The Cabin in the Woods

THE CABIN IN THE WOODS (18)

D: Drew Goddard

Lionsgate/Mutant Enemy (Joss Whedon)

USA 🇺🇸 2011 (released 2012)

95 mins

Horror

W: Drew Goddard & Joss Whedon

DP: Peter Deming

Ed: Lisa Lassek

Mus: David Julyan

Kristen Connolly (Dana Polk), Chris Hemsworth (Curt Vaughan), Anna Hutchison (Jules Louden), Fran Kranz (Marty Mikalski), Jesse Williams (Holden McCrea), Richard Jenkins (Gary Sitterson), Bradley Whitford (Steve Hadley)

The Cabin In The Woods sprinkles a little satire over the standard teenagers-in-the-woods horror framework, making for a bit of originality with its twist in the tale.

The usual character types go for a weekend in a cabin and when the cellar door flings itself open, the group soon find themselves at the mercy of bloodthirsty zombies, but not all is as it seems as the frightening events are manipulated by a higher power.

Though it is a new twist on familiar themes, the plot clearly draws inspiration from much better films, particularly Cube (qv) and The Truman Show (qv).

It's increasingly ridiculous the more you think about it, and could have done with a bit of tweaking with the narrative series of events, which give up the big surprise far too early.

Enjoyable enough, and there's plenty of references to horror classics packed within, but the film itself falls somewhat short of classic status. Good fun though.

6/10