Cabin in the woods begins with two celrical looking middle aged men in an office talking about their wives and going about mundane office work. Not quite the beginning one would associate with a horror film- but then this is not any other horror film either.
Taking every single horror/slasher movie genre stereotype in the book, TCITW creates two parallel stories running into each other randomly. One one hand is an interesting premise of a reality show and on the other is the mundane formulaic teenagers stuck in the woods with killers on the loose track. Both intersect in an attempt to entertain and analyze viewer mindsets and genre rules. What is it that makes peeping into others lives so interesting? What is with our obsession of watching American teenagers get killed brutally n screen movie after movie? With nods to classics like The Ring, Evil Dead and even Werewolf, the film assembles a crazy set of scenes that spook in parts but keep you wondering what exactly is going on all the time.
The promise of entertainment however dissipates towards the end a the film meanders to a very underwhelming climax. The build up to the end raises the specter of a frightening end of the world scenario that falls flat on its face.
What the film attempts is not to scare the day lights out of you, but to force a genre post mortem. If you are expecting a decent spokfest, then this isnt the film for you. If you are a fanatic for horror/slasher genre, this one might just be the newest addition to your all time favorites list.
Share