movie reviews for cabin in the woods

Another ominous gas station owner

You’re not going to see this one coming. You might think you do, because the TV ads and shots at the top reveal what looks like the big surprise — and it certainly comes as a surprise to the characters. But let’s just say there’s a lot more to it than that.

“The Cabin in the Woods” sets off with an ancient and familiar story plan. Five college students pile into a van and drive deep into the woods for a weekend in a borrowed cabin. Their last stop is of course a decrepit gas station populated by a demented creep who giggles at the fate in store for them. (In these days when movies are sliced and diced for YouTube mash-ups, I’d love to see a montage of demented redneck gas station owners drooling and chortling over the latest carloads of victims heading into the woods.)

It will seem that I’m revealing a secret by mentioning that this is no ordinary cabin in the woods, but actually a set for a diabolical scientific experiment. Beneath the cabin is a basement, and beneath that is a vast modern laboratory headed by technology geeks ( Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford ) who turn dials, adjust levers and monitor every second on a bank of TV monitors. Their scheme is to offer the five guinea pigs a series of choices, which will reveal — something, I’m not sure precisely what. There is some possibility that this expensive experiment is involved with national security, and we get scenes showing similar victims in scenarios around the world.

Now in your standard horror film, that would be enough: OMG! The cabin is being controlled by a secret underground laboratory! Believe me, that’s only the beginning. The film has been produced and co-written by Joss Whedon (creator of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Angel” and other iconic TV shows) and directed by his longtime collaborator Drew Goddard (writer of “ Cloverfield “). Whedon has described it as a “loving hate letter” to horror movies, and you could interpret it as an experiment on the genre itself: It features five standard-issue characters in your basic cabin in the woods, and we can read the lab scientists as directors and writers who are plugging in various story devices to see what the characters will do. In some sense, the Jenkins and Whitford characters represent Whedon and Goddard.

Ah, but they don’t let us off that easily. That’s what I mean when I say you won’t see the end coming. This is not a perfect movie; it’s so ragged, it’s practically constructed of loose ends. But it’s exciting because it ventures so far off the map. One imagines the filmmakers chortling with glee as they devise first one bizarre development and then another in a free-for-all for their imaginations. They establish rules only to violate them.

That begins with the characters. They’re stock archetypes. We get an action hero (Curt, played by Chris Hemsworth ); a good girl (Dana, played by Kristen Connolly ); a bad girl (Jules, played by Anna Hutchison ); the comic relief (Marty the pothead, played by Fran Kranz ), and the mature and thoughtful kid (Holden, played by Jesse Williams ). What the scientists apparently intend to do is see how each archetype plays out after the group is offered various choices. There are even side bets in the lab about who will do what — as if they’re predicting which lever the lab rats will push.

This is essentially an attempt to codify free will. Do horror characters make choices because of the requirements of the genre, or because of their own decisions? And since they’re entirely the instruments of their creators, to what degree can the filmmakers exercise free will? This is fairly bold stuff, and it grows wilder as the film moves along. The opening scenes do a good job of building conventional suspense; the middle scenes allow deeper alarm to creep in, and by the end, we realize we’re playthings of sinister forces.

Horror fans are a particular breed. They analyze films with such detail and expertise that I am reminded of the Canadian literary critic Northrup Frye, who approached literature with similar archetypal analysis. “The Cabin in the Woods” has been constructed almost as a puzzle for horror fans to solve. Which conventions are being toyed with? Which authors and films are being referred to? Is the film itself an act of criticism?

With most genre films, we ask, “Does it work?” In other words, does this horror film scare us? “The Cabin in the Woods” does have some genuine scares, but they’re not really the point. This is like a final exam for fanboys.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

Chris Hemsworth as Curt
Jesse Williams as Holden
Fran Kranz as Marty
Richard Jenkins as Sitterson
Kristen Connolly as Dana
Anna Hutchison as Jules
Bradley Whitford as Hadley
Drew Goddard
Joss Whedon

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The cabin in the woods.

Common Sense Says
Parents Say 17 Reviews
Kids Say 79 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Clever but very bloody deconstruction of horror movies.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 17+?

The Cabin in the Woods starts out like a "normal" horror movie, with zombie atta

One of the teens is a heavy, constant pot smoker -- he even has a special bong t

Language is very strong, but not constant. It includes many uses of "f--k," "s--

A teen girl is seen topless and engaging in foreplay with her boyfriend (they're

Any Positive Content?

The Cabin in the Woods takes a very sinister, cynical view of humanity in genera

None of the main characters can really be considered a role model. One minor cha

Violence & Scariness

The Cabin in the Woods starts out like a "normal" horror movie, with zombie attacks, blood, and gore. There's stabbing, sawing, and a kind of "steel jaws"/bear trap weapon on a chain. Viewers see severed heads, spraying blood, throat-stabbing, motorcycle crashing, and falling from heights. There's also gory painting, and terrifying imagery is read aloud from a diary. Then things get even more intense, with dozens of new monsters and dozens of quick images of various attacks -- i.e. suicide, guns and shooting, monsters eating people, and gallons of blood. It stops short of torture, however, and the violence is all intentionally over-the-top.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

One of the teens is a heavy, constant pot smoker -- he even has a special bong that collapses to look like a steel coffee mug. Other teens are seen drinking beer. Grown-ups drink beer, tequila, and other alcoholic beverages at a party.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Language is very strong, but not constant. It includes many uses of "f--k," "s--t," "goddamn," "damn," "puss out," "boobies," "ass," "hell," "damn," "goddamn," and "oh my God."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A teen girl is seen topless and engaging in foreplay with her boyfriend (they're interrupted). Another couple is seen kissing. A teen girl is seen in her panties, and men's naked torsos are shown. Another teen girl pretends to make out with a stuffed wolf during a game of "truth or dare." Heavy sexual innuendo and banter throughout.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

The Cabin in the Woods takes a very sinister, cynical view of humanity in general; the best it has to say about people that is that we have a strong will to live.

Positive Role Models

None of the main characters can really be considered a role model. One minor character -- a security guard -- questions what's going on, frowns upon it, and refuses to participate. Unfortunately, he doesn't affect the outcome at all.

Parents need to know that The Cabin in the Woods is a very-self aware, sometimes tongue-in-cheek horror movie (like Scream or Tucker and Dale vs. Evil ). It starts out as a typical "carload of teens goes to spend the weekend in the country" scary movie, but then it adds some sinister twists. Throughout the whole thing, you can expect tons of violence, gore, and blood, though it stops short of "torture porn" (a la the Saw and Hostel movies). Language is also very strong (including "f--k," "s--t," and more), as is sexuality -- there's one topless scene, plus heavy sexual banter and behavior. One teen is a regular pot smoker, and other teens -- as well as adults -- drink beer, tequila, and more. Writer Joss Whedon has legions of devoted fans, many of them teens, but T he Cabin in the Woods is really too much for any but the most mature teens. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parent and Kid Reviews

Parents say (17)
Kids say (79)

Based on 17 parent reviews

Horrible horror movie with not a lot of gore and loads of strong language

What's the story.

In THE CABIN IN THE WOODS, a group of college kids --including hunky Curt ( Chris Hemsworth ) -- piles into an RV and heads for a cabin in the woods for a fun, blow-out weekend of swimming, sex, drinking, and smoking pot. At the same time, a couple of scientist/engineer types ( Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford ) check into a control room and start monitoring the teens. After a while, the teens stumble upon a cellar full of strange objects. The virginal Dana (Kristen Connolly) begins reading from an old diary and apparently awakens a family of zombies. The teens begin to realize that something is amiss, but can they withstand the homicidal zombies long enough to find out?

Is It Any Good?

Veteran writer Joss Whedon and first-time director Drew Goddard deconstruct the horror genre like never before with this film. Their effort isn't unlike Scream or Tucker and Dale vs. Evil , but it's a great deal more spectacular. It begins very similarly to movies like The Evil Dead , Creature , and Shark Night , but before it grows stale, The Cabin in the Woods starts dropping hints that it's no ordinary horror movie. It keeps the mystery up until the final blow-out reel, where it probably gives away a bit too much. But by that time, it has wildly succeeded.

Goddard gets fun performances from the cast, especially Jenkins and Whitford, who chat playfully without disclosing too much vital information. The Cabin in the Woods also makes the most of its cross between horror and humor, between the dark, dank cabin and the white, clinical control room. Where the movie arguably falls short is in its scare factor; it's not particularly frightening, though it is very clever and very entertaining.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about what point The Cabin in the Woods is making. Is the message purely cynical and sinister, or does it have anything positive to say? Does it help to have seen a lot of horror movies in order to "get" this one?

Could the movie succeed without its extreme violence ?

Is The Cabin in the Woods scary ? Does it succeed as a horror movie, as well as a commentary on other horror movies?

Are any of these characters admirable in any way? Why or why not?

Movie Details

In theaters : April 13, 2012
On DVD or streaming : September 18, 2012
Cast : Bradley Whitford , Chris Hemsworth , Richard Jenkins
Director : Drew Goddard
Studio : Lionsgate
Genre : Horror
Topics : Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
Run time : 95 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : strong bloody horror violence and gore, language, drug use and some sexuality/nudity
Last updated : August 7, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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What to watch next.

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The Cabin in the Woods Reviews

Too many unfulfilled angles from the heap of concept attempted.

Full Review | Jan 18, 2024

It still carries the whiff of the late 2000s' misogyny in the way it portrays women and it certainly doesn't try hard enough to disrupt the genre's opposition to female sexuality.

Full Review | Original Score: 71 | Nov 7, 2023

Feels like a greatest hits of the best horror-comedies of the last few decades, while also injecting plenty of originality.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 24, 2023

Unabashed horror movie fans Whedon and Goddard let their monster mash impulses go wild, riffing on every “kids in the woods tormented by supernatural killers” film ever made...

