You knew a movie like this would come one day

Rating: 10/10 (24 September 2014)

You knew a movie like this would come one day. After years of generic blood splatter, teens wandering aimlessly, and mindless killers. That one day someone would completely turn it upside down. Since horror films have been on a major nose dive for years finally came The Cabin in the Woods. Directed by Joss Whedon (The Avengers) and Drew Goddard (Cloverfield) take the old tried and true horror movie formula and completely outclass everything out there today. The movie starts out with, you guessed it five college students going to their cabin for a weekend of partying. As you would guess, beers were drank. Sexual tension everywhere and blood shed all about. Looks like any typical cliché horror film which is exactly what the directors want you to think. During all of this there is a second story going on where two technicians seem to be preparing for something unknown. The movie's screenplay makes you second guess yourself whenever you finally think you know what's going on. The twist and surprises are perfect and I won't go into too much detail to spoil it, but I can remember at least one time where I thought "Oh that's cool, but if they did this" just for it to completely amaze me. The movie gets progressively more intense and creative the longer it plays on. With the last act being a pause-and-rewind classic that you can talk about for hours on end. This is the type of movie if you're a movie buff worth re-watching to pick up every little clever reference to other horror films while at the same time being completely unique with nothing else like it out there today. Along with already one of the freshest and funniest scripts out there comes also one of the best cast for horror films. Featuring Kristen Connolly (Dana), Anne Hutchison (Jules), Chris Hemsworth (Curt or better known as Thor), Jesse Williams (Holden), and Fran Kranz (Marty). Each actor flourishes in their given role either being the athlete, the virgin, the scholar, the whore, or the fool. These people aren't just your typical dumb college kids. They were given difficult task of not only embracing their stereotypes, but also rejecting it. Like Marty, who would be labeled as the fool, seems to be the only character who feels like something just isn't right. There overall acting is well done in the comedy area while at the same time having a good straight forward horror performance. Also, you probably would never have guessed Kranz, portrayed in the movie as some conspiracy stoner, was actually in the best shape out of any of the male actors and it even went as far as the writes calling him muscular Jesus. Added to it the dialogue is top notch coming from Whedon. Whedon has always been known for his witty and sharp dialogue from his older shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer. There is plenty of fantastic lines here like Marty pointing at a wolf head saying "I dare you to kiss that moose!" There are plenty more lines after that will leave you breathless. Ultimately, The Cabin in the Woods is wildly entertaining because of its smart balance of embracing what the audience expects but at the same time completely rejecting it by doing their own thing. It is portrayed at the start like some run of the mill slasher film. There is enough gore and scares for any slasher fan to like it, but the movie brings so much more and completely turns the script. You can almost feel like this movie would bring an end to a lot of horror clichés, but there just aren't enough filmmakers who are either willing or capable to step outside the box like Whedon and company. If anything The Cabin in the Woods at least reinvigorated horror films.