A "Breakfast Club" for a new generation

Rating: 9/10 (6 June 2012)

A note on spoilers: The Cabin in the Woods benefits from the viewer having as little information as possible going in. Not because it contains any big plot twists (though the final resolution seems to take many by surprise), but because it works best when it can slowly, but steadily, tear down all preconceived notions about horror films.
(If you haven't seen the film, stop reading now.)
You have a pretty good idea of where the film is going at all times, and it doesn't throw any big curves at you. Rather, it continuously veers ever so slightly, forcing you to repeatedly adjust your expectations. In other words: This film takes the path less traveled, but you never lose sight of the main road. In the end, it ends up where you thought it was going all along... or does it?
Much has been said about the "metaplot" of the film, which is an obvious metaphor for the horror film genre. As the creators Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon has said, Hadley and Sitterson in the control room are stand-ins for the creators themselves, which means the old ones represent the horror film audience.
In the end, when the incomplete ritual leads the old ones to destroy the world, it's a tongue-in-cheek prediction of audiences panning this and other movies that doesn't follow the horror film conventions perfectly. More pointedly, as admitted by the creators, the ending is a critique of the horror film genre, basically saying that the genre in a rut and the slate needs to wiped clean, so fresh ideas can have a chance.
Is the horror genre stuck in a rut? With the genre being been flooded by a steady stream of torture porn flicks for the last decade, it is no coincidence that in CITW, Maintenance (whose job is to be non-creative) bets on the Zombie Redneck Torture Family every year - and wins every year, too.
But the horror film metaphor is not the only metaphor in the film.
Drew Goddard has said, "the questions that Cabin raises all involve the treatment of youth in our culture. (...) We've always idealized youth, and then destroyed youth. That has happened since the beginning of time, and I'm fascinated by why we do that."
I'm amazed at the number of reviews I've seen (especially from the professional reviewers), which describe the five protagonists as perfect matches for the five horror stereotypes, when the film repeatedly shows that they're NOT, even as the adults in the control room try to coerce and manipulate them into their predetermined roles. Curt, the "jock", is on a full scholarship and as Marty notes, would never insult his friend, even when drunk. Jules is neither dumb nor blonde, except at the behest of the manipulative adults. Holden is as much an athlete as Curt. Marty may be a pothead, but he's no fool. And Dana is not a virgin, as the director begrudgingly admits in the end.
In the end, Cabin recalls The Breakfast Club: "You see us as you want to see us, in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out, is that each one of us is a brain, and an athlete, and a basket case, a princess, and a criminal."
Goddard again: "There's this need to marginalize (youth), and put them into different categories so that their voice is not important. (As I get older,) I find myself dismissing youth. You have to realize that the youth cannot be dismissed. At the end of the day, they're not going to care what we do to them, and yet here we are trying. That struggle is at the heart of Cabin."
In other words: When the film declares that a civilization that inflicts such horrors on its children is not a civilization worth having, civilization is not just a metaphor for horror films. Civilization is a metaphor for civilization.
Obviously, that is an audacious proposition. As can be seen right here on the IMDb message boards, many viewers have been left angry and confused, while other dismiss the metaphor immediately, focusing only on the more palatable horror film metaphor. But follow the Cabin's example, and entertain the idea for a little while. Even if you're not a youth, but an adult.