Full Review | Apr 14, 2023

A self-aware twist on haunted cottage slashers, the movie contains a lot of secrets, and oh-what-fun the audience will have discovering them in this funny, shocking, and intriguing arena.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 4, 2022

Leave it to Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard to take the genre, turn it on its head, and give it a good shake.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 19, 2022

It is impossible to say that The Cabin in the Woods is the only reason the genre returned to prominence, but its release in 2012 was a watershed moment for horror.

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Aug 1, 2022

While being "like" so many others, it's unlike anything you'll see. It's weird, hilarious, and actually scary- The Cabin in the Woods has it all.

Full Review | Oct 14, 2021

Episode 12: Away We Go

Full Review | Original Score: 86/100 | Sep 1, 2021

Could I possibly be fair and balanced talking about this movie when it was created in a lab by awesome scientists (that is, scientists of awesomeness) out of everything I love most to be The Perfect Movie For Me? I cannot.

Full Review | Jul 6, 2021

The cast is far stronger than one usually finds in this type of film.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4.0 | Sep 4, 2020

It functions as horror, comedy, and as a deconstructionist essay on genre filmmaking. Remarkably clever, more hilarious than I expected, and gory enough to sate horror fanatics of all varieties,

Full Review | Original Score: A | Jul 12, 2020

It features a fantastic cast, a witty and clever script and is very well structured. This film is one of THE best horror movies and should definitely be included in your annual Halloween viewing line-up.

Full Review | Jul 12, 2020

If you love horror films, or love the postmodern phenomenon of "deconstruction" films, this movie is about as good as they come.

Full Review | Mar 31, 2020

Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon called the movie "something for us." In that sense, The Cabin in the Woods is a gift to horror fans.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 30, 2020

Disgusting at times and fun in others, The Cabin in the Woods is like a breath of fresh air to an exhausted genre.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Dec 10, 2019

[A]ll put together with dry, wry, self-deprecating humor that is so clever, witty and entertaining it just knocks the film out of the park, er, woods.

Full Review | Nov 26, 2019

Let yourself go and you're in for a thrilling treat that will induce numerous, genuine laughs.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.7/5 | Nov 8, 2019

One thing Whedon and writer/first time director Drew Goddard are great at is finding and exploiting new talent.

Full Review | Jul 29, 2019

For those with a taste for horror, this is a wild, witty ride with a trenchant edge of referential satire.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Summary Five friends go to a remote cabin in the woods. Bad things happen. If you think you know this story, think again. The Cabin in the Woods is a horror film that turns the genre inside out. (Lionsgate)

Directed By : Drew Goddard

Written By : Joss Whedon, Drew Goddard

The Cabin in the Woods

Where to watch.

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The Cabin in the Woods Review

What's truly lurking in the darkness..

The Cabin in the Woods co-writer/director Drew Goddard talks to IGN's Greg Miller on Up at Noon!

4.5 out of 5 Stars, 9/10 Score

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The Cabin in the Woods (2012)

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Blood, guts, and a girl making out with a mounted wolf.

What it's about

The Cabin in the Woods came to be as Buffy The Vampire Slayer writers Drew Goddard and and Joss Whedon set themselves on a mission to upgrade the slasher genre. With this film, they wanted to satirize the way it slips into torture porn. In other words, they aspired to make a clever, punchy new classic. Amassing a 30 million dollar budget attests to their hopes: a massive backend of VFX work provided an elaborate film world, where different levels of 'reality' are at play. As six college students head into the woods to spend a debaucherous weekend undisturbed, a whole underground laboratory monitors their every move. It appears that a big operation is underway to trap the unsuspecting crowd into a curated murder scenario, straight out of a horror movie. Among the victims, we see Chris Hemsworth at the time his career was just taking off, so that's history in the making for you. Unfortunately, in its devotion to provocatively render some horror tropes irrelevant, The Cabin in the Woods cannot help but reinforce others. It still carries the whiff of the late 2000s' misogyny in the way it portrays women and it certainly doesn't try hard enough to disrupt the genre's opposition to female sexuality. The characters of Dana (the virgin) and Jules (the experienced one) are sure to make you wince, as they're written as flat as a piece of paper. So you say no to torture porn, but embrace misogyny...?

What stands out

We got to hand it to Drew Goddard, when he does something, he does it well. Not only that he whipped a hugely expensive horror film into existence, but he made a box-office hit that doubled its cost in revenue. The way he imbued the film with all his love and expertise paid off. The Cabin in the Woods is knowledgeable, but not to the extent of over-intellectualizing horror. Instead, the script plays out all the tropes and cliches of slasher kills—such as who dies first, and who dies last—with a pinch of irony that subverts the viewer's expectations, for both newbies and connoisseurs alike. To be bold and free in reassessing what genre cinema can do is a rare opportunity even for well-established names, and at least there's one contemporary horror film that has crossed that threshold in recent years. In addition to the mad fun, the film's educational value should not be underestimated.

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The Cabin In The Woods review

Is Joss Whedon's The Cabin In The Woods the best horror movie in years? Quite possibly. Here's Sarah's review of a perfectly constructed shocker...

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The most obvious, hackneyed set up for a horror movie goes something like this: a group of college kids heads out to the middle of nowhere, planning to get drunk and have fun in an isolated cabin near a lake. On the way, they meet a creepy old guy who warns them that something nasty’s lurking in them there hills, but they ignore him… only to discover, as they’re picked off one by one, that he was right all along. Cue buckets of fake blood, running, screaming; the end.

So, yeah, The Cabin In The Woods looks very, very familiar. But it’s relying on the fact that you know that. This is a film that loves horror movies; it knows them inside out, and it expects you to have done your homework, too. It’s a gleeful deconstruction of the horror genre that takes an enormous amount of pleasure in holding up the most common tropes of the genre for you to recognise, and then very deliberately piling one of top of another until the whole thing threatens to topple over, Jenga -style.

But while the pieces are all there, they could end up anywhere. Recognition is half the fun, but it’s also exhilarating to realise that, this time, you really can’t predict what’s going to happen. And the more you like horror movies, the bigger the kick you’re going to get out of this one.

Of course, including self-aware characters and making references to other horror movies has become a cliché in its own right, so while The Cabin In The Woods does do those things, it goes further than that. It understands why audiences watch horror movies, and knows that our relationship with the characters in horror movies isn’t straightforward. It knows that, while audiences identify with horror movie characters, and root for them, and cheer for them when they triumph over evil, we also need them to face up to the nastiest, scariest things imaginable.

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Horror movies would be no fun at all if everyone just packed up and went home at the first sign of something scary. Much as we know we’d never go up into the attic/down into the basement/into the creepy house to investigate a strange noise ourselves, we really really want our hero and/or heroine to do it, even while we’re sitting on our sofas screaming at them to just, for the love of God, run away!

The eventual defeat of a monster isn’t half as much fun if there hasn’t been a little bloodshed along the way; the heroine who manages to escape the masked maniac isn’t much of a heroine if all her friends haven’t been butchered first. The Cabin In The Woods gets all of that. It wants to give us what we want, but not without letting us know, first, that it knows we want it…

Although the kids in The Cabin In The Woods are pretty much the archetypal horror movie kids, the script – written by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard – actually manages to make us care about them. Partly that’s through cleverness, using tricks borrowed from reality TV shows, but mostly it’s just that the dialogue is so good. In the space of just a few lines, the writing sketches a set of believable, even sympathetic characters.

It’s not as stylised as the dialogue in Buffy The Vampire Slayer, but the film’s sense of humour is recognisably Whedon-esque. (And it is really, really funny; Fran Kranz, as the movie’s annoying stoner, gets most of the best lines, and his comic timing is bang on.) Even if this were just a straightforward kids-go-to-the-woods-and-get-murdered movie, it’d be a better-than-average example of the form for its characterisation alone.

But it isn’t just a straightforward kids-go-to-the-woods-and-get-murdered movie. And beyond its jokes, the script is great; it skilfully builds anticipation and, crucially, delivers on all of its promises. Everything that’s set up in the first two-thirds is paid off, gloriously, in the final act. There’s almost too much to take in. This is a film that’s going to reward a second viewing, and a third – especially any second or third viewing armed with a pause button.

The Cabin In The Woods is a love letter to the horror genre, but it’s also possibly the ultimate horror movie. (And yet, in some ways, it isn’t a horror movie at all.) It’s the culmination of decades upon decades of scary movies; it knows that everything’s already been done, and uses that familiarity to its own advantage. Without that history, without a well-worn set of exhausted clichés, The Cabin In The Woods couldn’t exist. It’s almost obscenely clever – and after this, anyone making a horror film set in a cabin in the woods is going to look hopelessly amateurish.

I’m deliberately not telling you anything about the plot of The Cabin In The Woods : the less you know about this film – and the more you know about horror, in general – the more you’re going to love it.

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Sarah Dobbs | @SarahDobbs

Sarah is a freelance writer and editor. She loves horror movies, unusual storytelling techniques, and smoking jackets. Ask her about the Saw movies. Go on, ask.

'The Cabin In The Woods' Review: An Adrenaline Shot To Energize The Heart Of Horror

When Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho opened in 1960 it was carried into theaters on a wave of advertising that commanded audiences to keep mum about the story's surprising elements. Thanks in part to that ad campaign, Psycho became a hit that changed horror films even as it legitimized them. The mainstream horror genre quickly developed around a codified set of tropes, character archetypes and specific rules that, fifty years later, are tiresome in their predictability.

Marketing for The Cabin in the Woods , from director Drew Goddard and his co-writer Joss Whedon , exploits some of that same "don't tell friends how it ends!" PR mode. But that's just a smokescreen. Goddard and Whedon aim to demolish the archetypes born in the wake of that early popularization of horror, and in doing so bring a sense of spontaneous fun back to the genre.

The pair succeeds spectacularly. The Cabin in the Woods is a blast. It's a film for anyone who feels the spark has gone out of horror. This movie is clever and quite self-aware, and it has very specific ideas about what caused horror to fall into rote patterns. As they get around to explaining just how horror turned into what it is today, Goddard and Whedon give the audience a chum bucket full of the thrills it wants, but also argues that playing by the rules is the wrong way to go.

