The Evil Truman Show

Rating: 6/10 (23 February 2020)

"The Cabin In The Woods" is a 2011 horror film directed by Drew Goddard starring Kristen Connolly and Chris Hemsworth. As some of you may know, my favourite TV show of all time still is "Buffy - The Vampire Slayer" and even though I've seen other brilliant shows since then, this one will forever remain in my heart. What makes it so extraordinarily great was the characters, the wit in the writing and the moderately scary atmosphere. Since this flick here was directed by one of the writers of the show and produced by Joss Whedon himself, I expected something similar in this case to happen. Basically, it wasn't far away from being a twisted episode of Buffy, but not one of the greatest ones either. The general idea behind this horror flick is the question "What if we combine The Evil Dead and Truman Show?" - and those influences are highly palpable. I can't really tell if this film pays homage to them or simply rips them off. It would fit the overall sarcastic writing style or Whedon and company, but it's not unambiguously noticeable. Are the stereotypical characters deliberate? Are the horror film clichés deliberate? Or haven't they had enough ideas to avoid those aspects? I can't tell, fact is that they are prominent in the story. Probably the best aspect of it was the idea to have the horror happen as part of a reality TV show. The criticism of human behaviour and how people profit from the suffering of others made me wann throw up several time, but not because I felt nauseous, just because it made me absolutely sick. The beginning built up an interesting premise and promised some creepy stuff to happen, but in the course of the second act there was nothing quite innovative. From all the threats they could have unleashed on the campers, from all the horror it could have created, they decided to use "just zombies" instead and it was kinda overused after the first kill. That's another problem of this film. The characters you couldn't care less about (and who miraculously heal from fatal wound within seconds) are killed too fast and it almost feels like Goddard wanted to rush the second act as fast as he could so we can all experience his conclusion to the story. The final act was indeed a gore fest with some brutal effects, but again, the creatures are not in focus. It's only a glimpse of horror we could have got and, to be honest, it wasn't even scary at all. Not even once. No jump scare or a feeling of threat. It feels more like a mockery that couldn't decide whether it should be a mockery or a serious horror film. In any way, I didn't buy any of the aspired directions for one hundred percent. Despite some cameos of Buffyverse actors and a surprise appearance of Segourney Weaver, the film didn't offer any surprises in the end. The final conclusion was a lazy idea and felt like a "we-have-to-end-the-movie-here" type of decision that didn't do the rest of the film's nature justice. At least the Whedonesque wit and humour could be found in the dialogue and story. All in all, this horror flick (I guess) is a decent fun with an interesting premise, but couldn't distance itself from its obvious influences. Aside from tonal disturbances and a rushed story it still managed to entertain, even though it left out the frightening part. Nothing all to bad, but not as brilliant as it could have been. Yet, not disappointed.