Subverting clichés for something original and fun

Rating: 8/10 (15 April 2012)

Behind this cliché title and cliché premise hides something quite different and original. I repeat what everyone else has been writing about it, the less you know about, the better. I'll just expand a little on what made this so good in my own opinion. The main characters were not selfish jerks, they were actually likable, and you'll even root for some of them. Even though they fit in the standard horror character stereotypes, initially they were not and basically how they "turned" into those stereotypes was cleverly explained. The all-around good acting: serious but not too serious, light but not parodic, certainly helped matters and kept the movie tone just right. Cabin in the Woods didn't take its viewers for imbeciles: it was smart, had a few humdinger plot twists and once again played with those famous horror clichés subverting them in the process. This movie actually explained most of them, but I can't tell you how.
The directing was professional and easy to follow, even spectacular sometimes. There was a reveal about 3/4 of the way through(involving cubes), that had been hinted at previously that made this film mind-blowingly cool and paved the way for a seriously action-packed and unpredictable last act, something I've never seen in any horror movie and I've seen a lot. Horror fans will in fact probably enjoy it more because they'll get most of the references. Josh Whedon fans (Buffy, Angel, Dollhouse), will get a blast of seeing a few old familiar acting faces. It doesn't mean that non-horror aficionados won't enjoy it, too, because the Cabin is quite unconventional and it's not too gory compared to many other genre entries. To be fair, I found the movie way more entertaining than scary, probably because I'm too desensitized to the horrific aspects by now. I thought the jump scares and surprises were effectively done, although it's not a particularly atmospheric film. Weirdly, I think that Cabin in the Woods will become a genre-defining film. By that, I mean that I suspect it will become often referred to, whether or not the movie was liked, although I'm not sure how the concept could be done again in such a clever, fresh way.
Rating: 8 out of 10 (very good)