I'm going to keep this spoiler-free, so here's the brief plot recap. (In truth, the plot of Cabin isn't as sacrosanct as it has been made out to be, but in the interest of entertainment I'll play along.)

Five friends, played by Kristen Connolly , Chris Hemsworth , Anna Hutchison , Fran Kranz , and Jesse Williams , head to a remote cabin for a weekend of fun. But the cabin isn't quite what it seems, as events that transpire within are controlled by an exterior crew that seeks to manipulate the partying crew to a gruesome end. There is a similarity to the Cube films in that plot construction, particularly Cube Zero , but Goddard and Whedon go well beyond that series as they playfully twist horror elements into new shapes.

Without getting into details, I do have to note that beyond that manipulating outside crew there is a larger force at work in the film, too, that has some bearing on how and why this horror-movie-like tableau plays out. The metaphor is clear: The Cabin in the Woods apes the very process of crafting a horror film, from efforts of string-pulling filmmakers, so ready to lean on tropes and stereotypes, to the influence of a ravenous, demanding audience. The characters are caught in the middle. And while these characters don't realize they are in a movie — as I said, the self-awareness doesn't veer into full-tilt preciousness — they do realize that they're being manipulated, and seek to do something about it.

That all sounds frightfully academic, but Cabin is no dusty textbook. Goddard and Whedon's script is light on its feet and quick to indulge with our expectations of character types based on chosen actors before veering off into different territory. They know we see the tall, muscled blond guy (Hemsworth) and expect the oh-so-typical horror movie jock. That line is played out out just a bit before it pulls audience attention towards a much more modern group of friends. Whedon is known for having an easy handle on genre trappings, and his signature style flavors the dialogue with a zing that rebuffs the boneheaded stupidity of so many horror scripts.

And, let it be said, no one is really safe. Because this remains a horror film at its core, gore splatters the screen, characters meet wildly ugly ends and the third act escalates into an orgy of craziness that immediately takes a spot on the list of great genre film climaxes.

In the meantime, there is a bunker full of drones and technicians trying to manipulate the cabin group for their own ends. As the middle-tier project managers overseeing the operation, Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford provide dry and pointed notes of workplace comedy; by letting these guys be the comic voice, scenes at the cabin can be given over entirely to horror. Cutting between the parallel lines keeps the film's pulse high. Jenkins and Whitford's slightly pathetic, distant observation of the action at the cabin plays right into Goddard and Whedon's criticism of horror, even as it draws the film's biggest genuine laughs.

While the big talking point for The Cabin in the Woods has long been the secretive nature of the plot, in truth the film doesn't derive its energy from spoil-able suspense. Rather, it is a tight, simple script crafted in such a way as to draw genre aficionados into multiple viewings, the better to pay attention to the myriad minor details that litter scene after scene. Frankly, I'm looking forward to the film's blu-ray release so I can go frame by frame through a few segments that were so packed with stuff that I'm positive I missed some neat little touch.

If there was any true closure in filmmaking, The Cabin in the Woods would nail shut the box of horror film stereotypes that some filmmakers and audiences have used as crutches for decades. That probably isn't going to happen, but we can still celebrate Drew Goddard's movie as one of the most energetic, nimble and entertaining horror films to hit the screen in a long time.

/Film score: 9 out of 10

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Director: Drew Goddard Written by: Drew Goddard, Joss Whedon Starring: Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford MPAA Rating: R

Introduction :

The Cabin in the Woods is a 2012 horror film co-written by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard. It is also the directorial debut of Drew Goddard. The film follows five friends that go for a break at a remote cabin in the woods, where they eventually get more than they bargained for. Together, they must discover the truth behind the cabin in the woods before it’s too late.

There is no real way to talk about The Cabin in the Woods in a non-spoiler demeanor, so I simply won’t try. I can only recommend watching The Cabin in the Woods because going any further would just disclose too many plot twists. So before I indeed delve into the movie a little more, if you haven’t watched the movie. It’s best to stop reading now. Even if you were the type of person who indulges in spoilers, I’d urge you in this one case to do yourself a favor. Stop reading.

Have you stopped reading?

Are you sure? This is the double tap in Zombieland (2009), giving you one last warning.

All right then, let’s get to it.

The Cabin in the Woods follows five friends, Dana (Kristen Connolly), Jules (Anna Hutchison), Curt (Chris Hemsworth), Holden (Jesse Williams) and Marty (Fran Kranz). As per any typical horror film, the characters all follow the standard tropes of the horror genre, each also providing the necessary stereotypical archetype. There are invariably always rules in a horror films, a progression of sequences, fulfillments required to essentially allow the next sequence of events to occur. You’ll get the ominous warning from the eccentric or just plain old creepy man who might in this case be working at the gas station. Then if that wasn’t enough there is always the extremely remote, like hey, wait a second, this cabin is just too damn remote and out of the way scenery. Then the consistent, this cabin looks just a little too good to be true. Then the moment where the group of friends should think twice before going into the dark cellar, but don’t. And if that wasn’t enough there is always a cellar containing a full collection of things that although look curious and mysterious. You probably should just get the hell out of dodge.

But that’s the Cabin in the Woods. The characters we watch and even the audience itself serves the purpose to fulfill the requirements of the movie. Our own viewing is as sacrificial as a ritual, in say a horror film, like this horror film. We all sacrifice the time to sit through something we all have seen before. But again, that’s the point.

In all the ways that you do think you’ve seen this movie before – you haven’t.

It’s tough to actually simplify this movie, because in most cases, purposefully and even all it’s subtle nuances, it’s an all-in-one horror film. Things that are subtle aren’t subtle, yet they are. What happens purposefully, while happening in sequence, is smart enough to still follow the rules yet break them at the same time. If you’re a hardcore fan of the genre or a casual viewer who likes a good scare, the film’s intellectual nature goes as far as your own knowledge. By that I mean. The Cabin in the Woods is a graduate’s thesis and every horror film before it is basically a pre-requisite.

The film teams up Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard who are no strangers to the horror genre. In fact if you pay attention to all the minute casting, The Cabin in the Woods is actually a reunion of actors from two other TV series they’re associated with, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) and Angel (1999-2004). It’s these types of Easter eggs that serve as the general lining of the film itself. The care to detail of past players who are familiar with their roles and what the movie expects of them. And it’s not simply limited to this notion, but the overall satirical and self-referential knowledge of where this movie actually places itself amongst horror films from the past, present and even future. And because of this, the surprise of The Cabin in the Woods comes unexpectedly.

For the hardcore fans, it’s almost always a necessity to figure out the scare before it happens to avoid jumping out of your seat. You don’t want to get caught doing it in the theatre and it’s almost embarrassing. The hardcore fan wants to be smarter than the horror movie, you want to figure out where it’s going to lead to, you want to solve who the masked killer is before you’re told and when the movie is over. You want to complain about the stupid decisions the actors do on-screen and say out loud, “well I obviously wouldn’t have done that” or “yeah we knew that was going to happen” and you might’ve described The Cabin in the Woods as being so meta. But that’s the point, it is meta, it’s self aware but respective of what it’s trying to say. Whedon has described The Cabin in the Woods as a “love/hate letter to horror films” and in that regard, that is probably the most poignant description of the movie itself.

In all the ways the horror genre has been recycled over and over, there have been moments or glimpses where something new comes along. It might’ve happened with the introduction of Scream (1996), maybe the Blair Witch Project (1999), perhaps the spoofing with Scary Movie (2000), or Saw (2004) and even slightly more recent with Paranormal Activity (2009). There are tons of movies not in that brief list and even more so if we turn the clock further back and start listing Halloween (1978) or Evil Dead (1981). But the point is, the genre itself today has become and is clockwork. We see the same sequels every year and we might get the odd thriller with a twist. But it’s rare we get a horror film, let alone a film itself that actually tries to be smarter than you.

And again that’s The Cabin in the Woods. It doesn’t do it an insulting manner, it does it so both that hardcore fan and casual viewer can enjoy the film together. The hardcore fan will pick out all the Easter eggs and if they don’t, they’ll be back to analyze the hell out of the movie to catch every single little thing. Not because they have to, but because they want to. Whilst the casual viewer will watch thinking and maybe saying, “are they really going to go there?” and then you realize “yes, The Cabin in the Woods goes there.” In a completely spoiler sense, I don’t personally remember a bigger payoff than seeing almost all of movie monster history on-screen at once. And just when you think it’s over, Whedon and Goddard don’t waste these monsters like some other films might do.

They use them and it’s a feast of wonders.

It is literally like tearing down the curtains and getting a backstage pass to watch the magic of horror production. And that’s the other half of the film, the melding and blending of what the five friends go through, for the greater good of the world. And perhaps that can simply be described by another summary of the movie.

The Cabin in the Woods follows two technicians Richard Sitterson (Richard Jenkins) and Steve Hadley (Bradley Whitford) as they get ready for a routine operation for what appears to be a government facility. Yet suddenly when five young college students looking for a good weekend seemingly unsettle the fate of the world. It’s up to Richard and Steve to save all of mankind from impending doom. With only rookie Alex Truman (Brian White), fellow co-worker Wendy Lin (Amy Acker) and their crazy associate Mordecai (Tim de Zarn) able to help. Will it be enough before the five college students push things beyond the point of no return? It’s this type of reverse layering that allows The Cabin in the Woods to work on its various perspectives. The behind the scenes point of view is inventive, jaded, formulaic, purposefully callous and clumsy. And in the same satirical sense plays to the unraveling of what both Whedon and Goddard set forth.

In the end, The Cabin in the Woods is homage to horror films. It loves them and hates them, but it won’t quit them. It’s still plays to pretending to be the typical horror cliché, but it’s not. It looks to be the unsuspecting dark comedy, but is also a creative allegory. Yet in the simplest ways, the masterfully satirized mayhem of the film is perhaps the reinvention of expectations in a cyclical genre.

And if you want to skip the wordplay, The Cabin in the Woods – is just a damn good movie.

I give The Cabin in the Woods, 9 out of 10.

