The Cabin in the Woods is already going down as the one film this year you’ll urge all your friends to see, but won’t tell them anything about it. While the trailer spoiled a few money shots, all the joy and horrific pleasures of Drew Goddard‘s feature debut remain unspoiled. This is the rare type of horror film: the surprising kind.
The set up is basic as five college buddies – Curt (Chris Hemsworth), Marty (Fran Kranz), Holden (Jesse Williams), Dana (Kristen Connolly) and Jules (Anna Hutchison) – head up to a “cabin in the woods” for a weekend of boozing and other typical college kid activities. Once they get there, the trip does not go as planned. Without spoiling anything, two government-esque employees, Richard Sitterson (Richard Jenkins) and Steve Hadley (Bradley Whitford), have a hand in why.
That’s a trite-sounding sell, but Goddard and Whedon go beyond it. The duo know the ins and outs of the genre. When they approach a cliche beat or line in the structure, they manage to either twist it, poke fun at it, or completely throw it away, and never in a smug or self-satisfied way. Many will compare the film to Scream, but that connection doesn’t fit.
The Cabin in the Woods is not a deconstruction of the genre. It is not all about lampooning horror movies, but simply telling a cool, albeit tired, story in a fresh and new way. When the film does take aim at a genre convention, it’s with smart and subtle execution. While the Scream franchise deconstructs the horror genre, it does it with a big smirk on its face. Goddard and Whedon never fall into that trap, and they’re also not afraid to use a crowd-pleasing convention or two, complete with a few standard one-liners.
Before we get to the out-of-left-field turns, the first two acts serve their purpose as a fairly basic horror-comedy. Goddard and Whedon went with a standard set-up, and in doing so they make the last thirty minutes all the more effective. The film shifts from a “pretty good” movie to an excellent one.
Once Goddard and Whedon get to that final act, they make the wait for the A-class horror movie all the more rewarding. The Cabin in the Woods is a fantastic comedy in the body of a horror movie and when the film gets bloody, it’s comical. Goddard and Whedon don’t want to horrify the audience, but please them, and they do so in original and gleeful ways.