Pointless entertainment, okay to watch once

Rating: 6/10 (5 August 2017)

"The Cabin in the Woods" is an American English language movie from 2012, so this one has its 5th anniversary this year. The co-writer here is Joss Whedon, perhaps the most famous name attached to the project. Writer and director is Drew Goddard, an Oscar nominee for his "The Martian" script now. Oh wait, "Thor" Chris Hemsworth is in these 95 minutes too, so he is probably the biggest name. This is what happens when 5 young adults go on a trip to the location mentioned in the title. Not much later, the first zombies show up. But what sets this movie apart from every generic zombie horror film is that a major plot in here is a bit of a horror equivalent of "The Truman Show". Certainly not a coincidence that the only guy who sees the entire thing critical is also called Truman. Or newer generations not familiar with the Jim Carrey film can also compare it a bit to The Hunger Games. Anyway, this surveillance plot stars Jenkins and Acker and Whitford and I like all three of them which made this part of the story location-wise almost as interesting as the core story. That part is also where you will find most of the comedy and this comedic stuff is where the film works best.
Or I could say perhaps too "the only part where it works" as the more serious dramatic parts just never felt convincing, especially the nerdy stoner guy surviving really everything and turning into some bad-ass superhero almost. Was this done for the nerds, for them to like this movie to have the nerd survive next to the hot chick until the very end? Perhaps. If so, it was a success. As for him, he also only delivered in terms of comedy. As for the horror moments, the film is pretty generic for the most part and the revelation of these monster chambers is also more quantity than quality. Plus the way they make fun of themselves towards the end with the horny promiscuous chick dying first, moments after exposing her breasts of course, cannot save it overall. Same for the virgin references about Connolly's character. It is also a fairly manipulative movie that wants us to put friendship over the existence of humanity. But it never poses a question of moral. It makes very clear what it wants the audience to think on several occasions and there it only works for the easily influenced and entertained. Successfully as I saw from other reactions in the audience. It is what it is, eventually an apocalyptic horror comedy that for me only worked from the comedy perspective. Some fairly witty ideas in here, but story-wise the execution could have been a lot better. I recommend it nonetheless I think, even if the recognition by IMDb voters, awards bodies and critics is definitely on the exaggerated side. See it if you like the genre(s).