Good but overrated.

Rating: 7/10 (20 September 2016)

The Cabin in the Woods (TCW) is basically one giant comical take on the horror movie tropes and clichés.
I won't spoil the movie details, but in essence the movie has as main character the typical "horror movie teenager stereotypes", plus a secret set of "scientists" trying to enact a ritual to kill them through one of the stereotypical horror movie monster.
Many monsters (werewolf, evil clown, zombies, Hellreaiser-like demon, robots, aliens, and the list goes on and on) make an appearance, often nothing more than a brief cameo, just to be sure to cram in there every single type of monster from horror movies the writers could recalls.
It has clearly references to other horror movies, Evil Dead probably the most prominent one, seen the main setting, and all monsters re inspired by one or more horror movies. | So yes, it's a collection of cliché horror movie tropes, monsters on parades, but with a twist.
In a way this movie is a sort of modern "Young Frankenstein". Yet while Mel Brooks' movie was a parody of 30's chiller horror movies, especially those produced by Universal, TCW is meant to be not only a sort of parody, but also a "criticism", apparently, on how the audiences are like "the old gods" in the movie, craving for more and more blood, gore, horror, violence, etc Yet for all it's (pseudo?) intellectual intentions, the movies falls a bit flat. This Horror/Thriller/Mystery (as it is tagged) movie fails at being really good at any of three. The scenes with the scientists that control the monsters break any real tension, so horror (and thrill) goes out the window pretty quickly. Even the deaths and the encounters with the monsters leave something to be desired. There is little suspense. Being that the characters are stereotypes you hardly care for them. Yes they are stereotypes on purpose, true, but it does not help the movie anyway.
The comedy is not really present however I think some moments are quite funny or at least very ironic, which I appreciate.
The plot, even added the discoveries made during the movie is hardly A-material. More like a good "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" episode, but nothing better than that.
Probably, after reading thins you might think I am going to give a bad score to the movie, but I would give it a 7/10. In spite of my strong criticism it STILL is an enjoyable movie.
I liked it but it did not live up to the hype.