trios
    Musical
    Podcast
    Romance
    Round 3.1
    Round 3.2
    Round 3.3
    Round 4.1
    Round 4.2
    Round 4.3
    Sci Fi
    Season 10
    Season 2
    Season 3
    Season 4
    Season 5
    Season 6
    Season 7
    Season 8
    Season 9
    Shorts
    Sports
    Thriller
    Western
    Women In Men's Worlds

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014

    Click to set custom HTML