Another clichéd, conventional backwoods horror . Or perhaps not?

Rating: 7/10 (23 May 2012)

The title, the setting, the casting of the young protagonists, the one-paragraph synopsis  All these aspects and more lead to suspect that "Cabin in the Woods" is just another derivative backwoods horror flick like there are thirteen in a dozen. Five of the most stereotypical college students head out to a rotten cabin the deep forests for a weekend of booze, soft drugs and premarital sex. During the first evening already, they stumble upon a cellar full of mysterious old relics and – not so surprisingly – unleash a type of evil that relentlessly pursues and eliminates them one by one. Yes, admittedly, this does sound exactly like the plot of "Evil Dead", so might this just be another passable and uninspired imitation of Sam Raimi's classic and a truckload of others? Oh hell no, because this is where the genius of writers/director Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard enters the scene. One brief look at the repertoires of both these men is enough to assume that they won't simply deliver such an inferior and unoriginal cinematic product. The aforementioned description may sound prototypic, but the opening sequence immediately state clear that the overall film certainly is not. "The Cabin in the Woods" opens with two aging men in suits – wondrously depicted by Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford – babbling about random irrelevant private stuff when all of a sudden and totally unexpectedly the title torpedoes onto the screen in giant red letters! Intro's like these make my mouth water, as you know you're about to witness something very unique and unconventional. The further interactions between these men, and apparently a fully structured prominent organization behind them, run parallel with the unsuspecting students' trip. They observe and manipulate their every move and even place wagers on how the quintet will respond to a next ordeal. Meanwhile, the script also exaggeratedly puts the emphasis on how clichéd the set up, in fact, is. Each character perfectly fits into a specific category of archetypes (the jock, the nice girl, the bimbo, the stoner and the black model student), they point out themselves that they're heading to an area geographically cut off from civilization and they encounter the obligatory foretelling freak at the last gas station. The bigger picture behind all this remains mysterious and only unfolds in very small bits. Of course I will not reveal the denouement here, but you can rest assured it's something entirely innovative and unpredictable (and this comment comes from someone who has seen more than 3.000 horror movies). To evoke even more curiosity, I will still add that whenever you *think* to have figured out what's going on, Whedon and Goddard slap you around the head with another ingenious gimmick, sub plot or piece of dialog. Even though the duo accomplished most of their previous successes in the fantasy & Sci-Fi genres ("The Avengers", "Lost", "Buffy: The Vampire Slayer"), they demonstrate great knowledge on horror classics as well. The similarities with "The Evil Dead" are evident, but there are numerous other slick and witty references to genre milestones such as "Hellraiser", "Re-Animator" and "Ringu". Totally refreshing film!