M. Ovie Revews: Cabin in the Woods

I don't know if there's any point in reviewing Cabin in the Woods in my usual spoiler-free style, since by now you've either a) already seen it, b) been spoiled by someone else, or c) have already decided to never see it anyway. I'll just say that if you fall into the c) group, you should seriously reconsider.

But we've been spoiler-free since '03, so maybe I should talk about another movie I saw about this time last year, called Tucker and Dale vs. Evil. But I don't want to spoil that movie, either. I'll just say that if you're interested in a hilarious deconstruction of backwoods-set slasher films where a group of pretty young morons walk one by one into grisly deaths due to a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation they're actually in, you can't go wrong with either one of these movies. In one of them, one horror-film trope after another is taken out, played with, turned on its ear, and stuck into your face by a half-familiar cast that includes Alan Tudyk. And the other one was co-written by Joss Whedon.

This is prime Whedon, too. Mid-era Buffy quality writing, not Firefly or Firefly or Dollhouse (although cast members from the latter two shows show up). It's smart and funny and unexpected and fun. Plus it's thematically tight while doling out clues at an impeccable, completely non-exposition-y pace. Best feature-length advertisement for Whedon's upcoming The Avengers I can imagine. I don't even need him to come back to TV if he keeps making movies as good as this instead.

So yeah, short review, because there's mot much else I can say without diminishing your enjoyment of it, which will be considerable. See CitW. Make it a double feature with T&DvsE if you like. You won't be sorry either way.

2 Comments:

I saw it opening weekend, not really knowing what to expect except Joss. A friend and I do weekly Superhero Movie Night and we were so excited for the Avengers we went to Cabin in the Woods on the justification that it was Joss and had Thor, so it counted. And I'm so, so glad we did. I don't usually like horror, but this one was so fun and crazy and I didn't expect the middle of the end.

By  Anonymous, at May 1, 2012 at 5:48 PM  

I whole-heartedly agree, great movie! It didn't really seem like a horror movie to me, though. Maybe because I wasn't scared like I normally am?

Heidi

By  Anonymous, at June 28, 2012 at 10:49 AM  

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