cabin in the woods movie review

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You're not going to see this one coming. You might think you do, because the TV ads and shots at the top reveal what looks like the big surprise — and it certainly comes as a surprise to the characters. But let's just say there's a lot more to it than that.

"The Cabin in the Woods" sets off with an ancient and familiar story plan. Five college students pile into a van and drive deep into the woods for a weekend in a borrowed cabin. Their last stop is of course a decrepit gas station populated by a demented creep who giggles at the fate in store for them. (In these days when movies are sliced and diced for YouTube mash-ups, I'd love to see a montage of demented redneck gas station owners drooling and chortling over the latest carloads of victims heading into the woods.)

It will seem that I'm revealing a secret by mentioning that this is no ordinary cabin in the woods, but actually a set for a diabolical scientific experiment. Beneath the cabin is a basement, and beneath that is a vast modern laboratory headed by technology geeks ( Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford ) who turn dials, adjust levers and monitor every second on a bank of TV monitors. Their scheme is to offer the five guinea pigs a series of choices, which will reveal — something, I'm not sure precisely what. There is some possibility that this expensive experiment is involved with national security, and we get scenes showing similar victims in scenarios around the world.

Now in your standard horror film, that would be enough: OMG! The cabin is being controlled by a secret underground laboratory! Believe me, that's only the beginning. The film has been produced and co-written by Joss Whedon (creator of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Angel" and other iconic TV shows) and directed by his longtime collaborator Drew Goddard (writer of " Cloverfield "). Whedon has described it as a "loving hate letter" to horror movies, and you could interpret it as an experiment on the genre itself: It features five standard-issue characters in your basic cabin in the woods, and we can read the lab scientists as directors and writers who are plugging in various story devices to see what the characters will do. In some sense, the Jenkins and Whitford characters represent Whedon and Goddard.

Ah, but they don't let us off that easily. That's what I mean when I say you won't see the end coming. This is not a perfect movie; it's so ragged, it's practically constructed of loose ends. But it's exciting because it ventures so far off the map. One imagines the filmmakers chortling with glee as they devise first one bizarre development and then another in a free-for-all for their imaginations. They establish rules only to violate them.

That begins with the characters. They're stock archetypes. We get an action hero (Curt, played by Chris Hemsworth ); a good girl (Dana, played by Kristen Connolly ); a bad girl (Jules, played by Anna Hutchison ); the comic relief (Marty the pothead, played by Fran Kranz ), and the mature and thoughtful kid (Holden, played by Jesse Williams ). What the scientists apparently intend to do is see how each archetype plays out after the group is offered various choices. There are even side bets in the lab about who will do what — as if they're predicting which lever the lab rats will push.

This is essentially an attempt to codify free will. Do horror characters make choices because of the requirements of the genre, or because of their own decisions? And since they're entirely the instruments of their creators, to what degree can the filmmakers exercise free will? This is fairly bold stuff, and it grows wilder as the film moves along. The opening scenes do a good job of building conventional suspense; the middle scenes allow deeper alarm to creep in, and by the end, we realize we're playthings of sinister forces.

Horror fans are a particular breed. They analyze films with such detail and expertise that I am reminded of the Canadian literary critic Northrup Frye, who approached literature with similar archetypal analysis. "The Cabin in the Woods" has been constructed almost as a puzzle for horror fans to solve. Which conventions are being toyed with? Which authors and films are being referred to? Is the film itself an act of criticism?

With most genre films, we ask, "Does it work?" In other words, does this horror film scare us? "The Cabin in the Woods" does have some genuine scares, but they're not really the point. This is like a final exam for fanboys.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

The Cabin in the Woods (2012)

Rated R for for strong bloody horror violence and gore, language, drug use and some sexuality/nudity

Chris Hemsworth as Curt

Jesse Williams as Holden

Fran Kranz as Marty

Richard Jenkins as Sitterson

Kristen Connolly as Dana

Anna Hutchison as Jules

Bradley Whitford as Hadley

• Drew Goddard
• Joss Whedon

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The Cabin in the Woods – review

This clever meta-horror asks what human need is fed by seeing hot youths get slaughtered, but it forgets to be properly scary

I n Keenen Ivory Wayans's Scary Movie, from 2000, a fleeing character is famously offered two directional options by the masked figure: safety or death. The joke is that there is no choice. No matter how cynical and wised-up everyone is about the horror film and all its various tropes, the genre triumphantly survives, to a great extent by playfully absorbing that cynicism and feeding it back to the fanbase. Drew Goddard plays on this postmodern connoisseurship in this meta-chiller, The Cabin in the Woods, co-written with Joss Whedon . The poster shows the cabin in question floating in the air, tricksily twisting in sections like a Rubik's cube.

It's an affectionately satirical nightmare that asks why horror is so potent: what awful human need is being fed by seeing attractive young people in states of semi-undress who are suddenly, brutally slaughtered, almost as if they are being punished for being young and sexy? Why does the genre adhere so closely to the belief that young people in jeopardy have to be picked off singly, leaving that one character who had initially appeared to be so vulnerable and unworldly, but in whom the situation has uncovered extraordinary reserves of heroism and grit? Could there be some anthropological answer to the ritualist behaviour in horror?

The Cabin in the Woods begins by unveiling two sets of characters: one middle-aged and oppressed by the workaday cares of life, the other young and carefree. Richard Jenkins plays Sitterson, a balding, bespectacled guy who resignedly shoots the breeze with his buddy Hadley, played by Bradley Whitford . Then we cut to a suburban home, and a teenage girl's bedroom – both disclosed via a soaring crane shot. This is Dana, played by Kristen Connolly, and genre buffs will smirk at the outrageous way we get to see Dana sauntering around in her underwear, packing for a restorative weekend away with her attractive friends at a cabin in the woods.

