The Cabin in the Woods (2011)

Number Rolled: 62

Movie Name/Year: The Cabin in the Woods (2011)

Genre: Horror

Length: 94 minutes

Rating: R

Director: Drew Goddard

Writer: Joss Whedon, Drew Goddard

Actors: Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford, Brian White, Amy Acker, Tim De Zarn, Tom Lenk, Dan Payne, Jodelle Ferland, Dan Shea, Maya Massar, Matt Drake, Greg Zach, Sigourney Weaver

As many horror movies tend to start, five friends leave their cozy college community to rough it in a cabin for a weekend get-away. The stereotypes are obnoxiously apparent: the whore, the athlete, the scholar, the fool and the virgin. As they get to the cabin and the story progresses, they are led into the cellar where a host of strange, old objects sit, just waiting to be fidgeted with. As normal as this sounds, as much as you might think this story treads the beaten path, you will find the recipe picked apart by the writers in such a way that the familiar becomes a puzzle.

It is my belief that “The Cabin in the Woods” is the perfect specimen of a slasher/supernatural horror. If I were to be pressed, I could say I believe it may just be the perfect movie overall. There was a significantly unmatched balance between horror, thriller, mystery, torture porn and comedy. I’m actually a little depressed. I’m fairly certain it’s all downhill from here.

“Scream” started this revolution within the horror genre. It might not have been the first to do what it did, but it was the first to blow up for doing it. That was the first big horror movie to acknowledge the cliché and base a storyline around it. “The Cabin in the Woods” starts on that road but travels further than I have ever even imagined a movie could go. Simultaneously it looks at a horror story from the eyes of the creators (writers, directors, etc.), while asking the question, “why is this the recipe?” No one but Joss Whedon would have been able to pull this kind of writing off; a feat made even greater if the rumor is true, that he and Goddard wrote the screenplay in only three days.

Searching for an issue or problem with this movie has turned up nothing for me. I watched the majority of it with my mouth hanging open and leaning as close to the TV as I could get from my couch. I don’t usually go out of my ratings range (1-5), in fact, the only other time I’ve done so was with a movie bad enough to get a 0 (Victim, 2010).

This movie was just something special enough to make me break my own rules.

Netflix’s Prediction for Me – 5/5

Overall Opinion – 6/5

P.S. Brownie points if you find the Reaver in the movie. Watch Fireflies, watch.

P.S. Due to the existence of the Reaver in the movie, I can certainly believe “The Cabin in the Woods” to be a part of the Tommy Westphall Universe Hypothesis.

Movie Trailer: