Horror these days must be hard work, to actually surprise people anyway. If you just want to gross people out, that might be a bit easier; but to do something genuinely different is tricky. Since Wes Craven reinvented the scary movie back in 1996 there has been a market for clever horror. Now in 2012 Joss Whedon and Cloverfield writer Drew Goddard have changed the game again. Ostensibly a film about a group high school kids escaping to a Cabin for sex, drinking and getting high it turns out that they are part of something far greater than any of them expected.
These teen horror movies are not generally renowned for their fantastic actors, Cabin in the Woods does however have a decent performance from Chris Hemsworth (the only one of the high-school kids to really know how to act), and both Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford are great. There’s not much more to say about the film without being spoiler-tastic; technically there’s nothing amazing, though the special effects are top-notch, it’s the concept and the story that makes the film so entertaining. I think I was expecting a big twist towards the end, whereas actually the twist is revealed near the beginning, but it still makes the rest of the movie thoroughly entertaining and a huge amount of fun.
I'm glad you liked this. I thought it was great fun. Nice to see something a bit different.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteNice. I like your review. Not sure if you had seen it or not, but I did a review on this movie a few months back. I'll leave the link if you wanna read it.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thereviewonline.info/2012/08/cabin-in-the-woods.html
Cheers Stephen, I like your review also, though I'm not sure which point you think are cheesy.
DeleteThis is one hell of a fun movie that features twists that got better and better as the film went on. It’s crazy that horror films can be this fun and entertaining just by smart and witty writing. However, it won’t last for too long so we might as well enjoy it while Whedon and Goodard are around. Good review Russell.
ReplyDeleteIt was tremendous fun. Yeah, horror films are usually either tense and scary or quite stupid and rubbish; very refreshing to watch one as entertaining as this.
DeleteOne of my favourites of last year. Just love Joss and Drew's writing. Amazingly witty dialog.
ReplyDeleteThought Fran Kranz did a decent job of playing the stoner.
I noticed from various peoples 2012 retrospectives that Cabin was in the top ten; definitely one of the most entertaining films of last year.
Delete