Dana is getting over a borderline-inappropriate relationship with her college professor. Her raunchy blonde friend Jules (Anna Hutchison) and Jules's macho jock boyfriend Curt (Chris Hemsworth) are trying to set her up with a cute guy they're bringing along, Holden (Jesse Williams). And just to complete the party, there is Marty (Fran Kranz), a dope-smoking free-thinker, forever railing against the establishment. The five of them turn up to the very creepy cabin after the regulation encounter with the dodgy local. Again, the film is archly aware of how predictable this character is, and overtly tips us a wink by repeatedly showing us the motorbike attached to the back of the camper van the five are travelling in. Could it be that this bike will feature heavily in a final getaway scene?

It isn't long before horrible things happen. But wait. Who were these older guys Sitterson and Hadley? Goddard and Whedon have allowed us to imagine that, being from the older generation, Sitterson is perhaps the harassed dad of one of the teen characters. But it's clear the connection is more disturbing than that.

The Cabin in the Woods is all about the reality conspiracy; mentioning the film's specific influences runs the risk of spoilers. The quintet's sadistic, formulaic victimisation is part of a larger picture, one that semi-seriously reproves its own audience for the cynicism and cruelty they have brought to the spectacle. The action climaxes in a sensational, surreal scene in which pretty much all the horrible things imaginable meet in a grand encounter not only with each other, but with those whose job it is to keep them under control – a sequence perhaps inspired by the "elevator" scene in The Shining.

It's a smart twist to an enjoyable movie, but there's not a whole lot more to it than that. The final explanation is so perfunctory it could have been devised on the back of a napkin by M Night Shyamalan – though of course this absurdity, acknowledged with stoner fatalism, is part of the comedy.

I am still susceptible to the unironised, undeconstructed haunted-house film, and actually found myself substantially creeped out by the 2010 scary movie from Uruguay, The Silent House, now remade with Elizabeth Olsen. And the Final Destination series, in which a vengeful death angel finds ever more bizarre and black-comic methods of killing off a series of young people, can still deliver a frisson here and there. The Cabin in the Woods is a shrewd, ingenious look at the programmatic elements of the genre, a satire that is also a lenient celebration, and it could wind up being a set text in any MA course in horror. But however smart and sophisticated this film is, it may disappoint those who, in their hearts, would still like to be genuinely scared.

• Horror films
• Joss Whedon
• Chris Hemsworth
• Bradley Whitford
• Richard Jenkins

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The cabin in the woods, common sense media reviewers.

Clever but very bloody deconstruction of horror movies.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The Cabin in the Woods takes a very sinister, cyni

None of the main characters can really be consider

The Cabin in the Woods starts out like a "normal"

A teen girl is seen topless and engaging in forepl

Language is very strong, but not constant. It incl

One of the teens is a heavy, constant pot smoker -

Parents need to know that The Cabin in the Woods is a very-self aware, sometimes tongue-in-cheek horror movie (like Scream or Tucker and Dale vs. Evil ). It starts out as a typical "carload of teens goes to spend the weekend in the country" scary movie, but then it adds some sinister twists…

Positive Messages

The Cabin in the Woods takes a very sinister, cynical view of humanity in general; the best it has to say about people that is that we have a strong will to live.

Positive Role Models

None of the main characters can really be considered a role model. One minor character -- a security guard -- questions what's going on, frowns upon it, and refuses to participate. Unfortunately, he doesn't affect the outcome at all.

Violence & Scariness

The Cabin in the Woods starts out like a "normal" horror movie, with zombie attacks, blood, and gore. There's stabbing, sawing, and a kind of "steel jaws"/bear trap weapon on a chain. Viewers see severed heads, spraying blood, throat-stabbing, motorcycle crashing, and falling from heights. There's also gory painting, and terrifying imagery is read aloud from a diary. Then things get even more intense, with dozens of new monsters and dozens of quick images of various attacks -- i.e. suicide, guns and shooting, monsters eating people, and gallons of blood. It stops short of torture, however, and the violence is all intentionally over-the-top.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A teen girl is seen topless and engaging in foreplay with her boyfriend (they're interrupted). Another couple is seen kissing. A teen girl is seen in her panties, and men's naked torsos are shown. Another teen girl pretends to make out with a stuffed wolf during a game of "truth or dare." Heavy sexual innuendo and banter throughout.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Language is very strong, but not constant. It includes many uses of "f--k," "s--t," "goddamn," "damn," "puss out," "boobies," "ass," "hell," "damn," "goddamn," and "oh my God."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

One of the teens is a heavy, constant pot smoker -- he even has a special bong that collapses to look like a steel coffee mug. Other teens are seen drinking beer. Grown-ups drink beer, tequila, and other alcoholic beverages at a party.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Cabin in the Woods is a very-self aware, sometimes tongue-in-cheek horror movie (like Scream or Tucker and Dale vs. Evil ). It starts out as a typical "carload of teens goes to spend the weekend in the country" scary movie, but then it adds some sinister twists. Throughout the whole thing, you can expect tons of violence, gore, and blood, though it stops short of "torture porn" (a la the Saw and Hostel movies). Language is also very strong (including "f--k," "s--t," and more), as is sexuality -- there's one topless scene, plus heavy sexual banter and behavior. One teen is a regular pot smoker, and other teens -- as well as adults -- drink beer, tequila, and more. Writer Joss Whedon has legions of devoted fans, many of them teens, but T he Cabin in the Woods is really too much for any but the most mature teens. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (16)
• Kids say (77)

Based on 16 parent reviews

Terrible movie

What's the story.

In THE CABIN IN THE WOODS, a group of college kids --including hunky Curt ( Chris Hemsworth ) -- piles into an RV and heads for a cabin in the woods for a fun, blow-out weekend of swimming, sex, drinking, and smoking pot. At the same time, a couple of scientist/engineer types ( Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford ) check into a control room and start monitoring the teens. After a while, the teens stumble upon a cellar full of strange objects. The virginal Dana (Kristen Connolly) begins reading from an old diary and apparently awakens a family of zombies. The teens begin to realize that something is amiss, but can they withstand the homicidal zombies long enough to find out?

Is It Any Good?

