Science fiction flick brings together two genres to refresh tired plot
Five college students drive to a cabin in the middle of the woods to enjoy a weekend of intoxication, sexuality and puffing the magic dragon. They are having the time of their lives until a set of unfortunate discoveries leads to a series of casualties.
It sounds familiar because it’s the basic plot for many teen horror films. Some monster or zombies are after these kids, killing them off one by one without any sympathy from the audience.
“Cabin in the Woods” follows this exact same plot, except for one key difference: it takes these clichés and makes them fresh again.
“Cabin in the Woods” mixes the horror film spoof elements from “Scream” with the science fiction elements of “The Adjustment Bureau” and brings us a fresh horror flick filled with plenty of wit, hilarity and clever dialogue.
The main characters are classic horror film archetypes: the virginal, innocent girl Dana (Kristen Connolly), the promiscuous party girl Jules (Anna Hutchinson), the brainy sensitive guy Holden (Jesse Williams), the athletic stud Curt (Chris Hemsworth) and the paranoid stoner Marty (Fran Kranz).
In traditional horror fashion, these kids ignore the warnings of a redneck at a gas station and continue their trip toward a secluded cabin in the middle of the woods. After partying and enjoying themselves, they discover a secret basement and their fates are sealed with a choice between interesting and creepy antiques.
Sounds boring, right? But wait, there’s more.
In some high-tech Pentagon-esque facility located somewhere near the cabin, some scientific organization and its staff (Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford) are keeping an eye on these teens from the moment that they start packing for the trip to when they arrive and settle in the cabin. In fact, they are not just watching, they are directing everything that goes on around the cabin by unleashing hormone-enhancing gas and activating an invisible force field that keeps the students from escaping.
If you think that you already have the movie figured out by reading the synopsis, you most likely will be incorrect as this movie loves to pile on the fun twists, some that work better than others. The big mystery here is figuring out what role these students play in the scientists’ antics and what the scientists intend to gain from their deaths.
In fact, one of this movie’s greatest strengths lies in the way it strategically parcels out information with all its twists while allowing time to give its five protagonists some essential humanity. These teens may be nothing more than guinea pigs to the scientists, but the audience gets to see them as much more, and they come off as likable.
“Cabin in the Woods” is directed and written by Drew Goddard and co-written by Joss Whedon, who worked together on projects like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” Any fan of Whedon should recognize the sly, sarcastic and sentimental tones from “Buffy.”
But the real joy that can be found in “Cabin in the Woods” comes from its self-aware wit and slowly unwinding main joke. Both Goddard and Whedon play with the audience’s annoyance and enthusiasm for overused horror clichés and slowly reveal the entire movie as one big piece of irony as the plot twists continue to unfold.
All the horror elements and jump scares really don’t come off as scary, but then again his movie isn’t supposed to be all that scary.
Its cleverness, humor and self-awareness make this teen horror flick fresh and actually worth seeing.