“Cabin in the Woods” is unique: a horror comedy that manages to be scary and funny.
Honestly, the less you know about this movie, the more you’ll enjoy it.
Stop reading this and go see it. Now. It’s great.
Are you still reading this? Well, be warned, many minor spoilers are ahead.
“Cabin in the Woods” is the directorial debut of Drew Goddard, best known for writing 2008’s “Cloverfield.”
This movie was co-written by Joss Whedon, the mind behind “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Firefly.” Already this indicates that the movie is in good, creative hands.
“Cabin in the Woods” follows a group of five college students who decide to go on a trip as well as a group of workers who seem to be doing some experiment involving the students.
Eventually horrible monsters show up and begin to kill the students, an event that the workers have some involvement in.

As I mentioned before, the writing is excellent.
Whedon and Goddard serve up a script that works as a slasher film but also as a parody of slasher films.
It’s also delightfully manipulative: whenever things get too lighthearted and funny, something horrible happens and vice versa.
In an interview with British GQ, Whedon said that he and Goddard did not like how horror was turning into torture porn and that “they were becoming this extremely nihilistic and misogynist exercise in just trying to upset you, as opposed to trying to scare you.”
This explains part of the movie’s genius as it ignores most of the last decade of horror films such as “Saw” and “Hostel.”
Instead, it consciously borrows from classic horror films like “The Evil Dead” and “Halloween” while adding the clever postmodern spin of having the characters harassed by not only the monsters but the workers as well.
I also enjoyed how the movie was shot in a traditional style as I am sick of the “found footage” cinematography of films like “Paranormal Activity” or “The Blair Witch Project.”
In fact, I don’t recall any sort of handheld camerawork as well which is also a plus.
The casting was also effective. Since “Cabin in the Woods” plays with the familiar archetypes of slasher films (such as the jock and the smart guy), Goddard did a good job casting gorgeous people who completely fit those roles.
In particular, Chris Hemsworth’s performance is really good and believable as a hunky sociology major while Fran Kranz’s role of a very perceptive stoner will lead to a great career as a character actor.
The other actors are not stellar but serve the movie well.
Bradley Whitford and Richard Jenkins play the workers Sitterson and Hadley respectively, and each get a few laughs through the use of deadpan comedy.
However, I was distracted by Whitford’s resemblance to Harvey Keitel in “Reservoir Dogs.”
The special effects are actually pretty good as well since several of them are done with practical make-up effects.
One monster in particular who has a circular saw blade in his head (and is definitely a parody of Pinhead from “Hellraiser”) looks really gruesome.
The computer generated monsters don’t look that bad either. They look way better than the Muttations from “The Hunger Games.”
Despite my warnings, you’ll probably still enjoy “Cabin in the Woods” if you read this far. The writing and casting lead to a film so well crafted that even if you know one of the twists, you’ll still have fun.