A solid horror from Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard

Rating: 8/10 (6 December 2016)

Like so many horror films this features a group of good-looking young people going to a remote location together where bad things will inevitably happen; in this case the titular cabin in the woods. There is something different about the location though; they think they are all alone but the viewer knows that they have been selected, prepared and their every move is being watched and manipulated by a team of people whose motives are initially unknown. Once at the cabin they settle in and as they sit around the door to a cellar blows open. They explore and find a variety of strange artefacts. These include a dairy that one of the girls starts to read; it was written over a hundred years ago by a girl who was abused by her sadistic family. As she reads a section in Latin the ground outside opens up and this family rises from their graves with the intention of killing the unwitting young people. Things soon get nasty as they are picked off one by one as they try to get away.
This film deconstructs the horror genre as 'Scream' did many years before; it was done in an entirely different way though. If it was just red-neck zombie killers killing college students in the woods it would have been less interesting but knowing that somebody is behind it all made it more interesting as we don't initially know why they are doing it which adds a degree of mystery. There are some good twists along the way as well as plenty of scares although nothing too scary. While it is only rated '15', in the UK, it is pretty gory at times the ending is incredibly bloody! I liked how the film played with clichés of the genre; notably the order in which people die and the fact that one of them might be allowed to survive. There are plenty of nods to other films but it doesn't really matter if you haven't seen those films. The cast does a fine job making us believe in their characters as they deal with their unlikely but deadly situation. Overall an enjoyable horror film with scares and humour that has plenty of interesting twists.