Veteran writer Joss Whedon and first-time director Drew Goddard deconstruct the horror genre like never before with this film. Their effort isn't unlike Scream or Tucker and Dale vs. Evil , but it's a great deal more spectacular. It begins very similarly to movies like The Evil Dead , Creature , and Shark Night , but before it grows stale, The Cabin in the Woods starts dropping hints that it's no ordinary horror movie. It keeps the mystery up until the final blow-out reel, where it probably gives away a bit too much. But by that time, it has wildly succeeded.

Goddard gets fun performances from the cast, especially Jenkins and Whitford, who chat playfully without disclosing too much vital information. The Cabin in the Woods also makes the most of its cross between horror and humor, between the dark, dank cabin and the white, clinical control room. Where the movie arguably falls short is in its scare factor; it's not particularly frightening, though it is very clever and very entertaining.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about what point The Cabin in the Woods is making. Is the message purely cynical and sinister, or does it have anything positive to say? Does it help to have seen a lot of horror movies in order to "get" this one?

Could the movie succeed without its extreme violence ?

Is The Cabin in the Woods scary ? Does it succeed as a horror movie, as well as a commentary on other horror movies?

Are any of these characters admirable in any way? Why or why not?

Movie Details

• In theaters : April 13, 2012
• On DVD or streaming : September 18, 2012
• Cast : Bradley Whitford , Chris Hemsworth , Richard Jenkins
• Director : Drew Goddard
• Studio : Lionsgate
• Genre : Horror
• Topics : Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
• Run time : 95 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : strong bloody horror violence and gore, language, drug use and some sexuality/nudity
• Last updated : May 1, 2024

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‘the cabin in the woods’: film review.

Chris Hemsworth, Kristen Connolly, Fran Kranz, Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford star in this playful meta-horror movie, produced and co-written by Joss Whedon with director Drew Goddard.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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EDITOR’S NOTE: The latter section of this review reveals a surprise cameo and hints at final-act plot developments beyond those suggested by the trailers. Anyone wishing to maintain the element of surprise should avoid reading beyond the first few paragraphs.

NEW YORK – Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon , respectively director and producer as well as co-screenwriters of this long-stalled feature, have described The Cabin in the Woods as their bid to revitalize the horror movie by subverting genre conventions. Nothing wrong with that plan, as the successful Scream franchise showed back in the ’90s. But when the meta-references take over at the expense of character or plot, as they do in this mutant hybrid of The Truman Show and The Evil Dead (just for starters), the knowing self-amusement wears thin.

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Shot in early 2009 and shelved for more than two years from its original release date because of MGM’s financial turmoil, the film was acquired last year by Lionsgate. After premiering March 9 as the opener of the South by Southwest Film Festival (a savvy move given the target demographic), it will be released domestically April 13. Whedon cultists should turn out in sufficient numbers to goose initial box office, but only the geek faithful are likely to buy this high-concept slasher riff, which seems less like a movie than a video game waiting to happen.

Whedon protege Goddard worked as a writer on TV’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel before teaming with J.J. Abrams on Alias and Lost , and as screenwriter of Cloverfield . That résumé no doubt has earned him his own following. But Whedon and Goddard run riot here on a script so overworked and convoluted, it makes the most arcane developments on Lost play like a “Spot the Dog” basal reader.

The story-within-the-story has five archetypal college kids going off the grid for a weekend at a remote cabin by a mountain lake. There’s the slut, Jules ( Anna Hutchison ); the alpha jock, Curt ( Chris Hemsworth , who hopefully will get a better deal in Whedon’s upcoming The Avengers ); the stoner, Marty ( Fran Kranz ); the sensitive scholar, Holden ( Jesse Williams ); and the virgin, or the closest thing available, Dana ( Kristen Connolly ).

Given that the film’s primary twist can be gleaned from the trailer and from the opening minutes, it’s no spoiler to reveal that the cabin and surrounding woods are part of an artificially sealed environment controlled from an underground lab. The puppet-masters working the monitors and running the betting pool on how these sacrificial lambs will meet their slaughter are pitiless midlevel corporate techies Hadley ( Richard Jenkins ) and Sitterson ( Bradley Whitford ).

Adding a neat quirk, it appears that similar scenarios are being orchestrated around the world as part of an annual rite. The quick video flashes of a classroom of 9-year-old Japanese schoolgirls thrust into J-horror hell are a hoot.

Back at the cabin, the kids are doing what kids in horror movies do: They tap the beer keg, smoke some weed, play truth or dare and make out. When the cellar trapdoor flies open (“Must have been the wind”), they investigate and find a cornucopia of creepy knick-knacks. As Sitterson, Hadley and their co-workers watch intently to see which bait they will take, Dana discovers a girl’s diary from 1903, detailing the bloody religious fanaticism of her butchering father. A Latin inscription serves as the trigger for mayhem.

Once zombified backwoods pain-worshippers rise up and start swinging knives and steel claws, the carnage is strictly routine. The more droll touches come from the lab, where temperature controls, pheromone mists and other behavioral modifiers are unleashed on the captives with deadpan glee.

But when the predetermined order of death is disrupted and the cabin survivors turn the tables on their tormentors, liberating a whole army of deadly freaks and creatures, the climactic chaos becomes an excuse for orgiastic Grand Guignol excess. Cool for a minute or two, this quickly becomes numbing.

Clues are planted early on as to the overarching theme, when bong philosopher Marty muses on the perilous course that techno-age humanity has taken. (Kranz, from Whedon’s Dollhouse series, does a spot-on Shaggy from Scooby-Doo in the role.) But the plot’s mythic underpinnings are ludicrous, with Sigourney Weaver showing up as the company director in an unbilled cameo to blather on about “appeasing the ancient ones.” Given her association with the Alien and Ghostbusters series, Weaver’s iconic significance to both artful and comic horror makes her an ideal mistress of ceremonies for Whedon and Goddard’s killing party.

Effects work is slick, and Goddard keeps his foot on the accelerator with help from David Julyan ’s suspense-building score. It’s just too bad the movie is never much more than a hollow exercise in self-reflexive cleverness that’s not nearly as ingenious as it seems to think.

