The Cabin In The Woods - Review

                                                                                                                 Rating: B -

Sitting in the theatre I had prepared myself to not think much or nitpick. I wanted to have a nice fun time and this is where I leveled my expectations for it. In the end, it didn't disappoint. But is it enough for a horror film to be just fun? Yep,sometimes and this is more then you should hope for in a big studio film.

This film is stuffed with too many ideas. Which is both good and bad for it. Normally when a writer stuffs a film with too many plot points it's because either he/she knows that not a single idea in the writing is strong enough to hold the film. Or is just showing his/her worth as writer by trying to surprise the viewers. It holds equally true for a director. Remember when you see too many jerky camera movements or flashy editing in a film, doing your head in? Yep the above two rules apply there as well. So, this film has the same problem. Too many ideas are thrown in to see what sticks. As a result it's best not to nitpick and just try to enjoy the ride.

Premise:
Premise is simple and cliche enough to pick up. Five friends in mid twenties decide to have fun in the cabin, in the woods. One is drug infested 'fool' (Fran Kranz) who rionicaly makes the most sense. One overtly sex active couple (Chris Hemsworth and Anna Hutchison) and lastly two blooming buds (Kristen Connolly and Jesse Williams) who are ready to mingle. Sounds fimiliar? Stick around and you will be in for a few surprises. Without giving away any spoilers, it's safe to say that the plan for a safe and happy weekend doesn't work out well.

Review:
 Lets talk about the negatives first. Well, there is nothing new. The characters are usual caricatures drawn out which you can find in almost every campy horror film. They do silly mistakes and reaches point A to B like told by the writer, so something new can happen in an attempt to shock us. There is too much gore to the point of being absurd. I mean fountains of blood. If it comes out of someone strong like Chris Hemsworth then it makes somewhat sense but everyone bursts out huge streams like blood filled balloons. Not only that but after bearing a fatal attack, which would be enough to kill a normal human being, the caharacters react in the next scene as strong and less bothered as nothing has happened. The dialogues are cheese loaded and the sequences building up to the plot points are master cliches. For example: A couple decides to go out in the woods in the middle of the night for sex, seriously and that terrible truth and dare game. Not to say that these actions were not justified, because they do have an explaination but that leads to whole other plathora of plot holes. Seemingly people liked the film because it changed its course at every turn. This can be a good thing for a film if the tone remains static overall. It did have some obvious social commentary but that didn't work for me because it was glossed up with too many cliched acts and unnecessary 'funny' moments.

Now comes the good. As mentioned before, there are some surprises and some of them work too. The last act is particularly interesting and inarguably the most expensively produced too. At that point you would have seen so much that your brain should switches off which would enable you to enjoy the ride along the way. That works! By the last scene I wanted to see something so bad, thankfully I did but just to a degree. Watch the film to know what I'm talking about. Watching the film you can not help but notice that this film is written by someone who loves horror genre. This film in itself works like a tribute to all the good horror films we have grown watching. There are too many references but in order to keep it spoiler free I won't mention which ones. It's suffice to say that you will notice the subtle ones and smile, for knowing the source film. Then there are obvious ones which have a tendency to actually put some people off. For me, they worked. To give you hint, it's about famous horror film creatures.

Conclusion:
 Finally, I would say there are good points and there are bad ones. In the end the overwhemling emotion was fun. I had fun and enjoyed the ride. That's what you should do. I had to keep the story vague and almost untouched because that's the point. Once you would know it then there is no fun. Honestly, that's what it is to this film. So go on, don't read the synopsis and avoid the trailers ( which you would have definitely watched by now). Have fun and come back to have your say in the comments if you like it or not.