Cabin in the Woods
Okay, this isn’t a movie for everybody, admittedly.
If you happen to like horror movies that involve cannibalistic rednecks, zombies, alien monsters, deadites, demons, ghosts, or anything with a central indestructible bad guy who dresses odd and carries an axe, chainsaw, or anything of that ilk … well, you just might love this movie.
Y’see, with this one movie, Joss Whedon actually manages to explain some of the inexplicable cliches in slasher and horror films. Why the same victims (characters) keep showing up, why the slutty girl always has to be the first to die, why so many are set in wooded or isolated areas, and why the victims always act so damn stupid and/or predictable. It is a friggin’ masterpiece of genre deconstruction.
Basically, it’s a lot like Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the movie, not the show … although there are certain elements of the show involved), but with more gore and stranger surprises.
My favorite moment is when the proper time comes for the scientist who badly wanted a merman chosen at the beginning of the horror (“It would be so much cooler than zombies, right?”) to die, he’s killed by - yup - a merman. His last words? A rather peeved, “Oh, come on!”
I recommend this movie to anyone who’s a fan of the genre. It’s like a final exam for fanboys and girls to name all the movies it references, y’know? For the rest of the movie going population, buy the dvd when it comes out or rent it from wherever, it’s Joss at his finest.