Fanboys will have fun checking off all the winking acknowledgments to horrormeisters from Clive Barker to Stephen King and beyond, and to every permutation of the genre, spanning the past three or so decades. However, in order to subvert any popular form, entertainment first has to work on its own terms. Goddard and Whedon are too busy geeking out to bother with those requirements.

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Den of Geek

The Cabin In The Woods review

Is Joss Whedon's The Cabin In The Woods the best horror movie in years? Quite possibly. Here's Sarah's review of a perfectly constructed shocker...

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The most obvious, hackneyed set up for a horror movie goes something like this: a group of college kids heads out to the middle of nowhere, planning to get drunk and have fun in an isolated cabin near a lake. On the way, they meet a creepy old guy who warns them that something nasty’s lurking in them there hills, but they ignore him… only to discover, as they’re picked off one by one, that he was right all along. Cue buckets of fake blood, running, screaming; the end.

So, yeah, The Cabin In The Woods looks very, very familiar. But it’s relying on the fact that you know that. This is a film that loves horror movies; it knows them inside out, and it expects you to have done your homework, too. It’s a gleeful deconstruction of the horror genre that takes an enormous amount of pleasure in holding up the most common tropes of the genre for you to recognise, and then very deliberately piling one of top of another until the whole thing threatens to topple over, Jenga -style.

But while the pieces are all there, they could end up anywhere. Recognition is half the fun, but it’s also exhilarating to realise that, this time, you really can’t predict what’s going to happen. And the more you like horror movies, the bigger the kick you’re going to get out of this one.

Of course, including self-aware characters and making references to other horror movies has become a cliché in its own right, so while The Cabin In The Woods does do those things, it goes further than that. It understands why audiences watch horror movies, and knows that our relationship with the characters in horror movies isn’t straightforward. It knows that, while audiences identify with horror movie characters, and root for them, and cheer for them when they triumph over evil, we also need them to face up to the nastiest, scariest things imaginable.

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Horror movies would be no fun at all if everyone just packed up and went home at the first sign of something scary. Much as we know we’d never go up into the attic/down into the basement/into the creepy house to investigate a strange noise ourselves, we really really want our hero and/or heroine to do it, even while we’re sitting on our sofas screaming at them to just, for the love of God, run away!

The eventual defeat of a monster isn’t half as much fun if there hasn’t been a little bloodshed along the way; the heroine who manages to escape the masked maniac isn’t much of a heroine if all her friends haven’t been butchered first. The Cabin In The Woods gets all of that. It wants to give us what we want, but not without letting us know, first, that it knows we want it…

Although the kids in The Cabin In The Woods are pretty much the archetypal horror movie kids, the script – written by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard – actually manages to make us care about them. Partly that’s through cleverness, using tricks borrowed from reality TV shows, but mostly it’s just that the dialogue is so good. In the space of just a few lines, the writing sketches a set of believable, even sympathetic characters.

It’s not as stylised as the dialogue in Buffy The Vampire Slayer, but the film’s sense of humour is recognisably Whedon-esque. (And it is really, really funny; Fran Kranz, as the movie’s annoying stoner, gets most of the best lines, and his comic timing is bang on.) Even if this were just a straightforward kids-go-to-the-woods-and-get-murdered movie, it’d be a better-than-average example of the form for its characterisation alone.

But it isn’t just a straightforward kids-go-to-the-woods-and-get-murdered movie. And beyond its jokes, the script is great; it skilfully builds anticipation and, crucially, delivers on all of its promises. Everything that’s set up in the first two-thirds is paid off, gloriously, in the final act. There’s almost too much to take in. This is a film that’s going to reward a second viewing, and a third – especially any second or third viewing armed with a pause button.

The Cabin In The Woods is a love letter to the horror genre, but it’s also possibly the ultimate horror movie. (And yet, in some ways, it isn’t a horror movie at all.) It’s the culmination of decades upon decades of scary movies; it knows that everything’s already been done, and uses that familiarity to its own advantage. Without that history, without a well-worn set of exhausted clichés, The Cabin In The Woods couldn’t exist. It’s almost obscenely clever – and after this, anyone making a horror film set in a cabin in the woods is going to look hopelessly amateurish.

I’m deliberately not telling you anything about the plot of The Cabin In The Woods : the less you know about this film – and the more you know about horror, in general – the more you’re going to love it.

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Sarah Dobbs | @SarahDobbs

Sarah is a freelance writer and editor. She loves horror movies, unusual storytelling techniques, and smoking jackets. Ask her about the Saw movies. Go on, ask.

To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories .

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Lewis Wallace

Review: Cabin in the Woods Rips Horror a New One

Don’t let the pedestrian title spook you: The Cabin in the Woods takes one of Hollywood’s most mundane setups and turns it into a smart sendup of horror movies and mythology.

Not that there aren’t bare breasts, cheap thrills and a blood-orgy of gore — what else do you expect when you send a bunch of college kids into the sticks for a little countrified fun? Cabin in the Woods chews on this moldy cinematic trope that’s fueled movies for decades, from Deliverance to Don’t Go in the Woods to The Blair Witch Project, then regurgitates it all with a peculiar relish that testifies to the moviemakers’ love of genre film.

You already know the story, or at least part of it. Five archetypical students — the jock, the scholar, the virgin, the whore and the fool — pile into an RV for a weekend of fun. They head for a cousin’s cabin, which is conveniently located off the grid. Along the way they stop at a decrepit filling station operated by a creepy weirdo, and that’s just the beginning.

There’s the dark cabin, the almost-definitely-doomed blonde, the creaky stairs leading to a dank cellar that could double as the devil’s antique shop — even the inevitable sexy-weird game of truth or dare. But all these standard-issue horror motifs get slyly turned on their horned little heads as Cabin spins up into something bigger, and far better, than a lowest-common-denominator slasher flick.

