The Cabin in the Woods
Written by Andreas Babiolakis
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It has been ten years, and maybe the high of The Cabin in the Woods has dissipated a little bit. I recall when this was the horror event of the year. It has since received claims of being overrated, and the scales are now outweighing it more than it deserves. Clearly by my rating and how I have prefaced this review, I am on the side of the fence that believes that The Cabin in the Woods is more underrated than it is overrated. There’s almost this recent notion that modern horror films can be pernicious to the styles of horror that many people grew up on, like the “fun” of the genre is gone when there is too much thought put into these films. I fully don’t agree with this idea that I’ve heard from many horror fanatics, and I do apologize for being so vicious of the side of opposition here. Case in point: The Cabin in the Woods is an example where a horror film can be fun and interesting at the same time (especially with fun being the top priority).
Right off the bat, The Cabin in the Woods begins as a satire of the slasher genre right up, but it also tries to be a faithful entry within the same label. It even feels like a cliche: a handful of teens wind up in a titular cabin in the woods, and there is a murderous presence nearby. Well, we eventually find out that the threat could be anything, as any murderer is conjured up by a squad of designers, and that is as far as I will go with the explanations (the twists and spoilers only begin here). Basically, the implication is that any horror story ever told is orchestrated by these hive-minds (again, for purposes I can’t disclose without spoiling too much), and so there is a reason why these cliches exist. This is almost like a Penn and Teller trick: not only are we seeing what we came for (a fun horror romp), but we’re seeing how it’s done as well (sort of). A film that excuses the cookie cutter molds of the past? That’s both clever and considerate.
The Cabin in the Woods tries to explain the cliches of horror films.
I suppose the recent lukewarm response in the aftermath of The Cabin in the Woods’ pop culture explosion may be in relation to the exhaustion of Whedonisms, or just Joss Whedon in general (who co-wrote and produced this film), but a fun film is a fun film. I don’t think the film rewrites the horror genre quite as much as people once felt either, especially since it devotes at least some of its time to playing ball within the confines of standard horror films. Then again, not to appear as though I am contradicting myself from what I said earlier, but there is no need to have to reinvent the wheel every time a film gets released. The only thing that a film needs to strive to be is good, and I feel like works made for “fun” often lose this notion. That’s all. The Cabin in the Woods is quite a ride, and you won’t leave the film a changed person or actually feeling differently about horror (if anything, it may just remind you why you like the genre in the first place), but this is fun done right, and that’s nice to have once in a while. Ten years later, I still feel this way about it.
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.