About Elliot Hopper

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Movie Review

Taking a Chain Saw to Horror Movie Clichés

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By A. O. SCOTT

April 12, 2012

Just before a recent advance screening of “The Cabin in the Woods,” a friendly publicist asked the assembled bloggers and critics if we would please refrain from disclosing any of the “reveals, surprises and uncredited performances” in the movie we were about to see. I’m happy to oblige, though I worry that it might count as a spoiler even to mention that there are reveals, surprises and uncredited performances.

The filmmakers — Drew Goddard directed and collaborated on the script with the estimable Joss Whedon , one of the producers — clearly went to a lot of trouble to put all that stuff in. With compulsive effort that is meant to feel like giddy abandon, they have tried to make a horror movie that is frightening, original and knowing, all at the same time. Two out of three is not bad, given the difficulty of the task. A wink can sometimes undermine a scare. Novelty and genre traditionalism often fight to a draw. Too much overt cleverness has a way of spoiling dumb, reliable thrills. And despite the evident ingenuity and strenuous labor that went into it, “The Cabin in the Woods” does not quite work.

Which is not to say that it entirely fails, either. Right at the beginning two parallel conceits are set in motion. Five attractive young people, full of pheromones and naïve exuberance, set off for a party weekend in a remote — well, take a guess.

Meanwhile, a pair of white-shirted white guys (Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford) busy themselves at what looks like NASA ground control or Norad headquarters or some other supersecret, ultradangerous, highly secure official facility. Though it does not take long to discern a connection between what they and their colleagues are doing and what those kids in the woods are up to, I will retreat into generality and indirection for the rest of this review. I don’t want that publicist to come after me with a chain saw.

Some of the pleasure of the first (and best) part of “The Cabin in the Woods” comes from trying to see just over the narrative horizon and figure out what these incompatible sets of clichés have to do with each other. Two distinct kinds of movie are being yoked, by violence, together, and the performers inhabit their familiar roles with unusual wit.

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‘the cabin in the woods’: film review.

Chris Hemsworth, Kristen Connolly, Fran Kranz, Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford star in this playful meta-horror movie, produced and co-written by Joss Whedon with director Drew Goddard.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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EDITOR’S NOTE: The latter section of this review reveals a surprise cameo and hints at final-act plot developments beyond those suggested by the trailers. Anyone wishing to maintain the element of surprise should avoid reading beyond the first few paragraphs.

NEW YORK – Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon , respectively director and producer as well as co-screenwriters of this long-stalled feature, have described The Cabin in the Woods as their bid to revitalize the horror movie by subverting genre conventions. Nothing wrong with that plan, as the successful Scream franchise showed back in the ’90s. But when the meta-references take over at the expense of character or plot, as they do in this mutant hybrid of The Truman Show and The Evil Dead (just for starters), the knowing self-amusement wears thin.

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DVD & Streaming

The Cabin in the Woods

Comedy , Horror

Content Caution

In Theaters

April 13, 2012
Kristen Connolly as Dana; Chris Hemsworth as Curt; Anna Hutchison as Jules; Fran Kranz as Marty; Jesse Williams as Holden; Richard Jenkins as Sitterson; Bradley Whitford as Hadley

Home Release Date

September 18, 2012
Drew Goddard

Distributor

Movie Review

It’s remarkable, really, that the cabin in The Cabin in the Woods ever finds buyers at all. Oh, sure, the property listing could be spruced up to look nice enough: “Eerily spacious cabin in the heart of tranquil forest!” it might read. “Within walking distance of bucolic lake. Snarling wolf head and creepy paintings included!”

But eventually, any prudent home buyer is going to hire an inspector to check out the place. And while the electrical work may seem fine and the plumbing may be up to code, the cellar is, well, the cellar’s a seller’s nightmare. While that inspector is down there looking for signs of termite damage, he’ll surely run across all the mysterious diaries and otherworldly puzzle boxes and weird fortune-telling machines that litter the place. And then he’ll find the other cellar, the one outfitted as a torture chamber by a previous occupant. And then he might even find the cellar underneath that cellar, where he’d see—

OK. Never mind. Tour’s over. We don’t need to go down there. What self-respecting potential homeowner would? Just a quick run through this property (and I do mean run ) would tell any competent real estate agent that haunted mansions in Amity would be an easier deal to do.

But somehow, the cabin keeps attracting new victi—, er, buyers, and this time around, the unlucky soul has allowed the place to serve as a makeshift getaway for five college-age youth and their stash of beer, pot and flimsy lingerie. They’re hoping to kill a weekend, not each other, of course. But the cabin—or rather, whatever’s lurking under the cabin—has other plans.

Positive Elements

Looking at the specifics, there’s not much to work with here: One of the cabin’s unfortunate “guests” does try to escape its nefarious clutches to save his friends. Other characters show a strong desire to survive. Still others try to save all of humanity (albeit while killing people to do it).

But that lack of specific goodness is part of the larger point for Cabin in the Woods . And there’s at least a measured dose of positivity to be found in that point—which I’ll tackle in my “Conclusion.”

Spiritual Elements

The cabin’s cellar eventually empties into a massive underground government complex tasked with sating what the film calls “ancient gods” who once ruled Earth. For millennia now (the film tells us), the world has offered human sacrifices to these creatures, and we see carvings and paintings depicting such sacrifices during the opening credits, along with what appears to be a depiction of hell. These days, souls are sucked into the gods’ vortex by way of a variety of horror film tropes, with the exact trope varying by country, apparently. In the United States, the sacrificial victims fall broadly into the same categories we’ve seen show up in Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street movies: young, slightly naive students who embody (or are made to embody) various archetypes, from athlete to scholar to fool to “slut.” They’re dispatched through horrific means as selected by the victims themselves.

Did I mention yet that this is a horror comedy ?

The victims we see in this movie “choose” (through reading aloud a mysterious Latin incantation) to be victimized by a zombie family brandishing a variety of sharp implements. But we later see that there were other options available—from vampires to werewolves to ghosts to unicorns to a freakish ballerina with a face full of teeth to Hellraiser -style aliens. (It’s unclear whether these creatures really are what they’re billed to be or if they’re somehow technological creations made by the government agency in charge.)

After the first sacrifice is made, a bureaucrat holds a religious medallion in his hand as he offers up a prayer of sorts, and the blood trickles down to its recipient.

We see footage of a sacrifice gone wrong in Japan: A creepy, long-haired girl terrorizes a class of 9-year-old girls until the would-be victims form a circle, sing a song and turn the would-be killer into a frog. An American bureaucrat snidely references the event as a “what a friend we have in Shinto” moment.

Sexual & Romantic Content

Two of the archetypes set for sacrifice, we learn, are the “whore” (who almost always dies first) and the “virgin” (for whom death is optional but suffering is mandatory). Jules is cast as the former: We learn that her IQ has been artificially lowered through the use of a special blond hair dye, and she seems to grow sultrier and stupider as the film wears on.

She and her boyfriend, Curt, are hoping to have lots of sex during their weekend getaway. Curt complains about her luggage until Jules suggestively tells him that he’ll be happy with everything she packed. She insists that friend Dana bring something titillating as well in the hopes that she’ll hit it off with another houseguest (Holden). He’s “good with his hands,” Jules says. Once at the cabin, Jules makes out with a stuffed wolf head, makes a lewd pass at tagalong stoner Marty and dances sensually in front of a fire in super-short shorts.

She and Curt go off into the woods where the two passionately kiss and make out. Curt strips off her pants and kisses her skin underneath. Then the camera cuts to Jules’ face, suggesting that he’s giving her oral sex. Jules unbuttons her top and reveals her breasts before the interlude is (painfully) interrupted.

Dana is cast as the virgin, even though it’s suggested that she’s not. (“We work with what we have,” someone says.) She’s not as overtly provocative as Jules, but we do see her parade around in a pair of panties and begin to undress in front of a secret one-way mirror. (Holden watches for a bit before telling her to stop.)

Dana and Jules both wear bikinis to the lake. There are sexual jokes traded, including one about erections.

Violent Content

The Cabin in the Woods is a snarky homage to the horror genre, offering nods to dozens of so-called classics— The Ring , Evil Dead II, Hellraiser, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre , you name it. And as it lovingly follows in those films’ bloody footsteps, it sheds gallons—no, vats —of blood itself.

The zombie family uses gruesome implements to do its damage, from a massive saw (which slices through a body) to a bear trap attached to the end of a chain (which clamps onto backs or clangs into heads). While the camera eventually drags itself away from the bloodiest scenes, it rarely blinks before the first blows—a knife through the neck, a spike through the hand, a stake through the back. When Dana desperately struggles with an undead monster, we see her on a bevy of video screens while bureaucrats celebrate a job well done in the foreground. But rather than minimizing the carnage, their indifference somehow makes the scene feel even more tragic and horrific.

The zombies are ugly things, what with their mottled flesh and missing limbs. And it’s impossible, or nearly so, to kill ’em. One is skewered through the skull with a crowbar and still manages to open its eyes—stilled only by several additional stabs with a knife. Another is completely dissected and piled in a heap. Yet it too still “lives,” its severed hand crawling along the floor with the intent to kill. A piece of it is sentient enough to deliver the head of a victim back to the cabin, where Dana (screaming) drops it and sends it rolling on the floor.

And all that blood is merely a precursor to the insane bloodbath that takes place under the cabin, where a hoard of supernatural creatures are unleashed to kill, dismember and eat their longtime captives. Giant snakes swallow victims whole. Werewolves chomp on necks. Zombies slowly eat security guards in a blood-covered room. One employee is laboriously ripped apart by creatures—a torture only terminated when he blows himself up, taking them out too. A technician is devoured by a merman who spews blood out of a blowhole on his back.

Other bloody moments to note: Someone is stabbed in the gut by a college student. An ax is buried in someone’s skull. A scientist shoots herself. An invisible force field kills a man. (We see him smash into the thing, then fall into a deep crevasse. An eagle is vaporized. We see a painting of a lamb being torn apart by men and beasts.