It’s nerve-wracking at times, but in terms of tone, it’s far more Evil Dead than Saw . And that’s a good thing.

( Spoiler alert: Plot points follow.)

This goes far beyond a twist ending. In the trailer — and, indeed from the very beginning of the R-rated film, which opens Friday — we see that somebody is behind the scenes, pushing the buttons, monitoring and manipulating the nightmare unfolding for the group of friends. Aside from effectively moving Cabin into the rich realm of meta-horror , the plot provides plenty of opportunities for dark humor. Even the gas station’s tobacco-chewing hillbilly harbinger of doom, who prattles on about appeasing the “ancient ones,” gets pranked.

That black take on the movie’s bleak events makes Cabin in the Woods bubble with energy. For that you can thank co-writers Joss Whedon ( The Avengers ) and Drew Goddard, who douse the film with witty banter, creative twists and (eventually) boatloads of blood. Cabin should thrill Whedon fans, who’ll thrive on the clippy, quippy dialog that lifted Firefly and Buffy the Vampire Slayer to cult status. (Whedon and longtime co-conspirator Goddard, who makes his directing debut with the film, wrote the script in three frenzied days , cramming their horror film with self-aware humor.)

Scott Gilbertson

Christopher Null

Boone Ashworth

Parker Hall

The actors bringing all that witty banter to life do a fine job, with Chris Hemsworth doling out the kind of meathead charm he brought to Thor and the fetching Anna Hutchison milking her turn as the requisite “ horror-movie whore .” Dollhouse’ s Fran Kranz plays the fool — a stoner with the world’s coolest stealth bong — and his dope-smoking philosopher is more cerebral than Spicoli (and not as eternally funny and memorable, although his more subtle approach serves the story better than a broader caricature would have).

Veteran actors Richard Jenkins ( The Visitor, Six Feet Under ) and Bradley Whitford ( The West Wing ) nail the bureaucratic malaise of seen-it-all drones pulling strings behind the scenes, and a surprise cameo toward the end should put a smile on the face of any genre fans who haven’t had it spoiled for them by witless movie critics.

Ultimately, Cabin in the Woods is not really about the acting. It’s about horror movies, what they can be and, to some extent, what they’ve become in an era of endless sequels and cloned concepts. (Whedon called the film a “ very loving hate letter ” to the genre in an interview with Total Film.)

At the risk of over-hyping the film, here’s what Cabin in the Woods is not. It’s not predictable. It’s not stupid. And it’s not a dreary exercise in torture porn.

Instead, it is a smart, sarcastic and deliriously fun journey into the belly of the horror beast — and probably the only movie you’ll ever wish could be delivered in a “choose your own adventure” style on Blu-ray.

In other words, it’s the Joss Whedon horror movie you always wanted.

WIRED Speakerphone prank; electrified fourth wall; elevator from hell; crafty Japanese schoolgirls; best office pool ever.

TIRED Stoner guy’s pseudo-philosophical rambling.

Read Underwire’s movie ratings guide .

Angela Watercutter

Geek's Guide to the Galaxy

David Gilbert

Jason Parham

Sofia Barnett

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The Cabin in the Woods Reviews

Too many unfulfilled angles from the heap of concept attempted.

Full Review | Jan 18, 2024

It still carries the whiff of the late 2000s' misogyny in the way it portrays women and it certainly doesn't try hard enough to disrupt the genre's opposition to female sexuality.

Full Review | Original Score: 71 | Nov 7, 2023

Feels like a greatest hits of the best horror-comedies of the last few decades, while also injecting plenty of originality.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 24, 2023

Unabashed horror movie fans Whedon and Goddard let their monster mash impulses go wild, riffing on every “kids in the woods tormented by supernatural killers” film ever made...

Full Review | Apr 14, 2023

A self-aware twist on haunted cottage slashers, the movie contains a lot of secrets, and oh-what-fun the audience will have discovering them in this funny, shocking, and intriguing arena.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 4, 2022

Leave it to Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard to take the genre, turn it on its head, and give it a good shake.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 19, 2022

It is impossible to say that The Cabin in the Woods is the only reason the genre returned to prominence, but its release in 2012 was a watershed moment for horror.

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Aug 1, 2022

While being "like" so many others, it's unlike anything you'll see. It's weird, hilarious, and actually scary- The Cabin in the Woods has it all.

Full Review | Oct 14, 2021

Episode 12: Away We Go

Full Review | Original Score: 86/100 | Sep 1, 2021

Could I possibly be fair and balanced talking about this movie when it was created in a lab by awesome scientists (that is, scientists of awesomeness) out of everything I love most to be The Perfect Movie For Me? I cannot.

Full Review | Jul 6, 2021

The cast is far stronger than one usually finds in this type of film.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4.0 | Sep 4, 2020

It functions as horror, comedy, and as a deconstructionist essay on genre filmmaking. Remarkably clever, more hilarious than I expected, and gory enough to sate horror fanatics of all varieties,

Full Review | Original Score: A | Jul 12, 2020

It features a fantastic cast, a witty and clever script and is very well structured. This film is one of THE best horror movies and should definitely be included in your annual Halloween viewing line-up.

Full Review | Jul 12, 2020

If you love horror films, or love the postmodern phenomenon of "deconstruction" films, this movie is about as good as they come.

Full Review | Mar 31, 2020

Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon called the movie "something for us." In that sense, The Cabin in the Woods is a gift to horror fans.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 30, 2020

Disgusting at times and fun in others, The Cabin in the Woods is like a breath of fresh air to an exhausted genre.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Dec 10, 2019

[A]ll put together with dry, wry, self-deprecating humor that is so clever, witty and entertaining it just knocks the film out of the park, er, woods.

Full Review | Nov 26, 2019

Let yourself go and you're in for a thrilling treat that will induce numerous, genuine laughs.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.7/5 | Nov 8, 2019

One thing Whedon and writer/first time director Drew Goddard are great at is finding and exploiting new talent.

Full Review | Jul 29, 2019

For those with a taste for horror, this is a wild, witty ride with a trenchant edge of referential satire.

