The Cabin in the Woods - 2011

 I think when this movie came out it didn’t do very well, but it pretty much automatically became a cult classic as I remember it. This was written by Buffy creator Joss Whedon and Buffy writer Drew Goddard.

The comedy in Buffy is the type of comedy very much apparent here in cabin in the woods, a movie I’ve seen about four times and I’ve always liked. I showed it to my girlfriend because we’ve been watching horror movies and because I felt like she knew the tropes well enough to understand the jokes in this movie. It’s also nice that this has several Buffy adjacent actors in it and that’s fun to see.

As for the plot, a typical bunch of teens head out to a cabin in the woods for a long weekend. But there’s more: a secret government conspiracy group that has conspired to create a horror movie type situation where the choices that the teens make will feed an evil God. Cannibals, zombies, mermen, Japanese ghosts? Which type of evil will be released?

The thing with this movie and it’s hit me every time, but especially this time, is that it feels like it is much more the horror movie about the teens than it is about the government agency. I really wish that those two were reversed because all of the good comedy and all of the good writing and all of the interesting ideas are with the agency. 

The attempt to have it both ways and create a compelling horror film, as well as a meta commentary on horror and the horror film that we’re watching is not quite even, and overall some of it works and some of it doesn’t. Mostly the actual horror movie is not that good almost by design... And with us getting more of it that sort of presents a problem.

This felt like a minor bit of the Scream syndrome thing, because this came at a time when horror was not good and would not become good again for a little while, and it felt in a way like this was another blow that horror would not recover from. Horror has since covered with indie horror and other stuff but honestly, this kind of meta stuff does really hurt it because of how silly horror can be.

Cabin in the Woods is not a masterpiece and I would say that it hasn’t aged as well either I feel like it was much funnier back in the day. All in all it still has some good jokes and it still lands a few good points and I would give it a 3.5.