Crude or Profane Language

Nearly 60 f-words and close to 10 s-words. We hear multiple uses of “a‑‑,” “h‑‑‑,” “b‑‑ch,” “f-ggot” and “p‑‑‑.” God’s name is misused nearly 20 times (twice paired with “d‑‑n”). Jesus’ name is abused four or five times.

Drug & Alcohol Content

Marty is the film’s designated pothead, driving down the street while smoking a massive bong (which collapses into what looks like a portable coffee cup), rolling several joints and never really shaking free of his marijuana-fueled cloud. And in a twist, the pot—treated by government lackeys to make Marty even more impaired—actually immunizes him to many of the cabin’s effects. He shares joints with others.

The government scientists and bureaucrats drink during the day and throw an alcohol-drenched party when they feel as though the gods have been sated. All the college students are shown drinking and most get drunk. Their senses are also impaired by various chemicals the government spews in their direction. A dose of pheromones pushes Jules and Curt to make out in the woods, for instance. A gas station attendant chews and spits tobacco.

Other Noteworthy Elements

Someone throws up during a fight. Government employees bet on what sort of entity will be used to dispatch the cabin’s victims this time. Someone makes a crass reference about anal retentiveness.

Joss Whedon, the mind behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer, co-wrote and produced The Cabin in the Woods . He describes the film as a “very loving hate letter” to the modern horror film genre—both an homage of onscreen scarefests and a snide critique of their excesses.

“The things that I don’t like are kids acting like idiots, the devolution of the horror movie into torture porn and into a long series of sadistic comeuppances,” he told totalfilm.com . “[Writer/director Drew Goddard] and I both felt that the pendulum had sung a little too far in that direction.”

It’s with a bit of irony, then, that The Cabin in the Woods swings its own blood-soaked pendulum so wildly. Whedon uses over-the-top violence to critique over-the-top violence, producing a ludicrously gory carnival of excess that is designed to leave fans gasping with fear … and laughter.

It is, artistically, not a bad movie. As satire, it has purpose. But neither wit nor heart can rescue this thing from the fact that it’s operating in a moral vacuum. It’s not that this is one of those films that leaves me feeling particularly horrified—appalled that a culture could craft such a thing. Perhaps that’s because the film satirizes the very thing it mimics. Perhaps its because, these days, it has so many compatriots it becomes hard to sort out one from the other.

During the film, a newbie security officer suspiciously watches the bureaucrats do their jobs.

“Monsters?” he asks. “Magic? Gods?”

“You get used to it,” a colleague wearily says.

“Should you?” the new guy on the underground block returns.

If the film has a moral, this is it. Folks have become hardened to horrific violence on movie screens. But should they? Should you? Should we open ourselves up to this stuff, munching popcorn as human after human is harvested for the sake of our gluttonous entertainment appetites? Whedon and Goddard, in their own malevolent and maladroit way, say no. And we’d be well advised to listen.

Maybe not watch . But listen.

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

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'Cabin In The Woods': A Dead-Serious Genre Exorcism

Ian Buckwalter

This Looks Familiar: If Curt (Chris Hemsworth), Holden (Jesse Williams), Jules (Anna Hutchison), Marty (Fran Kranz) and Dana (Kristen Connolly) resemble the cardboard cut-out college students who prove expendable in so many horror movies — well, that's intentional. Diyah Pera/Lionsgate hide caption

Cabin In The Woods

Director: Drew Goddard
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Running Time: 95 minutes

Rated R for strong bloody horror violence and gore, language, drug use and some sexuality/nudity With: Kristen Connelly, Chris Hemsworth, Fran Kranz, Richard Jenkins

(Recommended)

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'Truth Or Dare'

Credit: Lionsgate

'Harbinger'

Are we in the right theater? That was the first fleeting thought that went through my head during the opening few seconds of Drew Goddard's Cabin in the Woods , as Steve and Richard (Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford) — two middle-aged, middle-management types — engage in banal conversation over a water cooler, in what appears to be a quasi-military scientific facility. Didn't we show up to see attractive young people getting killed creatively in a rustic, natural setting?

But soon enough, we're presented with the good-looking collegians we expected: They're all meeting up at the house of Dana (Kristen Connolly) for a weekend off the grid, packing into an RV to head to a remote mountain retreat. Even before they make their debut, though, it's clear this is the right movie: There's no mistaking the familiar tone of producer and co-writer Joss Whedon's trademark witty banter in that opening scene.

From there, things proceed, on one level, exactly as expected: some quick expository banter in the RV to establish the characters, a stop at a rundown gas station that seems drawn equally from Deliverance and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre , and eventual arrival at the cabin, shot to evoke the Evil Dead series.

In the basement of the house, during a game of truth or dare (of course), the gang find a collection of creepy trinkets, baubles and assorted ephemera that looks like a horror-movie attic sale: sepia-toned photos of a long-dead family; a diary describing their violent past; blank-eyed porcelain dolls and puzzle boxes. Each one is a portent of bad things about to happen, which only the group's resident stoner conspiracy theorist, Marty (Whedon regular Fran Kranz) seems to realize.

The catch is that as this crew of slightly too-stereotypical archetypes goes through the horror movie motions, their every move is being monitored by Steve and Richard back at that facility, along with an army of supporting staffers and technicians, both observing and working to influence the proceedings. Nothing in this film is quite what it seems.

A horror-movie attic sale is, in essence, exactly what Cabin in the Woods is, an attempt to exorcise the genre of its formulaic possession by stuffing the movie full of its most overused and predictable elements — and then dumping them through clever skewering.

It would be unfair to speak in any kind of detail about the precise nature of the interaction between the cabin and the observers, or about some of the crazy images that Goddard manages to put onscreen during the chaos of the film's completely insane climax. I will say that I was watching through tears of laughter flowing so freely that I probably didn't even catch the entire parade of the bizarre in that sequence.

But part of the pleasure of this movie — one of a great many pleasures, as it's the most entertaining and satisfying horror movie I've seen in a long while — is to see how that relationship unfolds, and to be completely surprised by those images. Goddard and Whedon have created a wonderful puzzle of a film that is loving in its appreciation of good horror, even as it takes the genre (and its blood-lusty audience) to task for the unimaginative banality that has been too typical of recent scary movies.

There's a serious and smart critique here, and life-or-death stakes that only come from characters one genuinely cares about — a neat trick, given that they're set up to be so generic. But Whedon, the creator of a vampire slayer named Buffy, has always excelled at clever one-liners set against backdrops of unspeakable and ancient evil. Goddard, in his first turn as director, matches the verbal wit with memorable visual set-pieces that are as hilarious as they are horrific.

It's true that the symbolic connections drawn here aren't exactly subtle, but subtlety in subtext has rarely been the prerogative of even the best horror. Neither is the movie particularly scary, but that's not the aim here, either. Whedon and Goddard create a self-contained universe that plays by its own rules to serve its own critical agenda, and does so with smarts and skill.

For all of its intellectual pleasures, though, Cabin in the Woods is a visceral roller coaster of a movie at heart. And like the best thrill rides, when it's over, you just want to get back on and go again. (Recommended)

The Cabin in the Woods : Burning Down the House of Horror

Five college kids go into the woods in Drew Goddard's directorial debut. What comes out? Pain-loving zombies, a wicked sense of Buffy-style humor and a film that finally shakes up the slasher-movie genre.

The less said about the plot of Drew Goddard’s fiendishly clever The Cabin in the Woods the better. I’ll give you just this: Five nice college kids head to a remote lakeside cabin for a fun weekend of swimming, smoking pot and messing around. They barely have time to engage in any of these activities before an unscheduled encounter with zombies wielding vintage carpentry equipment. Or maybe farm equipment. In any event, sharp things with many jagged, toothy blades.

If that sounds unappealing to you, we’re on the same page. But though it has elements in common with every movie that ever sent a batch of comely youngsters into the wilderness (for starters: The Ruins , Wolf Creek , Wrong Turn), The Cabin in the Woods is not strictly speaking, a slasher flick. It’s not even a horror movie exactly; the terror is minimal. In his first outing as a director, Cloverfield and Lost scribe Goddard, who co-wrote the film with his producer and old boss from television’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer , Joss Whedon, has made a very gory critique of the blood lust, caricature and objectification of horror films. Cabin goes beyond the parody of the Scream franchise into darker, richer territory.

(MORE: Top 10 Ways to Survive a Horror Movie )

Goddard establishes a parallel story in the first frame of the film, featuring a pair of bored engineer-types at work in a bunker-like structure. Sitterson (Richard Jenkins) and Hadley (Bradley Whitford) are preparing for some big event with the help of an anxious young woman in a lab coat (Amy Acker, from Whedon’s Angel ), but it’s nothing so momentous as to distract Hadley from grousing about his wife and her obsession with her fertility treatments. This introduction is deliberately disorienting. Aren’t we here to see young people die in the woods? Isn’t that the point of most modern horror films?

Cue the pantless-for-no-good-reason young woman Dana (Kristen Connolly, who has the interestingly lush and squishy features of a young Uma Thurman). She’s packing to go away with her bubbly roommate Jules (Anna Hutchison), a potential new love match, Holden (Jess Williams) and their stoner pal Marty (Fran Kranz). Jules’ boyfriend Curt (Chris Hemsworth, who shot this film before Thor ) is taking them all to a remote cabin his cousin just bought. It’s off the grid, naturally. “It doesn’t even show up on the GPS,” crows Jules.

Goddard puts a new spin on the concept of the grid itself, and for once the obligatory exposition before the first gush of blood actually feels fresh. Respectively the quintet represents, with some qualifiers, the usual potential victims in horror films: virgin, whore, scholar, fool and at the wheel, the athlete. Only they’re all likeable and they don’t exactly fit their stereotypes: Dana slept with her professor; Jules only just went blonde and is pre-med; Curt is actually a sociology student on full scholarship and so on. None of them feel disposable, not even Marty, who turns up with a kaleidoscoping bong made out of a travel thermos and cracks wise throughout. “I dare you all to go upstairs,” he says when a game of Truth or Dare (of course) leads to an assembly of all five characters in the cabin’s super scary cellar.