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Movie Review

Taking a Chain Saw to Horror Movie Clichés

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By A. O. SCOTT

• April 12, 2012

Just before a recent advance screening of “The Cabin in the Woods,” a friendly publicist asked the assembled bloggers and critics if we would please refrain from disclosing any of the “reveals, surprises and uncredited performances” in the movie we were about to see. I’m happy to oblige, though I worry that it might count as a spoiler even to mention that there are reveals, surprises and uncredited performances.

The filmmakers — Drew Goddard directed and collaborated on the script with the estimable Joss Whedon , one of the producers — clearly went to a lot of trouble to put all that stuff in. With compulsive effort that is meant to feel like giddy abandon, they have tried to make a horror movie that is frightening, original and knowing, all at the same time. Two out of three is not bad, given the difficulty of the task. A wink can sometimes undermine a scare. Novelty and genre traditionalism often fight to a draw. Too much overt cleverness has a way of spoiling dumb, reliable thrills. And despite the evident ingenuity and strenuous labor that went into it, “The Cabin in the Woods” does not quite work.

Which is not to say that it entirely fails, either. Right at the beginning two parallel conceits are set in motion. Five attractive young people, full of pheromones and naïve exuberance, set off for a party weekend in a remote — well, take a guess.

Meanwhile, a pair of white-shirted white guys (Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford) busy themselves at what looks like NASA ground control or Norad headquarters or some other supersecret, ultradangerous, highly secure official facility. Though it does not take long to discern a connection between what they and their colleagues are doing and what those kids in the woods are up to, I will retreat into generality and indirection for the rest of this review. I don’t want that publicist to come after me with a chain saw.

Some of the pleasure of the first (and best) part of “The Cabin in the Woods” comes from trying to see just over the narrative horizon and figure out what these incompatible sets of clichés have to do with each other. Two distinct kinds of movie are being yoked, by violence, together, and the performers inhabit their familiar roles with unusual wit.

Since this is — at least officially and at least half the time — a slasher/zombie/monster kind of movie, the revelers are arranged according to well-known types. Or they seem to be: the discrepancies between those assigned identities and other, less predictable aspects of their personalities turn out to be part of an elaborate meta-meta-joke. The designated dumb jock (Chris Hemsworth) and the designated dumb blonde (Anna Hutchison) may not actually be all that dumb. The cynical, paranoid stoner (Fran Kranz) might turn out to be more sensible than most of his friends. Even the bland, nice, would-be couple (Kristen Connolly and Jesse Williams, both charming) whose survival you are primed to root for, are kind of, well, interesting. Now let’s sit back and watch them die!

Once the doomed five reach their destination (after an ominous stop at a deserted gas station), terrible things begin to happen pretty much on schedule, and the two plots begin to converge. Mr. Whitford and Mr. Jenkins provide clues and tongue-in-cheek commentary about the ordeal at the cabin in the woods, which they are observing along with a nervous co-worker (Amy Acker) and a skeptical security guard (Brian White).

Their callous amusement at the unfolding spectacle of violence and terror is mildly shocking, but of course it is also a reflection of the audience’s experience. We go to scary movies because we enjoy being manipulated into being scared by phenomena we know better than to believe in, and “The Cabin in the Woods” takes special delight in the mechanics of its own artifice.

Dismissing the recent vogue for technically crude, fake-real shockers in the “Paranormal Activity” manner — and sidestepping the gory sadism of the torture subgenre of the “Saw” and “Hostel” pictures — this movie evokes the playful pseudosophistication of the “Scream” franchise.

The lesson of the “Scream” movies — a lesson their characters reliably failed to learn — was that a grasp of the semiotics of cinematic horror will not necessarily save you from a crazed killer. At its best, that series proved that it was possible to be spoofy and scary at the same time, to activate the cognitive and sensory circuits that produce both laughter and fear.

“The Cabin in the Woods” bungles that relatively straightforward trick, partly because it wants to do a lot more than provide a dose of shrieks and giggles. There is a scholarly, nerdy, completist sensibility at work here that is impressive until it becomes exhausting. Not content to toss off just any horror movie, Mr. Goddard and Mr. Whedon have taken it upon themselves to make every horror movie. I, and they, mean this literally, but to say more would be to reveal too much and spoil the fun. Which, come to think of it, is exactly what the movie does in the end.

“The Cabin in the Woods” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). Skin, gore and swearing, sometimes all at once.

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SXSW 2012: THE CABIN IN THE WOODS Review

The Cabin in the Woods review. At the 2012 SXSW Film Festival, Matt reviews Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon's The Cabin in the Woods.

The Cabin in the Woods is one of the sharpest satires of the horror genre ever made.  Great satire can only come from intelligent, witty, and devious minds.  Director Drew Goddard and his co-writer Joss Whedon have those minds.  They have dissected not just the "cabin in the woods" sub-genre, but the entire horror genre, and most importantly, our enjoyment of it.  Rather than just point out the tired clichés we all know, Goddard and Whedon use the deconstruction as a starting point rather than a dull summation.   It is an exciting, exhilarating, and bloody means to a thoughtful, rewarding, and bloody end.

[Whedon and Goddard have tried to make a point of hiding what makes The Cabin in the Woods more than a "Cabin in the Woods"-movie, and they hope that the secrecy will entice you.  If you are already enticed and don't wish to know more, stop reading this review.  If you continue, I won't give away any major spoilers, but writing about Cabin in the Woods means revealing (and celebrating) its hook.

There.  That's your warning.]

The movie opens not with the stock college kids happily unaware of their inevitable doom, but a couple of mission control-type guys, Richard ( Bradley Whitford ) and Steve ( Richard Jenkins ), who are happily aware of what the future holds for the stock college kids.  The cute and nerdy Dana ( Kristen Connolly ), her hot bimbo friend Jules ( Anna Hutchinson ), Jules' handsome jock boyfriend Curt ( Chris Hemsworth ), their also-handsome friend Holden ( Jesse Williams ), and the lovable stoner buddy Marty ( Fran Kranz ) are hapless pawns in a very well-funded and deeply disturbing game run by Richard, Steve, and all of their co-workers.  We pause for a moment to wonder how the people at Evil Mission Control* can be so utterly dehumanized and play with the horrible fate that will befall these innocent co-eds…

And then a moment later we realize we're Richard and Steve.

