Your reaction to The Cabin in the Woods is my reaction. I saw it a week ago, and I'm still not over its absurd greatness. I'm wholly familiar with Joss and Drew's work, yet the twist managed to throw me for a loop. I loved every second of it.
I just love how META it is! Breaking down the reasons behind the archetypes, and what horror movies are for -- horror as ritual sacrifices to appease angry elder gods MAKES ME SO GIDDILY HAPPY. And the technicians and their pride in their work and the betting pool and that opening scene around the coffee maker. THEN CABIN IN THE WOODS OVER THEIR FACES AS THEY'RE DRIVING THEIR GOLF CART.
I CANNOT GET OVER HOW FLAWLESS EVERY DETAIL IN THIS MOVIE WAS.
Also: Characters we SYMPATHIZED WITH and believed in! I didn't want any of them to die, not even Jules who was the most one-note of the group. It's so impossibly refreshing to have an entire cast of people, including the technicians, that we care about and pity IN A HORROR MOVIE.
AND MARTY MARTY MARTY HOW PERFECT WAS HE AND SURPRISINGLY FIERCE AND THAT SCENE WITH THEM JUST HOLDING EACH OTHER IN THE ELEVATOR JUST BURY ME WHERE I FELL.
Ugh I could just blather on for ages but it's past midnight and i really should just go to bed.
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. As I briefly mentioned in my entry about the film, the cold open with Hadley and Sitterson around the water cooler was all I ever wanted in a genre film. So many of my favorite moments in movies are the ones not actually about plot of the movie. Exhibit A!
THAT SCENE WITH THEM JUST HOLDING EACH OTHER IN THE ELEVATOR... YES, YES, YES, YES, YES. That scene just got to me. I didn't expect it, and it didn't feel contrived. It was such a beautiful character moment amidst meta insanity and absurdity. I liked all of the characters in their own little ways (like you said, they were actually sympathetic!), but Marty... MARTY! He was the one character I wanted to survive, and HE DID (as much as one could survive at the end of the film, haha)!
That's something I loved about this movie: there were shocking moments, but they were never FAKE OUT moments. What I hate the most about badly done horror movies is how often they rely on the fake out scares -- a sudden blare of music, a cat screeches, something falls over in the background but there's no real threat there. Every single shock moment followed through.
Oh jeez, Angie, I was almost fully prepared to let this movie wait for DVD, but now I wanna go seeee iiiit but I'm planning to go grocery shopping and make stew today and good stuff comes on TV tonight and and and... gr argh, basically.
I guess. It would've been cool if one of the other male characters was female instead. Because, yeah, I guess there's no reason the Scholar/Fool/Athlete couldn't be female, but still. *patriarchy heebs*
ETA: Also, how do the Japanese 9-year-olds fit into the Whore/Virgin/Athelete/Fool/Scholar roles? Hm.
On thinking about that, I think it goes into cultural things. The American base was operating on archetypes that are pretty solid in America. In Japan there are different cultural mores and archetypes, so perhaps sacrificing innocent children would have appeased the Elder God there.
I'll prolly never see this because horror not really my bag and the very premise creeps the shit out of me, I would be beyond traumatized... BUT write about it for flimflammers!!! Stupid autocorrect... FILM flammers, autocorrect, FILM flammers.
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I CANNOT GET OVER HOW FLAWLESS EVERY DETAIL IN THIS MOVIE WAS.
Also: Characters we SYMPATHIZED WITH and believed in! I didn't want any of them to die, not even Jules who was the most one-note of the group. It's so impossibly refreshing to have an entire cast of people, including the technicians, that we care about and pity IN A HORROR MOVIE.
AND MARTY MARTY MARTY HOW PERFECT WAS HE AND SURPRISINGLY FIERCE AND THAT SCENE WITH THEM JUST HOLDING EACH OTHER IN THE ELEVATOR JUST BURY ME WHERE I FELL.
Ugh I could just blather on for ages but it's past midnight and i really should just go to bed.
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THAT SCENE WITH THEM JUST HOLDING EACH OTHER IN THE ELEVATOR...
YES, YES, YES, YES, YES. That scene just got to me. I didn't expect it, and it didn't feel contrived. It was such a beautiful character moment amidst meta insanity and absurdity. I liked all of the characters in their own little ways (like you said, they were actually sympathetic!), but Marty... MARTY! He was the one character I wanted to survive, and HE DID (as much as one could survive at the end of the film, haha)!
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AND THE DELICIOUS, DELICIOUS META. MMM.
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ETA: Yeah, I went ahead and saw it anyway.
Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow.
That said, a female sacrifice is either a Virgin or a Whore, the end? *le sigh*
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ETA: Also, how do the Japanese 9-year-olds fit into the Whore/Virgin/Athelete/Fool/Scholar roles? Hm.
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