Cabin gets seriously funny around the time a tobacco chaw-stained wretch – who the kids encounter at a dilapidated gas station – makes a phone call. (I won’t tell you whom he calls, except that the exchange on both ends is hilarious.) His name is Mordecai, but he’s blatantly referred to as the harbinger. Mayhem breaks out and the parallel plots veer into each other. There are winks to international styles of horror, including, most astutely, Japan’s fascination with spooky little girls, although the hillbilly horror of Cabin establishes it as definitively American. “If you want good product, you’ve got to buy American,” one character says. He sounds proud of Hollywood product, but the movie doesn’t share that pride. It doesn’t go quite as far in sending up Hollywood as it could have, or as much as I confess I wanted it to, but when the spokesperson for the Big Bad is called The Director (and is the best cameo this side of 21 Jump Street ), a point is being made.

All this talk of comedy may suggest that Cabin is not violent. Let me be clear, it is. There is a decapitation, a death by hook through the neck and many examples of other awful ways to die. But even someone who has willingly sat through all seven installments of the Saw franchise may not be able to ignore the movie’s own stance that there is something wrong with the bloodshed — not just the enjoyment of it, but the numbing of our emotional response to it. The accompanying commentary isn’t exactly scolding, but it continually needles and raises questions. “You get used to it,” one character says of a gruesome death. “Should you?” asks another. What’s on trial here are the ridiculous rules of horror — that say, a whore (that’s in Limbaugh terms, i.e., a sexually active unmarried woman) is supposed to die while a virgin may live as long as she suffers — and what they say about our society.

(READ: TIME’s Richard Corliss on the Saw franchise )

That is, to put it mildly, exciting. But can Cabin be, as a promotional poster for it proclaims, a “game-changer”? Can any horror movie serve that purpose? Certainly the self-awareness of Scream reawakened interest in the genre and opened the door for the flat-out comedy of Scary Movie . Both franchises quickly grew tiresome, but they did shift our expectations of the genre temporarily before the torture porn of Saw took over. The Cabin in the Woods should stir some self-reflection. At the very least, it’s awfully entertaining and for Buffy fans, reason to put down the boxed sets and run off to the cinema.

The Cabin In The Woods Review

13 Apr 2012

Cabin In The Woods , The

At first glance, it's all very been there, gouged that, torn the tight-fitting T-shirt: a dusty, tree-hugged habitation distinctly reminiscent of the home of Evil Dead’s supernatural atrocities. A quintet of youngbloods who swiftly nestle into hoary archetypes: jock, joker, sensitive guy, good girl, slut. A threatening redneck gas-station clerk, happy to impolitely usher these unwitting “lambs” to “the killing floor” up that dark, snaking dirt-track. Yes, it’s all very Fisher-Price My First American Horror Movie.

Of course, there’s much more to it than that.

If you’ve seen the trailer (which you probably shouldn’t have), you’ll already know this. Even if you haven’t, the names attached should provide a whopping great clue: Joss Whedon, he behind Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel, produces and co-writes. Drew Goddard, Whedon’s Buffy/Angel compadre as well as scripter on Alias, Lost and Cloverfield, directs and co-writes. Together and separately, Whedon and Goddard revel in toying with audience expectation, messing with archetypes, and taking genres, chewing them up (while impressively managing to avoid biting that tongue in their cheeks) then spitting them back out again in some glisteningly new, irreverent, fan-pleasing form. And this is precisely what they do with The Cabin In The Woods, a movie which, thanks to the inconvenient bankruptcy of MGM, arrives via a different studio and roughly 18 months late. Fortunately, that has done little to harm its freshness. Like his peer and friend-in-law J. J. Abrams, Whedon’s been sure to keep this baby shrinkwrapped.

Now: this is the part where the more sensitive-to-spoiler reader is best advised to move along. The Cabin In The Woods is, without doubt, a dish best served raw. That said, for the remaining 471 words, we’ll not be breaking the rule-of-thumb that describing anything revealed during a film’s first 20 minutes can’t be strictly termed spoilerific. All good? Let’s move on.

The fact that The Cabin In The Woods is indeed a full-blown meta-horror is suggested mere seconds after the credits start, when blood-red etchings of Old Testament nastiness suddenly slam-cut into a pleasant, colour-saturated landscape scene overlaid with the words, “Enjoy a fresh cup of coffee.” The string-stabs of the score give way to a pair of career-weary white-collar wonks (The West Wing’s Bradley Whitford and the ever-excellent Richard Jenkins) talking shop next to a caffeine dispenser in a spacious facility which looks not unlike one of Dr. Evil’s bases, or the kind of place you’d accidentally super-advance chimpanzee evolution. It’s not entirely clear what they’re talking about (except in hindsight), but the “key scenario” to which Jenkins pointedly refers obviously has something to do with the road trip that the aforementioned college kids (including Thor Himself, Chris Hemsworth) are about to take.

The Cabin In The Woods is less a tale with a WTF twist, more a slow-reveal OMG mystery as the worlds (please don’t take that word literally) of the kids and the wonks come together — or rather, as the barriers between them are revealed then removed. For the most part it’s a hoot, tailor-made for those out there who like to whoop at the kills rather than vicariously drench themselves in primal terror. Yet it does lack the strong characters and appealing sweetness of recent meta-horror Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil, Goddard and Whedon dehumanising their principals a little too efficiently. And it isn’t quite as sharp as Wes Craven’s mommy of the subgenre, Scream (or, for that matter, his New Nightmare). There is a pleasing zip to the script, which serves up a great speakerphone gag and a memorable scene in which a college girl makes out with a taxidermised wolf’s head. But the ultimate reveal isn’t as smart as it could have been, dragging the concept back into convention rather than boosting it up onto an entirely new level.

Even so, Goddard and Whedon reverse-engineer virtually every cliché with crowdpleasing glee, delivering an astonishingly nutso, gore-slappy final-act crescendo which barely leaves any staple of the supernatural horror flick unpoked. In one sense, you could say its closing gambit does for this genre what The Expendables did for muscleman/machine-gun action. Except The Expendables took itself just a bit seriously. The Cabin In The Woods, for better or for worse, most certainly does not.

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Cabin in the Woods

Explores crimes that take place in remote cabins around the country. Explores crimes that take place in remote cabins around the country. Explores crimes that take place in remote cabins around the country.

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While the ‘cabin in the woods’ movie can’t exactly be considered a sub-genre of its own, it’s certainly a recurring motif within the horror genre . This is because the typical ‘cabin in the woods’ set up can play host to several different kinds of horror – whether it’s of the psychological, supernatural, or slasher variety.

RELATED: 10 Great Horror Movies From First Time Directors, Ranked According To IMDb

With the idea becoming popularized in the ‘70s and ‘80s, the classic ‘cabin in the woods’ movie sees its central character – or characters – isolated in a remote cabin, leaving them at the mercy of whatever horror awaits. These are the ten best ‘cabin in the woods’ movies, ranked according to IMDb.

Evil Dead (2013) – 6.5

Jane Levy in Evil Dead (2013) Photo Sony

2013’s Evil Dead is one of the few positive cases to be made for a horror remake. Sure, it loses the campy, low-budget charm of the original, but it’s replaced by a truly impressive amount of gore – even raining blood in a literal sense by the movie’s finale.

In Evil Dead , Mia and her friends visit the famous cabin in an attempt to get her clean – which is admittedly a nice touch – so when the group is eventually set upon by deadites, it’s easy to feel sympathy for them – even if they were stupid enough to read Latin from an ancient skin-bound tome.

Severance (2006) – 6.5

Easily one of the most underrated horror-comedies of the 2000s, Severance sees a group of colleagues attend a work treat at an isolated cabin – only to find themselves getting picked off one-by-one by a group of vicious masked murderers.

Of course, it turns out there’s a lot more at play than the movie originally lets on, and what ensues is a genuinely hilarious, blood-soaked ride that’s well worth your time.

Secret Window (2004) – 6.6

Johnny Depp looks stressed in The Secret Window

Based on the Stephen King novella Secret Window, Secret Garden , 2004’s Johnny-Depp starring Secret Window follows depressed writer Mort Rainey who retreats to a remote cabin to overcome his writer’s block. It’s not long before he finds himself stalked by an unhinged writer who insists that Mort has been ripping off his work.

RELATED: 10 Best Horror Movies In The Criterion Collection, Ranked (According To IMDb)

While the movie features an obviously signposted plot twist that was extremely overused back in the 2000s, Secret Window is a decent, atmospheric thriller nonetheless – and even boasts a score co-created by Philip Glass.

Funny Games (2007) – 6.6

Brady Corbet and Michael Pitt as Peter and Paul, respectively, in Funny Games US.

One of the rare cases in which a director remakes their own movie, 2007’s Funny Games is Michael Haneke’s remake of his 1997 Austrian film of the same name – and also happens to be one of the most subversive horror films ever made.

While its set-up may appear overdone – a family is tormented by sadistic murderers at their lakeside holiday home – Funny Games is completely self-aware, serving as something of a criticism of its own genre. For fans of deconstructive horror, the movie is an absolute must-see, but beware – it’s an undeniably uncomfortable watch by design.

Dog Soldiers (2002) – 6.8

The directorial debut of Neil Marshall, the man behind The Descent and even some of Game of Thrones ’ biggest battle episodes, Dog Soldiers is a British horror movie about a group of soldiers who take shelter in a remote cabin after they find themselves at the mercy of a pack of werewolves .

The movie manages to pull off the delicate balance of funny and scary extremely well, even fitting in some references to other ‘cabin in the woods’ movies – with one soldier being named Corporal Bruce Campbell.

The Cabin In The Woods (2012) – 7

Although initially advertised as a self-aware version of the classic ‘cabin in the woods’ story, 2012’s horror-comedy The Cabin in the Woods blew the minds of horror fans worldwide when it released – with its trailers only scratching the surface of the movie’s true subversive scope.