Satire, when done correctly, isn't a direct blow.  It isn't a complaint and it isn't a screed.  It's using the power of humor to illustrate an idea that hasn't yet been verbalized in an effective manner.  Anyone with even a cursory knowledge of the horror genre can point out its weak and tired tropes.  Scream did it back in 1995 for slasher movies albeit in a less eloquent, more Jamie-Kennedy-yelling-tropes-directly-at-the-audience manner.  Goddard and Whedon have cast their gaze to all supernatural horror—whether it takes place near a cabin in the woods or not—and made an argument about how the genre has not only stagnated, but how we as an audience are complicit in that stagnation.

With The Cabin in the Woods , Goddard and Whedon have made a strong rebuke against lazy storytelling by combining the lazy storytellers and lazy audiences into one body (the people at Evil Mission Control) and showing both the arbitrary nature of the plot elements (interchangeable menaces like creepy children and ghouls and clowns) and the glee and comfort we take in predictability of the structure (teens must die, they must die gruesomely, they have to die in particular order, etc).  When we see everyone betting on the kids' lives, we see ourselves.  We're purposely desensitizing ourselves to horror, and horror movies are letting us, so why are we watching them other than bloodlust?  Aren't horror movies supposed to be scary?

This kind of brilliant deconstruction could only have been done by people who know not only the horror genre inside and out, but understand storytelling inside and out.  If they so chose, Goddard and Whedon could take their argument about horror movies and apply it to romantic comedies or costume dramas.  Horror is just the most fun, colorful, and culturally immediate vehicle for their point about thoughtless, plug-and-play stories.  Somewhere along the way, supernatural-menace-kills-innocent-teens became commonplace and filmmakers stopped asking the all important question: "Why?"  Whedon and Goddard are pulling back the curtain to show how the genre's stopped working, and how pointing out its  failings might challenge other storytellers to work harder and put some thought behind their plot rather than pull from the "Killer" and "Kill-Order" randomizer.

And the reveal of this formula never feels accusatory.  Nothing in The Cabin in the Woods is designed to make you feel bad about liking horror movies.  The story gives you that moment of pause, and then Goddard and Whedon win you over with wit and charm.  They made sure that no one in the movie was brazenly unlikable.  The co-eds don't get rich, detailed backstories, but we don't want them to die, and part of that comes from the nice performances of the younger cast members.  But the scene stealers are Whitford and Jenkins.   Even though I know it would undermine the entire point of the film, I have to admit that I would love to see a weekly series starring Whitford and Jenkins that takes place in Evil Mission Control.  It's not because they give showy performances; it's because both actors find a way to take the banality of evil and make it entertaining.

We've become far too comfortable and in too many ways.  We've taken the horror genre—a genre meant to surprise and startle—and defanged it.  Now we congratulate ourselves about how smart we are and pretend like the latest arbitrary set-up and killer are somehow more or less worthwhile than the last arbitrary set-up and killer.  We've become lazy and apathetic by getting what we want whenever we want it**.  We've taken less than what we can get and The Cabin in the Woods is a wake-up call for audiences to demand something better.  Few filmmakers will devise a horror film as blazingly original, remarkably intelligent, and painfully funny as The Cabin in the Woods , but it's time for them to at least start trying.

*"Evil Mission Control" is name for it; the movie has no official name for their organization.

** The Cabin in the Woods also has some thoughts on the OnDemand age and the dehumanizing power of technology; Whedon and Goddard's point is rendered even more powerful when you consider that the movie was finished and stuck on the shelf over two years ago.

For all of our SXSW 2012 coverage, click here .

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'Cabin In The Woods': A Dead-Serious Genre Exorcism

Ian Buckwalter

This Looks Familiar: If Curt (Chris Hemsworth), Holden (Jesse Williams), Jules (Anna Hutchison), Marty (Fran Kranz) and Dana (Kristen Connolly) resemble the cardboard cut-out college students who prove expendable in so many horror movies — well, that's intentional. Diyah Pera/Lionsgate hide caption

Cabin In The Woods

• Director: Drew Goddard
• Genre: Horror, Thriller
• Running Time: 95 minutes

Rated R for strong bloody horror violence and gore, language, drug use and some sexuality/nudity With: Kristen Connelly, Chris Hemsworth, Fran Kranz, Richard Jenkins

(Recommended)

Watch Clips

'Truth Or Dare'

Credit: Lionsgate

'Harbinger'

Are we in the right theater? That was the first fleeting thought that went through my head during the opening few seconds of Drew Goddard's Cabin in the Woods , as Steve and Richard (Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford) — two middle-aged, middle-management types — engage in banal conversation over a water cooler, in what appears to be a quasi-military scientific facility. Didn't we show up to see attractive young people getting killed creatively in a rustic, natural setting?

But soon enough, we're presented with the good-looking collegians we expected: They're all meeting up at the house of Dana (Kristen Connolly) for a weekend off the grid, packing into an RV to head to a remote mountain retreat. Even before they make their debut, though, it's clear this is the right movie: There's no mistaking the familiar tone of producer and co-writer Joss Whedon's trademark witty banter in that opening scene.

From there, things proceed, on one level, exactly as expected: some quick expository banter in the RV to establish the characters, a stop at a rundown gas station that seems drawn equally from Deliverance and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre , and eventual arrival at the cabin, shot to evoke the Evil Dead series.

In the basement of the house, during a game of truth or dare (of course), the gang find a collection of creepy trinkets, baubles and assorted ephemera that looks like a horror-movie attic sale: sepia-toned photos of a long-dead family; a diary describing their violent past; blank-eyed porcelain dolls and puzzle boxes. Each one is a portent of bad things about to happen, which only the group's resident stoner conspiracy theorist, Marty (Whedon regular Fran Kranz) seems to realize.

