What I loved about this movie is that it goes far beyond my imagination and anyone else's!

Rating: 10/10 (27 September 2012)

There are certain works of media in the cultural canon that cannot be discussed without being "spoiled", because the element of surprise is fundamental to their laudable qualities. Eventually, just by simple desire to discuss it with other people, everybody finds out who Keyser Soze and Luke Skywalker's father are, why Bruce Willis is connected to Haley Joel Osment and how Dr. Jekyll relates to Mr Hyde. There are also films whose charms rely not so much on a shocking twist but a sustained run of unpredictability. The very fact that you know there is something beyond the initial surface idea is detrimental to the full capacity of your enjoyment, and yet, if you didn't know there was a deeper level, you wouldn't be interested at all. Just as something like Takashi Miike's Audition isn't your typical romance drama, Drew Goddard & Joss Whedon's The Cabin in the Woods isn't your typical slasher film.
The plot certainly introduces us to some typical slasher archetypes though. We meet handsome, athletic Curt (Chris Hemsworth) as he's throwing a football out the window of his girlfriend, newly-blonde Jules (Anna Hutchison), and her mousy roommate Dana (Kristen Connolly). On the receiving end is equally buff, bespectacled Holden (Jesse Williams), and soon arrives their prototypical stoner buddy Marty (Fran Kranz). Curt's cousin has an old cabin out in the woods (hey!) and fittingly, they run into an aggressive portentous old man named Mordecai (!) at a gas station (Tim De Zam) whose warnings they ignore. But as you might expect, peculiar things begin happening as they arrive, and their nubile young fun starts to take a dark turn as they begin exploring the cellar. We are also introduced in the opening credits to two men in business casual (Richard Jenkins & Bradley Whitford) who have their own relation to the goings-on.
I was going to say that I wouldn't spoil anything that wasn't already displayed in the trailer, and that's true, but now that I re watch said promotional clip, it ends up revealing WAY more than I realized about the film. Instead of talking about the plot machinations (which, to quote Jeffrey Lebowski, are ample), I'll talk about its tone, which is knowledgeable and loving towards its subjects. Even in the slasher genre, the "cabin in the wood" trope gives everything a distinctly early-eighties flair. Considering its respectful nods to Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead, it's fitting that Cabin's closest modern equivalent is Raimi's Drag Me to Hell, two of the scant few recent movies that remember that horror doesn't have to be grim misery, and black humor can be as effective to making an audience warm to you You can make the macabre fun without making it a geek show. The Cabin in the Woods succeeds in being a wild ride that keeps you on your toes as well.
Also strengthening the film's overall credentials is the acting and characterization, which is slightly more nuanced and interesting than your typical slasher. A movie like Hostel or the House of Wax remake, the characters were horrible people who I hated viscerally but felt no sort of rush when they died. The main group of people here is multifaceted and genuinely funny in many spots (Marty especially receives a ton of funny lines and Kranz manages to sell them with vigor, managing to be a comic relief character who actually happens to be funny). Even if there wasn't a suggestion of something else going on here, it would still be the most watchable group of slasher fodder I've seen in quite some time. Apparently this was filmed in 2009, which is why Chris Helmsford had so much time to grow his hair out for Thor. Befitting the creator's Buffy origins, the entire cast is attractive but not egregiously so, which really allows you to focus on the situation at hand.
For that situation I've given you but the barest of bare-bones plot descriptions, and I'd encourage you not to go reading much of anything that speaks to much more than what I'm dancing around. It's the kind of film that even casual slips could taint, which is why I raced to the theater and caught the first possible show, before anyone spoiled it for me. I mostly avoided that problem by talking about the film without talking about the film. The coldest you can get is the best you want to be, and unless somebody tells you, I promise you won't guess where it goes. I think the film's filmmaking strengths, from the great Whedon and his buddy Goddard (responsible for some of the most acclaimed episodes of Lost, incidentally), are great enough that even if you do have it spoiled, it's still structured to pack a punch as it unfolds, but man, if you don't know nothing', you'll find a lot to love. As a matter of fact, I'll get the ball rolling: The Cabin in the Woods is a typical slasher film, The Cabin in the Woods is as normal as normal can be. What The Cabin in the Woods definitely ISN'T is pure, heedless awesome. NOWyou won't suspect a thing!