The Cabin in the Woods (Drew Goddard, 2012)

[Murdoch]

I don't see many modern horror movies, but the trailer for The Cabin in the Woods makes it look like a blast (I also am an eternal apologist for Joss Whedon). I may actually see this one, unless someone gives me reason not to. It also sports one clever one-sheet (the one with floating house isn't bad either):

[colinr0380]

What a beautiful poster! I'm really looking forward to seeing Cabin In The Woods too, as it seems to be playing with (and totally destroying) genre conventions in an interesting way.

It also makes me think a little of that Marc Evans film My Little Eye, in which a group of characters are being manipulated and having their situation controlled by 'higher powers' (the DVD for that film even has a brilliant 'commentary' track featuring chatter and hushed whispering between the controllers as they are setting up the situations and getting their cameras into position ready to capture the carnage), though from the little I have heard Cabin In The Woods ends up going into quite out there, Lovecraftian areas.

[Murdoch]

What really sold me on it was the brief scene in the trailer where the studly hero gives the reasonable suggestion "we should all stick together," then there's some gas released and a cut back to the jock saying "we should split up."

I'll have to check out My Little Eye for the horror list, thanks for the suggestion!

[warren oates]

Cabin In The Woods is quite good, very fun and definitely worth seeing with as little foreknowledge and as big an audience as possible. So I guess there goes my joke pitch for Battleship

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where the film plays out like one of those old TV commercials for the game, in which a family or a group of kids is sitting at a table moving the pegs around...but you intercut it with real combat footage of a giant naval battle that's obviously being affected by the suburban game players.

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

Cabin In The Woods is tons of fun. It's '70s horror homage like Texas Chainsaw Massacre spliced with The Truman Show. It's an entertaining subversion of various genre tropes as well. A few threads of Wolfram and Hart from Whedon's Angel universe are used here to good effect, but up until the last third most of that background is hidden. Favorite moments include:

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the various Whedon television stars like Amy Acker and Tom Lenk, the conversation about the successful Japanese mission, i.e. "Who would have thought nine-years-old would be that hard to kill!?", the grand guignol monster invasion when Dana hits the button, and that Sigourney Weaver cameo.

All in all, I loved the film.

[Roger Ryan]

I thought THE CABIN IN THE WOODS was brilliant - deftly conceived and executed from top-to-bottom. I've noticed the reviews (notably the one in the New York Times) seem to miss how many levels the film works on...

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particularly it's delightfully subversive social satire. I'm tempted to call this film the "DR. STRANGELOVE of horror", but it owes as much to other comedies/satires (THE PRESIDENT'S ANALYST, PLAYTIME) as it does to the horror genre.

Two aspects that impressed me most...

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1) The all-out monster attack climax which gives the viewer the choice of which part of the screen to watch in the same way Tati did in PLAYTIME.

2) Superb soundtrack song choices. REO Speedwagon's bland arena-rock "Roll With The Changes" is the perfect selection to represent the jaded government workers and Nine Inch Nails' "Last" perfectly underscores the rebellious freedom of allowing mankind's rule to come to an end with a smirk.

[colinr0380]

Cabin In The Woods is tons of fun. It's '70s horror homage like Texas Chainsaw Massacre spliced with The Truman Show. It's an entertaining subversion of various genre tropes as well. A few threads of Wolfram and Hart from Whedon's Angel universe are used here to good effect, but up until the last third most of that background is hidden. Favorite moments include:

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the various Whedon television stars like Amy Acker and Tom Lenk, the conversation about the successful Japanese mission, i.e. "Who would have thought nine-years-old would be that hard to kill!?", the grand guignol monster invasion when Dana hits the button, and that Sigourney Weaver cameo.

All in all, I loved the film.

Having seen Cabin In The Woods now I did like the way that the film, while comic, doesn't really play down some of the nastier moments. In a way the comedy just makes events feel more callous rather than undercutting the action.

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I especially like the scene where the heroine is getting brutally beaten up on the dock, which is playing on the monitors while the staff are having a party in the control room. Although the question is raised of who exactly is editing between the different camera positions while everyone is celebrating. Do they have a separate team of editors vision mixing on the fly?

In a strange coincidence I had watched Ken Russell's Lair of the White Worm the night before which also features a final battle dangling above a 'pit of ultimate evil'! Although in Cabin with the arcane symbols getting highlighted by drips of blood I was left thinking it was a little similar to the ending of the first Blade film.

