Review of The Cabin in the Woods (2012) by Tiger N — 06 Aug 2014

"You're not seeing what you don't wanna see."-Marty.

This film is a barometer of not only taste, but people you would want to be friends with. Even the most casual Joss Whedon fan can appreciate this film, but most of us have encountered a "type" of person with a kind of narcissistic appreciation of their own opinion. If you aren't one of them, you've probably encountered them many times. They're self-proclaimed experts on acting technique and point out random performances as "bad", but are otherwise incapable of verbalizing the exact problem they have with a specific performance. But what's more troubling-besides their pretentious ramblings about the story not making sense (it does) or why Chris Hemsworth and Sigourney Weaver would consider lowering themselves to be a part of this film (because they loved the script)-is their poor sense of both irony and empathy.

I feel like the two are closely connected. Lacking either is what separates a normal human being with animals, robots, evil shrimp from space, etc. Or a serial killer. Or someone with Asperger's. Whatever the case may be, your friends are your friends because they can recognize when something is funny, they feel bad for you when you're in pain, they see themselves in others in order to relate to them. Lacking this basic human ability, people are selfish. They can be sociopathic or worse. In the context of how people feel about The Cabin in the Woods, I've seen people go so far as to bash the professional film critics who gave good reviews. Really?

Sure, there's a bit of a divide of intellectualism between a professional film critic and the average film goer, but it's only because the critics have seen everything and the rest of us have not. Their views of film are the sum total of movies they've seen across their lifetime. No one is born with empathy or a sense of irony. It's like a muscle that needs to be exercised, stimulated and grown. If you've ever seen a film you didn't like when you were younger, but liked it after seeing it again years later, this is that. Congratulations, you have grown as a person.

To dismiss The Cabin in the Woods as a spoof film is to immediately fail at understanding the filmmakers' intent. If you're already familiar with the TV series Buffy and Angel, you have an advantage already. For wastes of time like Scary Movie and all these other terrible films that have "Movie" in the title, the characters are all disposable joke machines that are impossible to care about. What we have here and in Buffy and Angel is the horror/comedy hybrid. The scary parts are scary, the funny parts are funny. And at least one scene in this film has both happen simultaneously. This is where empathy/a sense of irony is important. You cannot lose the sense that what happens to these people is really happening. Stakes are high and emotions are up there too. If you don't care, nothing matters.

On the other hand, the film has an element of self-awareness. The horror elements are very much homages to classic films anywhere between Night of the Living Dead and Halloween. It's not on the literal "we're in a movie" level in Scream, but in terms of genre convention and what you're expected to expect from horror films and turning that into a unique and unpredictable experience. It would be both blind and inaccurate to say the film doesn't work as a horror, comedy or satire because the film is not just one of these, it is all of these. It works on separate levels in concert. Drew Goddard and Whedon have spoken about the importance of maintaining the right tone for the film so the comedy isn't too silly (_____ Movie) and the horror isn't just mindless gore (Saw). The part the viewer needs to play is to take it seriously but not too seriously. If you hated the ending, you're almost there.

The cast is great, too. There are enough reviews singling out Bradley Whitford and everyone who's seen at least season one of Dollhouse knows what Fran Kranz can do. But when you find out that the lead role was the hardest to cast, it shows. Kristen Connolly is beyond the hot girl, she shows a wide range of emotion and holy crap, can she scream. If she didn't have the skill, the viewer wouldn't feel a connection to the heart of the film. This performance alone has made me a fan. Remember her name, she's bound for big things.

I guess the best advice I can give someone who would need to make an effort to enjoy this film is to simply just accept it. It's not supposed to be challenging or difficult, but if you try to watch this movie with some sort of preconceived mentality and you actively refuse to accept the premise for whatever stupid reason, blood wouldn't shoot that far, people wouldn't be that scared of a severed head, marijuana doesn't smoke like that, etc., you're the only one making this movie bad. If you give it a shot, a fair shot, it's one of the best horror/comedy films you'll ever see. If you end up not liking it, maybe you're not ready and you should revisit it in five years. It's entirely possible you'll never be ready, but if that's the case, please stay away from me and stop screaming at waitresses.