Cute but too aware of its own cuteness

Rating: 5/10 (29 November 2012)

I watched too much West Wing. Bradley's Josh made me want to like this from the get go.
The formula's there, it's known, it's easy to understand, and off we went with five young people who's going to enjoy a vacation at a cabin in the middle of nowhere. OK.
Gas station. OK. Done. Weird cabin. OK. Swim. Truth or Dare. Cellar. Latin incantation. OK. Now people started to die. Then it turned onto itself and more people died.
(Bradley's self-prophesized death was a little too silly for me. It's the type that elicited a polite chuckle from the audience just cuz that particular audience is making an effort to like the movie.) To be honest, it really relied very much on the audience being a big horror genre fan for the extra kicks. But, I enjoyed it, it was a cute ride. I wished it was a bit more, but whatever, selfish teenagers ruined humanity. OK. Doesn't matter. I still think it was pretty cute.
But then, something bothered me. They said all other rituals had failed in the world. But horror genre differs from culture to culture. And, the five archetype of sacrifices wouldn't have worked in the movie's own Japanese counterpart. There were no athlete, nor whore, and presumably everyone was virginal in the 9-years-old set up telecasted from Kyoto.
I wished logic would just shut up sometimes when I'm watching horror. But then again, it's Joss Whedon, and his quirky, cute, grating, self-satisfied writing had ran its course by the end of the movie.
5/10