It was interesting to note that while in their commentary the filmmakers talk of their homage to Hellraiser being the closest thing to actually namechecking a specific film in Cabin (though of course the title cabin, its cellar and the vengeful molesting tree roots during the climax all obviously come from The Evil Dead. And the doll masked pyromaniacs seem to recall The Strangers), they don't seem to mention that Jodelle Ferland is doing a neat homage to her 'scary demon child' role from Silent Hill!

I love the way that on the board showing all of the terrifying creatures that can be unleashed there is one simply saying "Twins". Very Kubrickian! Although I like the idea that someone in charge of rounding up the scariest monsters for the project wasn't thinking of the spooky girls from The Shining there and just thought normally occurring twins were scary enough to unleash on innocent youngsters!

However if I had to choose to die in any of the numerous ways illustrated during the apocalyptic climax I think it would have to be death by unicorn, with the appropriate "Legend"-ary muscial sting playing as it charged!

[Murdoch]

It was interesting to note that while in their commentary the filmmakers talk of their homage to Hellraiser being the closest thing to actually namechecking a specific film in Cabin !

I'm surprised by this as deadites from Evil Dead appeared on the whiteboard listing of monsters in the film, unless deadite has some other origin.

I agree with you about the dock scene, while the films first plays it as comic, its duration quickly turns it into something very unsettling. The people I watched it with came away more disturbed than amused by it.

On a different note the resolution to the Japanese version was the funniest thing I've seen in a horror movie in quite some time.

[colinr0380]

I'm starting to think of Cabin In The Woods as being the horror version of Westworld! Although the monsters don't exactly malfunction!

(By the way it was amusing to also see a Boomer from the Left 4 Dead videogames in one of the pods in the pull back shot! Apparently Goddard had talked to Valve about making a Cabin In The Woods tie in campaign map for Left 4 Dead, but it sadly didn't happen with the films move from MGM to Lionsgate)

I agree with you about the dock scene, while the films first plays it as comic, its duration quickly turns it into something very unsettling. The people I watched it with came away more disturbed than amused by it.

The dock scene is quite neatly done as it is rather over the top so we start to laugh at the comic absurdity of the heroine being shown flying through the air from the blows, all done in distancing silence. But then there is the insert shot (leading to my question of who is editing the footage on the control room cameras) of the gushing vomit of blood which completely changes the tone of the scene from knockabout fun whilst all the while events are being ignored by the complacent control room characters.

On a different note the resolution to the Japanese version was the funniest thing I've seen in a horror movie in quite some time.

That frog didn't look too happy to me! I like to think that they are setting it up for a sequel in which one of the girls as a teenager becomes lovelorn and accidentally kisses it, setting the spirit free again!

[Andre Jurieu]

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...Although the question is raised of who exactly is editing between the different camera positions while everyone is celebrating. Do they have a separate team of editors vision mixing on the fly?

That sloppy technique of displaying somehow edited camera footage (often security camera footage) is one of my biggest pet-peeves while watching movies. It irritates me almost instantaneously. In this case, it was a little easier to take, due to the movie's underlying intentions regarding victims and observers, as well as the concept of constructing horror movies. It also added to the absurdity of the entire scenario and thereby allows the film to be both disturbing and hilarious.

[cdnchris]

Yeah, I'm with you. Even as a kid this always bugged me and I think the worst offender was The Running Man, specifically the moment where they replay the helicopter massacre footage. Unless they had professional camera people everywhere (which would have been unlikely) and an entire film crew how would that footage have been gathered!? Thinking about it just enrages me.

[Murdoch]

I didn't have a problem with it in Cabin since

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we are shown what is basically a gigantic, advanced film crew following the victims every movement.

However, this has always bugged me in movies as well, although not as much the Third Man scenarios - where we're shown handheld footage where all of the characters are in front of the camera and we're left wondering who is holding the camera.

[Andre Jurieu]

I didn't have a problem with it in Cabin since

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we are shown what is basically a gigantic, advanced film crew following the victims every movement.

Again, I really didn't have a huge problem with it in Cabin, but it still wouldn't make sense to me

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even with the gigantic film crew because we would basically need to have a director in the base of operations coordinating the various cuts to each camera's footage, like it was the Emmys or Oscars ("Camera 1, now 2, and 6, now 4, ready camera 8...") and we would basically be watching what amounts to as the "televised" version of events.

In this case, it kind of adds to the basic concept of the film, but it's still seems sloppy to me as a technique. It also kind of felt like a missed opportunity, since it could have been an opportunity to

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actually have shown us the director coordinating the footage.

