189. The Cabin in the Woods (2012)
Now Kiko will live forever in this happy frog!
Title: The Cabin in the Woods
Date Watched: 12/28/2012
Original Ranking Out of 10: 7
Revised Ranking Out of 10: 7
Synopsis: A group of five college-aged friends spend the weekend in a haunted cabin while people in some sort of NASA-esque organization monitor them.
The Good: Very clever, injecting new life into a movie that we think we have figured out from the title alone. Funny and scary.
The Bad: Neither as funny or as scary as, say, Evil Dead II. Feels long even at 90 minutes.
Why Do I Own This Movie?: Cheap Amazon Black Friday purchase.
Should I Still Own This Movie?: Yes.
What Did I Notice That I Didn't Notice Before?: Quite a bit. The first time you see the movie, you spend it trying to figure out what's going on. The second time is almost like a completely different experience.
Other Impressions: I liked The Cabin in the Woods, but I sort of have an aversion to this kind of "movie in quotes" genre. I mistakenly had thought that Scream was as post-modern as horror movies could get, but screenwriters Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon have proven me wrong. There's loads of irony here, as we root for characters that we, effectively, paid to see die. And, without giving too much away, most of the comments made throughout the movie could be referring directly to the audience.
And I enjoyed this irony and liked that the movie worked on different levels, but I don't think it works on the most important level for a horror movie: the visceral one. The Cabin in the Woods is a cute joke and a compelling exercise, completely worth seeing and I'm glad to have it in my collection, but -- and you'll appreciate the irony of my writing this, I'm sure -- it's easier to create a criticism than a genuine product. Anything not quite perfect in this movie could be attributed to the fact that it's a parody, so it's a win-win situation for the filmmakers. Either they've made a successful entry into the genre that the title suggests or they've made a terrible one that can be written off as commentary.
So I can cynically criticize the movie for what it is (a criticism), but that's overlooking the truth, which is that I did enjoy it. It's entertaining, often funny, and sometimes scary. And the lead performers aren't too hard on the eyes, either. I guess my main gripe is that I can't discuss the movie without resorting to using terms that I learned in film school.
The List
Title: The Cabin in the Woods
Date Watched: 12/28/2012
Original Ranking Out of 10: 7
Revised Ranking Out of 10: 7
Synopsis: A group of five college-aged friends spend the weekend in a haunted cabin while people in some sort of NASA-esque organization monitor them.
The Good: Very clever, injecting new life into a movie that we think we have figured out from the title alone. Funny and scary.
The Bad: Neither as funny or as scary as, say, Evil Dead II. Feels long even at 90 minutes.
Why Do I Own This Movie?: Cheap Amazon Black Friday purchase.
Should I Still Own This Movie?: Yes.
What Did I Notice That I Didn't Notice Before?: Quite a bit. The first time you see the movie, you spend it trying to figure out what's going on. The second time is almost like a completely different experience.
Other Impressions: I liked The Cabin in the Woods, but I sort of have an aversion to this kind of "movie in quotes" genre. I mistakenly had thought that Scream was as post-modern as horror movies could get, but screenwriters Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon have proven me wrong. There's loads of irony here, as we root for characters that we, effectively, paid to see die. And, without giving too much away, most of the comments made throughout the movie could be referring directly to the audience.
And I enjoyed this irony and liked that the movie worked on different levels, but I don't think it works on the most important level for a horror movie: the visceral one. The Cabin in the Woods is a cute joke and a compelling exercise, completely worth seeing and I'm glad to have it in my collection, but -- and you'll appreciate the irony of my writing this, I'm sure -- it's easier to create a criticism than a genuine product. Anything not quite perfect in this movie could be attributed to the fact that it's a parody, so it's a win-win situation for the filmmakers. Either they've made a successful entry into the genre that the title suggests or they've made a terrible one that can be written off as commentary.
So I can cynically criticize the movie for what it is (a criticism), but that's overlooking the truth, which is that I did enjoy it. It's entertaining, often funny, and sometimes scary. And the lead performers aren't too hard on the eyes, either. I guess my main gripe is that I can't discuss the movie without resorting to using terms that I learned in film school.
The List