RELATED: Top 10 Highest Grossing Horror Movies Of All Time

Perhaps the most deconstructive horror movie ever made, The Cabin in the Woods uses its clever dissection of horror tropes to create a truly unique and thrilling experience. The movie centers on a group of teens who decide to stay at a remote cabin, where they’re promptly attacked by a group of undead monsters. Those who’ve seen the movie will know exactly what it is that makes the third act so brilliant – but anybody who hasn’t seen The Cabin in the Woods owes it to themselves to find out for themselves.

The Evil Dead (1981) – 7.5

The quintessential ‘cabin in the woods’ movie, 1981’s The Evil Dead sees a group of friends visit a remote woodland cabin, where they unleash an ancient evil after stumbling upon a mysterious tape recording.

Marking one of the greatest directorial debuts in horror history, The Evil Dead ’s famously low budget stretches incredibly far – relying primarily on Sam Raimi’s excellent technique to elicit its gory scares. While Raimi essentially remade the movie in his sequel Evil Dead II , The Evil Dead is essential viewing for fans of the genre.

Tucker And Dale Vs Evil (2010) – 7.5

2010’s Tucker and Dale Vs Evil is perhaps the most underappreciated horror-comedy of the 2010s. The story follows two loveable rednecks Tucker and Dale, as they buy a cabin in the woods as a holiday home.

RELATED: The 10 Best Horror Comedies, Ranked

After a series of misunderstandings however, a meddlesome group of teenagers comes to believe Tucker and Dale have kidnapped and murdered their friend – with their disastrous attempts to retrieve her making the innocent duo look even worse. It’s a hilarious reversal of the ‘evil redneck’ trope, standing as one of the funniest – and bloodiest – horror-comedies of the decade.

Misery (1990) – 7.8

Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes with a sledgehammer in Misery

While Misery isn’t exactly the first movie that comes to mind when thinking of the ‘cabin in the woods’ movie, it undeniably belongs in the sub-genre regardless. Based on the Stephen King book of the same name, the movie sees author Paul Sheldon taken in by nurse Annie Wilkes after a nasty car crash.

As it turns out, Annie is an obsessive fan of Sheldon’s novels, holding him hostage in her isolated house and forcing him to write more in her favorite series of novels. It’s a truly chilling, nail-biting experience brought to life by an Oscar-winning performance from a career-best Kathy Bates.

Evil Dead II (1987) – 7.8

A possessed Ash Williams in Evil Dead 2.

Often cited as the greatest entry in Sam Raimi’s hugely popular Evil Dead trilogy, Evil Dead II serves as both a partial remake of and direct-sequel to its predecessor, upping the ante to a huge degree, while injecting the story with some slapstick, tongue-in-cheek humor.

The movie frequently tops lists of the best horror movies ever made – and that makes perfect sense. Evil Dead II sees the brilliant Sam Raimi further honing his craft and is arguably the movie that cemented the director as a true auteur.

NEXT: 10 Best Horror Movies Based On Books, Ranked

The Cabin in the Woods

Cabin in the Woods

In this hybrid series, the investigation and mystery of true crime meets the spine-tingling drama of horror. These terrifyingly real crimes take place in remote cabins where people with evil intentions carry out heinous acts away from prying eyes. more

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THEN AND NOW: The cast of 'Holes' over 20 years later

It's been over 20 years since Disney's " Holes " (2003) hit theaters.
Shia LaBeouf has continued to act, and he's added filmmaking and performance art to his career.
Sigourney Weaver built a film and TV legacy and is set to appear in the upcoming "Avatar" films .

Shia LaBeouf played the film's lead character, Stanley.

Prior to starring in "Holes," Shia LaBeouf made a name for himself as one of the leads on the hit Disney Channel series "Even Stevens."

LaBeouf continues to act, and he also creates films of his own.

After "Holes" was released, LaBeouf continued his acting career in "The Even Stevens Movie" (2003), " I, Robot " (2004), " Constantine " (2005), and " Disturbia " (2007).

Before long, he was starring in hit franchises, including the "Transformers" series and "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (2008).

Throughout the 2010s, he also appeared in "Lawless" (2012), "The Company You Keep" (2012)," "Fury" (2014), "American Honey" (2016), "Borg vs. McEnroe" (2017), and "The Peanut Butter Falcon" (2019).

Beyond film, in 2014, LaBeouf began doing performance art pieces with Finnish artist Nastja Säde Rönkkö and British artist Luke Turner. The next year, he appeared in Sia's controversial "Elastic Heart" music video alongside dancer Maddie Ziegler.

In 2019, the actor earned critical acclaim for his autobiographical film "Honey Boy," which he both starred in and wrote the screenplay for.

Recently, LaBeouf starred in " The Tax Collector " (2020) and "Pieces of a Woman" (2020).

The actor was in the news in 2020 after his ex-girlfriend, FKA Twigs, filed a lawsuit against him, claiming extensive emotional and physical abuse, as reported by the New York Times .

In more recent years, the actor starred in "Padre Pio" (2022) and "Megalopolis" (2024), which just made its rounds at Cannes and the Toronto Film Festival.

Khleo Thomas played Hector Zeroni, also known as Zero.

Zero was Khleo Thomas' breakout role at the age of 13.

Prior to "Holes," he'd only appeared on screen a few times with guest-starring TV roles and an appearance in the comedy "Friday After Next" (2002).

Thomas is now an actor, music artist, and influencer.

After starring in "Holes," Thomas continued his acting career in films like "Walking Tall" (2004), "Going to the Mat" (2004), "Roll Bounce" (2005), "Dirty" (2005), and "Remember the Daze" (2007).

More recently, Thomas appeared in "Paint It Red" (2019) and "Scrap" (2022).

Since 2010, he's also been releasing hip hop/rap EPs and mixtapes . In 2013, he released the collaborative EP "After Everything Fades" with artist Chris Batson, which they turned into a visual album .

Thomas has his own lifestyle brand called Slick Living and a YouTube channel where he regularly posts gaming videos, music videos, and vlogs.

Sigourney Weaver played Warden Walker.

Before playing the tough Warden in "Holes," Sigourney Weaver was already an Academy Award-nominated actor with an iconic career .

By 2003, she was considered a pioneer for women in action and science-fiction films from her work in the "Alien" franchise, "Ghostbusters" (1984), and "Galaxy Quest" (1999).

Weaver continues to solidify her legacy as an A-list movie star.

After starring in "Holes," Weaver continued her career in popular films like, "Baby Mama" (2008), "Prayers for Bobby" (2009), "Avatar" (2009), "The Cabin in the Woods" (2012), "A Monster Calls" (2016), and "Ghostbusters" (2016) .

She also did voice acting for "WALL-E" (2008), "The Tale of Despereaux" (2008), and "Finding Dory" (2016).

Beyond film, Weaver starred on USA's "Political Animals," Netflix's "The Defenders." and Prime's "The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart."

The actor also appeared in "My Salinger Year" (2020) and "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" (2021).

More recently, she reprised her role in "Avatar: The Way of Water" (2022).

Jon Voight played Mr. Sir.

Before playing Mr. Sir in "Holes," Jon Voight already had a prominent acting career .

He became a Hollywood star in hit films like "Midnight Cowboy" (1969), "Deliverance" (1972), "Coming Home" (1978), "Runaway Train" (1985), "Heat" (1995), "Mission: Impossible" (1996), "Ali" (2001), and "Pearl Harbor" (2001).

Voight continues to act in film and on television.

After appearing in "Holes," Voight joined the cast of "National Treasure" (2004) and its sequel "National Treasure: Book of Secrets" (2007).

He continued to act in films like "Glory Road" (2006), "Transformers" (2007), "Bratz" (2007), "Tropic Thunder" (2008), "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" (2016), and "Orphan Horse" (2018).

On TV, Voight appeared on season seven of Fox's "24," and he starred on Showtime's "Ray Donovan" — which earned him a Golden Globe award in 2014.

More recently, the actor appeared in "Roe v. Wade" (2021), "Mercy" (2023), "The Painter" (2024). He also worked on "Megalopis" with LaBeouf.

He was also awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2019.

Tim Blake Nelson starred as Dr. Pendanski.

Before starring as Dr. Pendanski in "Holes," Tim Blake Nelson was known for films like "Hamlet" (2000), "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" (2000), and "Minority Report" (2002).

Nelson is still a successful actor.

Following his role in "Holes," Nelson continued his career in films like "Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed" (2004), "Syriana" (2005), "The Incredible Hulk" (2008), "Lincoln" (2012), "Fantastic Four" (2015), and "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" (2018).

Nelson appeared on Netflix's "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" and HBO's "Watchmen." He also worked on the films "The Hustle" (2019), "Just Mercy" (2019), and "Nightmare Alley" (2021).

More recently, the actor worked on "Ghosted" (2023), "The Invisibles" (2024), and "Greedy People" (2024).

Henry Winkler played Stanley's father.

Henry Winkler was a Hollywood icon for decades before he played Stanley Yelnats III in "Holes."

He initially rose to fame playing Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli on the legendary ABC sitcom "Happy Days" — which earned him Golden Globe awards and Emmy nominations.

Winkler is still a major Hollywood star.

In the years following the release of "Holes," Winkler continued to work on TV series like NBC's "Parks and Recreation," The WB/Adult Swim's "Childrens Hospital," USA's "Royal Pains," Fox/Netflix's "Arrested Development," and Disney+ animated series "Monsters at Work."

He's also worked on HBO's "Barry," a dark comedy starring Bill Hader.

The actor went on to movies like "Click" (2006), "You Don't Mess With the Zohan" (2008), "Here Comes the Boom" (2012), "Scoob!" (2020), and "On the Count of Three" (2021).

Patricia Arquette played the outlaw, Katherine "Kissin' Kate" Barlow.

After her acting debut in "A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors" (1987), Patricia Arquette became a household name by starring in a variety of notable films including "True Romance" (1993), "Flirting with Disaster" (1996), "The Hi-Lo Country" (1998), and "Stigmata" (1999).