[Murdoch]

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But wouldn't that ruin the Sigourney Weaver reveal cameo? She is after all "The Director."

[colinr0380]

The Osterman Weekend, like The Running Man, is the bête noire of that kind of thing, with all of the problems of who is actually creating and/or editing the footage (or hacking into various televisions to screen incriminating footage at the worst possible time!) being compounded by the film actually being about image manipulation! So the points where the film 'cheats' are even more problematic. The Osterman Weekend has a lot of things going for it, particularly the cast, but the issues with filmmakers poorly grasping the abilites and limitations of the technology at the heart of the story turns it into an interestingly flawed rather than a wholly successful film.

However I don't really have the same issues with Cabin In The Woods despite causally wondering how the footage is being edited. I could easily just imagine that the group we are seeing are just the 'show runners' making sure that everything goes smoothly to plan (and failing miserably), while the higher ups are the ones actually creating the broadcasts for the benefit of those who dwell beneath. And I agree with Andre Jurieu that many of these moments add to the comic effect, especially the brief blood vomiting shot which is beautifully timed to have maximum impact as being both darkly funny and pretty horrific!

(Another film that Cabin In The Woods would bear comparison to would be Cube Zero, another Lionsgate released film, where all the people trapped inside the cube maze in a similar way to the previous two films are watched over by two slightly bored office drones collecting information about whether the subjects survive or fail their tests for their higher powers!)

[Andre Jurieu]

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But wouldn't that ruin the Sigourney Weaver reveal cameo? She is after all "The Director."

Agreed, though I always figured she would be powerful enough to use an AD to do all the actual work.

[Roger Ryan]

Changes in camera angles/coverage would only be done to observe the action live since I don't believe it is established that the mayhem is being documented on video. We might assume that one of the office drones is fooling around with the switcher while everyone else is partying.

[captveg]

One could also assume that like some convenience store security systems, the feed alternates automatically between the appropriate angles.

[zedz]

But then it would look as random as security camera footage, wouldn't it? Not like commercially edited genre film.

[captveg]

But then it would look as random as security camera footage, wouldn't it? Not like commercially edited genre film.

True. Just gotta "go with it" I guess.

[colinr0380]

Away from the security camera stuff, one small moment I particularly liked was the way that after stabbing the zombie with the knife the controllers send a little electric shock through the handle to make the heroine unconsciously let go of it. While my father would never see this film, that moment did remind me that when we watched Verhoeven's Hollow Man together my dad was very annoyed during the final scenes at the way that Elizabeth Shue kept supposedly killing Kevin Bacon only to have him pop back up again. He was especially annoyed at the moment where Shue beats Bacon over the head with an axe and then drops it right next to the body before walking off!

I'd like to think that moment from Cabin is the sop for all of those characters who get rid of weapons that they could have kept defending themselves with only to, in a shocking turn of events, be left defenceless all over again in the very next scene!

[repeat]

Catching up on 2012 here, and this one really was a lot of fun (even for someone not that informed on the genre/movies that are paid homage to), but am I the only one who felt the choice of song over the end credits horribly misjudged? I thought it would have been so much more in keeping with the tone of the last third of the film if they'd reprised the OK Go song from the beginning, I had to cue it up on YouTube after the credits ended!

[Roger Ryan]

As I noted above, I felt the use of NINE INCH NAILS' "Last" during the end credits was just about perfect...

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If one views the film as a critique on how a nation's youth are sacrificed to maintain a broken system at any cost, then the choice to allow the system to come to an end is a heroic one. While the government drones' theme song is "Roll With The Changes" (meaning "keep the status quo regardless of the method"), then the more humanistic rebels' view might be the NIN lyric "This isn't meant to last; this is for right now". The song, in this context, is a reminder that our time here is limited and preserving a horrible tradition out of fear or religious fervor is misguided.

[repeat]

That's a nice interpretation for sure - I just felt the emotional tone of the song was totally at odds with the exhilarating last 30 minutes of the film, but it might just be a matter of musical taste! Found this bit in a good interview with Goddard:

I remember the two things I said were, "I can't make this movie without Bradley Whitford," and "If I don't get REO Speedwagon, I'm not making this movie." (Laughs) I really did. That and the Nine Inch Nails song at the end were the only two that I felt I had to have. And we spent to get the Speedwagon. (Laughs) I don't remember where it first came from. I wanted the sort of thing that you play at the office party. And what gets played at the office party is never what's current; it's what the older people think is cool. And yet it's still cool! I love REO Speedwagon. But it was a gut thing. It just felt right.