Perfect in so many ways

Rating: 10/10 (5 April 2014)

It's impossible to say very much meaningful about this film without spoilers, so be warned.
"Cabin in the Woods" is an outstandingly clever and well-put-together film which I think succeeds at everything it sets out to do. It's taken me a while to get around to seeing it, so the film had a formidable reputation to live up to, which for me, it did.
The basic premise is familiar to the point of banality: five American college students encompassing typical horror movie stereotypes set out to spend a weekend in a secluded cabin in the wilderness. In what follows, writer Joss Whedon and director Drew Goddard pay homage to, lampshade, subvert, and riff on a wide variety of horror movie tropes.
The film neatly breaks down into two parts: the first plays almost straight as the movie that it's set up to be, with the college students being gruesomely picked off one at a time by zombie hillbillies. Despite its utter (intended) predictability, this is extraordinarily well-made, with much more naturalistic dialogue and performances than are the norm for slasher films. Indeed, if this had really been all there was to "The Cabin in the Woods", it would probably still have acquired cult status as maybe the most artfully made example of the genre.
The second half breaks the fourth wall of the original narrative (literally at some points) and tells a bigger story. This larger plot is a little less hackneyed than the slasher plot, but still never wanders far from its Lovecraftian roots. Again, the joy here is both in the skill of the execution, and in the makers' unmistakable knowledge of and respect for their material. The finale is far more Japanese than American, but Japanese horror has also been referenced throughout the film. Everything here works.
This is a horror film in its own right -- it's not parody. If you don't know or don't like that genre, there probably won't be much here for you. For everyone else, this is an absolute must-see!