The Cabin in the Woods

I am in the unusual position of reviewing The Cabin in the Woods without having seen the ending. Or the last twenty minutes to be precise. Why, I hear you ask? Well, let's just say the film didn't agree with one of my fellow cinema goers... But from what I did see, I know one thing. It was like Scooby Doo on steroids. Crazy.

I've never really been into horror films. I just don't get them. Sure, they make me jump where they should and satisfy any bloodfest desires I may have on a Thursday afternoon. But I just can't handle their predictability; everything has been done before and almost all recent horror films just recycle conventions like they're on commission from the Green Party. To be frank, I find them a tad boring. As a budding film critic, however, I felt that a trip to see Drew Goddard's The Cabin in the Woods was in order, if only off the back of an impressive critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I was expecting a run-of-the-mill horror flick with little substance but what I got was a strange experience.

In a nutshell, the plot sees five university friends go on a holiday to a remote cabin – yep, you guessed it – in a wood, and start to realise that everything is not as it first seemed. Soon, they are fighting for their lives as a mysterious control centre manipulates them and their fate. So kinda Big Brother but without Davina...and with more blood. The film is a curious affair, and one which left me rather confused about my feelings towards it as I left...albeit prematurely. Firstly, the characterisation is superficial at best but gave enough for the audience to invest in the characters and care slightly about their fates. Furthermore, the developing narrative was slick and well-paced, balancing this character development with enough action and suspense to keep the audience engaged. Treading a thin line between taking itself too seriously and being very self-conscious of the horror conventions it patently follows, the film has been praised by some for setting the bar for future horror flicks and bringing something new to the well-worn genre. Personally, I saw little evidence for this but it is clear that The Cabin in the Woods is at least striving to be something more than a two dimensional, painting by numbers horror picture.

The plot is slightly mad and when it gets going, boy does it go crazy. The beginning will leave you wondering what on earth is going on and the ending (well, near-ending) will certainly make you think about lifts in a totally different light... The level of violence was also surprising for a 15 as it quite easily could have received an 18 certificate. Despite featuring Bradley Whitford, whom I rather like, the acting was about as flat as an Ikea wardrobe but then again, perfectly adequate for the genre. The special effects, if you can apply the term to zombies, were competent and relatively realistic given the amount of screen time the monsters had. I always maintain, however, that it is what the audience doesn't see that is the most disturbing as too much screen-time for one armed, child axe murderers can desensitise the audience to the horror: much like watching too much Jeremy Kyle. The Cabin in the Woods is by no means a shockingly awful film but, for me, nor is it a brilliantly new caricature of the horror genre. But then again, who am I to talk? I didn't even see the end...

PS This got me thinking, are there any films which would have been better had you walked out twenty minutes before the end? Answers on the back of a postcard... 

Clapperboard Rating: * * *