On the couch

Cabin in the Woods
*****
Directed by: Drew Goddard
Starring: Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison,Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Richard
Jenkins, Bradley Whitford

A group of college students  – all looking like they’re fresh from a GAP commercial, except the obligatory goofy stoner guy – head into the American wilderness to spend a weekend of beer guzzling and age-appropriate hijinx in a remote holiday cabin. Creepiness ensues and people end up dead.

 

Sound like every. SINGLE. Teen slasher movie you’ve ever seen before? Well good, because a familiarity with the genre is a prerequisite for enjoying Cabin in the Woods.

Written by Joss Whedon and frequent collaborator Drew Goddard (because breaking the box office with the Avengers and tackling Shakespeare with an up-coming adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing wasn’t enough to keep the man busy over the last few years) the pair wrote what Whedon described as a “loving hate letter” to the horror genre which has become, for a large part, the preserve of increasingly dull and disquieting torture porn films.

So if Cabin seems initially to be a horribly rote affair, fear not. There’s more to it than meets the eye. Much more.

To start with there’s are some initially unexplained office interludes where the plot diverges from the gang of would-be holidaymakers to an underground bunker where Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford seem to be running an ominous, government-type operation with an unwholesome interest in the young folk.

Without revealing too much more and thereby ruining much of Cabin in the Wood’s fun, the office-bound folk are doing more than just keeping the kids under surveillance and, as the plot develops, so does the extent of the film’s canvas.

In many ways Cabin in the Woods does for horror movies now what Scream (but none of its sequels) did in the ’90s. It defies conventions by acknowledging and perverting and forces (hopefully) the genre to move forward in a new and better direction.

At the very basic level both films are quality genre fare. Cabin in the Woods is scary. There are moments that will make you both squirm and get creeped out. Beyond that though there’s also a deep understanding of the rules of horror that means there are surprises and twists aplenty for even the most weathered and fearless fan of scary movies.

Top this off with a veritable encyclopedia of movie references and in-jokes and even if it hadn’t been broadly accepted for its cinema release (it was), it would be a sure-fire cult hit and excellent fodder for a number of drinking games. (Not that one would endorse such a thing.)

As well as providing a good line in old-fashioned scares and uncomfortable twists on established clichés, Cabin is, like nearly everything Whedon puts his pen to, funny.

Not man-getting-hit-in-the-groin-with-a-football funny but more the snap, crackle and pop snarkiness you’d expect from a Whedon product.

This is only amplified by Goddard both co-writing and directing the film. he was responsible for a number of episodes of Whedon’s various TV shows and no stranger to a well-turned bit of patter himself.

Given the film’s set-up, the cast could have been considered incidental to proceedings but Kristen Connolly (the plucky one), a pre-Thor Chris Hemsworth (the handsome jock), Anna Hutchison (the blonde one), Fran Kranz (the stoner/comic relief) and Jesse Williams (the earnest one with glasses) are all more than their roles might need and only serve to make the film more endearing.

Kranz, a Dollhouse alumnus, is particular enjoyable as the twitchy, drug-addled Marty, as is Connolly as the tough, sensible Dana.

On the other side of things, Whitford and Jenkins are amusing and unnerving as the white collar meddlers, bantering back and forth about baby-proofing and betting like an evil Statler and Waldorf. Fans of Whedon’s many TV shows can also get out their bingo cards and see how many other actors they can spot from the prolific hyphenate’s back catalogue.

Starting off as bland as an easi-single sandwich served on white bread, Cabin in the Woods quickly drags its viewers down the proverbial rabbit hole.

Possibly too strange for some, the obvious love both director and co-writer have for horror flicks shines through and should be enough to maintain the interest of even the hardest to please film buff.

You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll scratch your head. You’ll want to watch it again almost as soon as it ends. What more could you want from a Saturday night in on the couch?