Fantastic Send-Up of All Things Horror

Rating: 9/10 (8 September 2012)

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at the negative reviews, but I am. As one well-known critic so aptly described it, this film is a "final exam for fanboys." Some reviewers seem to have failed the test. "Am I missing something here??" Yes. Yes you are.
Subtext, folks. An item that seems to be vacant from modern-day slasher flicks (re: torture porn), and Joss and Drew know it. That's why the layers to this movie run so deep. And that's why there are so many low ratings, because those horrible movies have left our expectations so low that fans have been trained to look only at the surface level. Gore. Screams. Pain. Torture. Psychopaths. No motivation besides sheer insanity.
What about the puppeteers pulling the strings? How much of this is absolutely scripted before the writer even sits down with the pen? How much control do the writers actually have? Is it possible to do something completely new, or is everything written already? I'll say it again: subtext, folks.
I'm sad for this movie. Because there is so much that can't be given away, the marketing department was left with very little to sell this movie. People weren't sure what to expect when they came in. I like to think that many people like me expected nothing but the unexpected. Sadly, I now honestly believe that many a fanboy came into the theater to see yet another horribly acted generic cabin in the woods story and were left sorely disappointed when the true intent of the film went over their heads. They got a cheesy version of what they paid for, but missed the point: the bad part of it was done that way intentionally. This is Joss Whedon. You should know better by now.
Look deeper. See this film for what it is: pure genius.