31 Days of Fright, Day 25: The Cabin in the Woods

Welcome to day 25 of 31 Days of Fright here at Road To The Movies! In today's episode, Jonathan gets a little stoner vindication when he visits...

THE CABIN IN THE WOODS
2012
Rated R

My first instinct here is to regurgitate information I’ve given all of you a million times before. Babble about remakes, adaptations, sequels, and the like, but I’m going to fight that urge. If any of you are faithful readers, you already know my opinion on this subject. What it all comes down to is originality. That’s really what I look for in a horror movie, considering so many of them are exactly the same. One thing I will say about this movie, it has a ridiculous abundance of that.

It follows a group of college kids going out to a lake cabin (super cliché, I know) to simply have a good time, dance, and drink. Sound familiar? Just you wait. They are almost immediately attacked by bloodthirsty monsters, as we’d all expect. But then something interesting happens. We, the viewers, are introduced to a secret society controlling every move and every action in the house. That’s where things get really messed up.

Unfortunately, though I’d like to go deeper into detail, any more would take so much away from the impact the film has. It is such a breath of fresh air in the horror genre as of late, despite its clinging desperately to stereotypes. It’s The Truman Show meets Scream, secret filmmaking paired with hilarious horror satire. These are the types of movies that truly hold my interest and force me to get lost in the illusion, and isn’t that what we’re all looking for? But I must say, amidst all the cheesy humor and cliché storyline, my favorite part was the fact that the stoner was the smartest one of the group. It’s about time, Hollywood!

There are a few things that didn’t sit well with me. That acting left something to be desired (even though sometimes it was supposed to be bad) and the storyline became really farfetched and convoluted out of nowhere. My least favorite part of this movie, however, is the last two seconds. I absolutely hated the last two seconds, and I firmly believe this film would have been improved tenfold by the exclusion of it.

But there is so much good about this film, it’s hard to hold any of that against them. From the perfectly pin-pointed stereotypical characters (acted very well in some points) to the deep layers of satire and comedy, this one is definitely one to see. I have a feeling that there will be no in-betweeners for this movie, it will be either a love or hate relationship. And that’s ok with me, I love it!

8/10

-JONATHAN


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