The Cabin in the Woods is a absolutely thrilling ride into the minds of all things terrible

Rating: 10/10 (12 March 2012)

It rarely happens to leave a screening room on a brisk weekday afternoon with an air of pure excitement for what we have just seen.
Joss Whedon, best known for being the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the equally brilliant Firefly, had just introduced his brand new film to a crowd of roughly fifty film critics and lucky fans. Written and directed by Cloverfield creator Drew Goddard, the film follows a group of hapless teenagers ready to get away from the city and enjoy a weekend in the forest. After finding their destination, albeit "the cabin in the woods", they start to explore, leading to a discovery that none of them could ever of imagined.
Goddard has worked with Whedon in the past on a few episodes of Buffy and, thankfully, their relationship looks as though it has survived as they have created, most probably, a genre-defining film. The jokes (yes, there are jokes in the film) come thick and fast and - without giving too much away – create some fantastic scenes between Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford, who play colleagues Steve and Richard respectively.
As the layers of the film are peeled away, more and more is discovered about the cabin and the fate of the unlucky five-some which only keeps you more enthralled as Whedon manically shows what he can REALLY do with a few dollars and some special effects.
All this ultimately comes to a thrilling climax as the last twenty minutes reveals everything that we could have hoped for. And, most importantly, who those men in the trailer are? Encapsulating everything that the horror genre has delivered in its entire history and probably one of the few films that can say they have a Merman and Nosferatu appearing in the same sequence, The Cabin in the Woods is a absolutely thrilling ride into the minds of all things terrible. It delivers some astounding special effects and, at the same time, brings out the best in a fairly young cast, especially Chris Thor Hemsworth who shows a sold performance as boyfriend Curt. Oh, and not to mention a very special guest appearance that received an applause when they appeared on screen.
Joss Whedon has scored yet again and shows no signs of slowing down with superhero movie to end all superhero movies, The Avengers (penned by Whedon) being released later this year.