Arquette is now an Oscar-winning actress.

Shortly after "Holes" was released, Arquette snagged the lead role on the NBC/CBS series "Medium."

In 2014, the actress starred in Richard Linklater's "Boyhood," which had been filmed over the course of 12 years and earned Arquette the Academy Award for best supporting actress.

More recently, she won multiple awards for her roles on Showtime's "Escape at Dannemora" and Hulu's "The Act," and she also voiced a character in "Toy Story 4" (2019) .

Arquette also starred on "Severance" on Apple TV+.

Dulé Hill played Sam.

Before joining the cast of the Disney movie, Dulé Hill had already made a name for himself in films like "She's All That" (1999) and "Man of Honor" (2000).

Additionally, the actor started playing Charlie Young on the hit NBC political drama "The West Wing" in 1999.

Today, Hill is best known for his work on television.

After "Holes," Hill continued his role on "The West Wing" until the show ended in 2006.

That same year, the actor took on what's become his most famous role as Gus on USA's "Psych" — which ran from 2006 to 2014 and inspired three movies: "Psych: The Movie" (2017), "Psych 2: Lassie Come Home" (2020), and "Pysch 3: This Is Gus" (2021).

His TV work continued on HBO's "Ballers," USA's "Suits," CBS' "Doubt," and Showtime's "Black Monday."

Although most of his recent credits are on television, Hill has also appeared in films, including "The Guardian" (2006), "Gravy" (2015), "Sleight" (2016), and "Locked Down" (2021).

In addition to film and TV, Hill is a successful stage actor and tap dancer .

He also starred as Bill Williams on ABC's "The Wonder Years" reboot and played Omar on Peacock's "Bel-Air."

Eartha Kitt appeared in the film as Madame Zeroni.

Eartha Kitt started her career as a dancer and a singer in the 1940s before landing her first on-screen role in "Casbah" (1948).

From there, she became well known for playing Catwoman on ABC's "Batman" from 1967 to 1968 and voicing Yzma in Disney's "The Emperor's New Groove" (2000).

Outside film and TV, Kitt also had a successful music career, releasing several albums and songs including a classic rendition of "Santa Baby."

Kitt continued her successful career until her death in 2008.

After "Holes," Kitt reprised her iconic voice role in "Kronk's New Groove" (2005) and on the Disney Channel's "The Emperor's New School."

The same year "Holes" was released, she started to voice Vexus on Nickelodeon's "My Life as a Teenage Robot," which she continued to do through 2007.

Kitt died after complications with colon cancer in 2008 at the age of 81 .

This story was originally published in August 2020 and most recently updated on September 13, 2024.

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Film Review: The Cabin in the Woods (2012)
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The Cabin in the Woods
The Cabin in the Woods. NEW. When five college friends (Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams) arrive at a remote forest cabin for a little vacation, little ...
Another ominous gas station owner movie review (2012)
"The Cabin in the Woods" sets off with an ancient and familiar story plan. Five college students pile into a van and drive deep into the woods for a weekend in a borrowed cabin. Their last stop is of course a decrepit gas station populated by a demented creep who giggles at the fate in store for them.
The Cabin in the Woods Movie Review
The Cabin in the Woods starts out like a "normal" horror movie, with zombie attacks, blood, and gore. There's stabbing, sawing, and a kind of "steel jaws"/bear trap weapon on a chain. Viewers see severed heads, spraying blood, throat-stabbing, motorcycle crashing, and falling from heights.
The Cabin in the Woods (2011)
The Cabin in the Woods (2011) follows a group of friends who go on vacation to a cabin and find themselves getting more than they bargained for. Overall, this is a fun and interesting horror. It's definitely a love letter to fans of all things horror, including fun little references to other films.
The Cabin in the Woods
It is impossible to say that The Cabin in the Woods is the only reason the genre returned to prominence, but its release in 2012 was a watershed moment for horror. Full Review | Original Score: 9/ ...
The Cabin in the Woods
R. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) 1 h 35 m. Summary Five friends go to a remote cabin in the woods. Bad things happen. If you think you know this story, think again. The Cabin in the Woods is a horror film that turns the genre inside out. (Lionsgate) Horror.
The Cabin in the Woods
The Cabin in the Woods is a 2012 science fiction [4] comedy horror film directed by Drew Goddard in his directorial debut, produced by Joss Whedon, and written by Whedon and Goddard. [5] It stars Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, and Bradley Whitford.The plot follows a group of college students who retreat to a remote cabin in the ...
The Cabin in the Woods (2011)
The Cabin in the Woods: Directed by Drew Goddard. With Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz. A group of kids go to a remote cabin in the woods where their fate is unknowingly controlled by technicians as part of a world-wide conspiracy where all horror movie clichés are revealed to be part of an elaborate sacrifice ritual.
The Cabin in the Woods Review
The Cabin in the Woods is continually smart, funny and surprising, reflecting horror films back at themselves in new and exciting ways. Eric Goldman is Executive Editor of IGN TV. You can follow ...
The Cabin in the Woods (2012)
Unfortunately, in its devotion to provocatively render some horror tropes irrelevant, The Cabin in the Woods cannot help but reinforce others. It still carries the whiff of the late 2000s' misogyny in the way it portrays women and it certainly doesn't try hard enough to disrupt the genre's opposition to female sexuality.
The Cabin In The Woods review
The Cabin In The Woods is a love letter to the horror genre, but it's also possibly the ultimate horror movie. (And yet, in some ways, it isn't a horror movie at all.) It's the culmination ...
'The Cabin In The Woods' Review: An Adrenaline Shot To Energize The
Five friends, played by Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, and Jesse Williams, head to a remote cabin for a weekend of fun. But the cabin isn't quite what it seems, as ...
Review: The Cabin in the Woods
The Cabin in the Woods is a 2012 horror film co-written by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard. It is also the directorial debut of Drew Goddard. The film follows five friends that go for a break at a remote cabin in the woods, where they eventually get more than they bargained for. Together, they must discover the truth behind the cabin in the woods ...
'The Cabin in the Woods,' by Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon
The Cabin in the Woods. Directed by Drew Goddard. Comedy, Horror. R. 1h 35m. By A. O. SCOTT. April 12, 2012. Just before a recent advance screening of "The Cabin in the Woods," a friendly ...
'The Cabin in the Woods': Film Review
The quick video flashes of a classroom of 9-year-old Japanese schoolgirls thrust into J-horror hell are a hoot. Back at the cabin, the kids are doing what kids in horror movies do: They tap the ...
The Cabin in the Woods
Movie Review. It's remarkable, really, that the cabin in The Cabin in the Woods ever finds buyers at all. Oh, sure, the property listing could be spruced up to look nice enough: "Eerily spacious cabin in the heart of tranquil forest!" it might read. "Within walking distance of bucolic lake. Snarling wolf head and creepy paintings ...
Movie Review
A horror-movie attic sale is, in essence, exactly what Cabin in the Woods is, an attempt to exorcise the genre of its formulaic possession by stuffing the movie full of its most overused and ...
The Cabin in the Woods Movie Review
Certainly the self-awareness of Scream reawakened interest in the genre and opened the door for the flat-out comedy of Scary Movie. Both franchises quickly grew tiresome, but they did shift our expectations of the genre temporarily before the torture porn of Saw took over. The Cabin in the Woods should stir some self-reflection.
'The Cabin in the Woods' Review
That said, The Cabin in the Woods isn't just different because it includes smarter versions of typical horror archetypes, the over-arching premise of the film is a game-changer, splitting open the genre format more and more as the film progresses - resulting in a final act that offers some truly enjoyable reveals. Where other filmmakers might attempt to setup the project as the first in a ...
The Cabin In The Woods Review
The Cabin In The Woods Review. Five college kids scoot off to a remote woodland cabin for a weekend break, where, after the discovery of a rum diary in the creepy basement and the unwise uttering ...
Cabin In The Woods Ending Explained (In Detail)
The Cabin In The Woods' Ritual Explained. After spending much of the film being stalked by The Cabin in the Woods ' Buckner family, Dana and Marty finally uncover the nature of the ritual they've unwittingly become a part of. In order to appease the Ancient Ones, each year a sacrifice must be made of at least five innocents.
Cabin in the Woods (TV Series 2024- )
Cabin in the Woods: Explores crimes that take place in remote cabins around the country.
The Cabin in the Woods
And make no mistake, The Cabin in the Woods is a comedy - a comedy with lots of deep dark mood lighting and blood and tottering zombie rednecks, but a comedy. A comedy, plus a satire, plus a parody, all adding up to the conclusion that horror movie formulas are just so effing damn stupid that ascribing all of it to the machinations of an Elder ...
The 10 Best 'Cabin In The Woods' Movies, Ranked (According To IMDb)
The Evil Dead (1981) - 7.5. The quintessential 'cabin in the woods' movie, 1981's The Evil Dead sees a group of friends visit a remote woodland cabin, where they unleash an ancient evil after stumbling upon a mysterious tape recording. Marking one of the greatest directorial debuts in horror history, The Evil Dead 's famously low ...
'In a Violent Nature' Streaming Movie Shudder Review ...
In a Cabin In The Woods, of course. Where else are they gonna sleep? They tell a creepy campfire story about a gent named Johnny who was an object of torment and died in the woods, and now haunts ...
'Who by Fire' Review: A Canadian Cabin-in-the-Woods Getaway ...
As a general movie rule, when a group of happy weekenders head to a woodland cottage for a bit of rest and relaxation, the great outdoors has some grisly surprises in store for them. In "Who By ...
Watch Cabin in the Woods Streaming Online
Cabin in the Woods. In this hybrid series, the investigation and mystery of true crime meets the spine-tingling drama of horror. These terrifyingly real crimes take place in remote cabins where people with evil intentions carry out heinous acts away from prying eyes.
THEN AND NOW: The cast of 'Holes' over 20 years later
Disney's "Holes" premiered way back in 2003. Here's what stars like Shia LaBeouf, Sigourney Weaver, and Dulé Hill look like and are doing now.

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