Goes out on a limb but falls short of the grail

Rating: 7/10 (26 April 2012)

Few clichés are as tired as the by now infinitely wearisome 'teenage college kids spend the weekend in a cabin in the woods' format.
For some reason horror movie producers and directors still seem to think this format is workable, maybe even a trope. But that's not true. Show me someone who isn't bored of the 'cabin in the woods' setup and I'll show you someone who's been living the past three decades (if not four) living with an indigenous pygmy tribe in the remote depths of the Amazon jungle where they don't even know what a trope is. In short, dear Hollywood - we are pig-sh*t-sick of the cabin in the woods scenario.
Thus, a film entitled 'Cabin in the Woods' is making a bold move with the movie-going public. There's an inevitable sense of foreboding. A sinking feeling that movies, and therefore society, are on the decline; that the brazen title of this latest horror outing is indicative of the 'couldn't give a flying flick' attitude of the powers that be; a cinematic microcosm of the mire we are expected to live in on a daily basis, to take on the chin, to accept as read, to swallow like good little boys and girls. Here is society personified in a film title and we know all too well what to expect. We pay our fees, bend over and drop our trousers as we've grown accustomed to doing of late.
But wait! Something is amiss.
Sure, we're looking at a group of teenagers going to a cabin in the woods for a weekend break. And sure, one of them is a muscular 'jock', another is a blonde, over-sexed bimbo, another is a pot-smoking know-it-all sarcasm vendor and yet another is the ubiquitous prissy virgin, annoyed that her friends have set her up with the token 'stud' and won't even allow her to bring her text books to the cabin. Sure, everything looks suspiciously familiar from the outset - even down to the grumpy local yokel and his serial-killer mannerisms. But don't let appearances deceive you.
Cabin in the Woods inserts its tongue into its cheek from scene one. It recognises the clichés and sprains them. It gives the middle finger to sense and throws itself with wild abandon into the silliest, yet most original plot you're likely to see this side of a Tarantino picture.
And then it falls sadly short, drawing up a few furlongs shy of an instant classic. The problems are not numerous, but jar nonetheless. Plot holes, for the most part. Questions unanswered and threads unresolved. The premise is inspired yet never fully realised. The characters contain potential but fall foul of the formula. Ultimately, in trying to parody a genre, Cabin in the Woods becomes its own target and sinks into a paradox of self-defeating ideas. In the end it morphs into something quite original but far beyond the initial mission statement, wading its way toward an inevitable conclusion having succumbed to those unoriginal scenes it seeks to mock.
Ultimately, a unique horror, black humour of the deepest black with a sprinkling of eugenicist philosophy for good measure. You'll enjoy it, I guarantee. Whether you'll take anything away from it other than a smirk is less certain.
Could have been a genre-changing catalyst, but succeeds only in adding a few new layers to a previously shallow sub-genre. Great fun along the way and no less worthy a motion picture for those failed and lofty intentions.