The catch is that as this crew of slightly too-stereotypical archetypes goes through the horror movie motions, their every move is being monitored by Steve and Richard back at that facility, along with an army of supporting staffers and technicians, both observing and working to influence the proceedings. Nothing in this film is quite what it seems.

A horror-movie attic sale is, in essence, exactly what Cabin in the Woods is, an attempt to exorcise the genre of its formulaic possession by stuffing the movie full of its most overused and predictable elements — and then dumping them through clever skewering.

It would be unfair to speak in any kind of detail about the precise nature of the interaction between the cabin and the observers, or about some of the crazy images that Goddard manages to put onscreen during the chaos of the film's completely insane climax. I will say that I was watching through tears of laughter flowing so freely that I probably didn't even catch the entire parade of the bizarre in that sequence.

But part of the pleasure of this movie — one of a great many pleasures, as it's the most entertaining and satisfying horror movie I've seen in a long while — is to see how that relationship unfolds, and to be completely surprised by those images. Goddard and Whedon have created a wonderful puzzle of a film that is loving in its appreciation of good horror, even as it takes the genre (and its blood-lusty audience) to task for the unimaginative banality that has been too typical of recent scary movies.

There's a serious and smart critique here, and life-or-death stakes that only come from characters one genuinely cares about — a neat trick, given that they're set up to be so generic. But Whedon, the creator of a vampire slayer named Buffy, has always excelled at clever one-liners set against backdrops of unspeakable and ancient evil. Goddard, in his first turn as director, matches the verbal wit with memorable visual set-pieces that are as hilarious as they are horrific.

It's true that the symbolic connections drawn here aren't exactly subtle, but subtlety in subtext has rarely been the prerogative of even the best horror. Neither is the movie particularly scary, but that's not the aim here, either. Whedon and Goddard create a self-contained universe that plays by its own rules to serve its own critical agenda, and does so with smarts and skill.

For all of its intellectual pleasures, though, Cabin in the Woods is a visceral roller coaster of a movie at heart. And like the best thrill rides, when it's over, you just want to get back on and go again. (Recommended)

'The Cabin In The Woods' Review: An Adrenaline Shot To Energize The Heart Of Horror

When Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho opened in 1960 it was carried into theaters on a wave of advertising that commanded audiences to keep mum about the story's surprising elements. Thanks in part to that ad campaign, Psycho became a hit that changed horror films even as it legitimized them. The mainstream horror genre quickly developed around a codified set of tropes, character archetypes and specific rules that, fifty years later, are tiresome in their predictability.

Marketing for The Cabin in the Woods , from director Drew Goddard and his co-writer Joss Whedon , exploits some of that same "don't tell friends how it ends!" PR mode. But that's just a smokescreen. Goddard and Whedon aim to demolish the archetypes born in the wake of that early popularization of horror, and in doing so bring a sense of spontaneous fun back to the genre.

The pair succeeds spectacularly. The Cabin in the Woods is a blast. It's a film for anyone who feels the spark has gone out of horror. This movie is clever and quite self-aware, and it has very specific ideas about what caused horror to fall into rote patterns. As they get around to explaining just how horror turned into what it is today, Goddard and Whedon give the audience a chum bucket full of the thrills it wants, but also argues that playing by the rules is the wrong way to go.

I'm going to keep this spoiler-free, so here's the brief plot recap. (In truth, the plot of Cabin isn't as sacrosanct as it has been made out to be, but in the interest of entertainment I'll play along.)

Five friends, played by Kristen Connolly , Chris Hemsworth , Anna Hutchison , Fran Kranz , and Jesse Williams , head to a remote cabin for a weekend of fun. But the cabin isn't quite what it seems, as events that transpire within are controlled by an exterior crew that seeks to manipulate the partying crew to a gruesome end. There is a similarity to the Cube films in that plot construction, particularly Cube Zero , but Goddard and Whedon go well beyond that series as they playfully twist horror elements into new shapes.

Without getting into details, I do have to note that beyond that manipulating outside crew there is a larger force at work in the film, too, that has some bearing on how and why this horror-movie-like tableau plays out. The metaphor is clear: The Cabin in the Woods apes the very process of crafting a horror film, from efforts of string-pulling filmmakers, so ready to lean on tropes and stereotypes, to the influence of a ravenous, demanding audience. The characters are caught in the middle. And while these characters don't realize they are in a movie — as I said, the self-awareness doesn't veer into full-tilt preciousness — they do realize that they're being manipulated, and seek to do something about it.

That all sounds frightfully academic, but Cabin is no dusty textbook. Goddard and Whedon's script is light on its feet and quick to indulge with our expectations of character types based on chosen actors before veering off into different territory. They know we see the tall, muscled blond guy (Hemsworth) and expect the oh-so-typical horror movie jock. That line is played out out just a bit before it pulls audience attention towards a much more modern group of friends. Whedon is known for having an easy handle on genre trappings, and his signature style flavors the dialogue with a zing that rebuffs the boneheaded stupidity of so many horror scripts.

And, let it be said, no one is really safe. Because this remains a horror film at its core, gore splatters the screen, characters meet wildly ugly ends and the third act escalates into an orgy of craziness that immediately takes a spot on the list of great genre film climaxes.

In the meantime, there is a bunker full of drones and technicians trying to manipulate the cabin group for their own ends. As the middle-tier project managers overseeing the operation, Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford provide dry and pointed notes of workplace comedy; by letting these guys be the comic voice, scenes at the cabin can be given over entirely to horror. Cutting between the parallel lines keeps the film's pulse high. Jenkins and Whitford's slightly pathetic, distant observation of the action at the cabin plays right into Goddard and Whedon's criticism of horror, even as it draws the film's biggest genuine laughs.

While the big talking point for The Cabin in the Woods has long been the secretive nature of the plot, in truth the film doesn't derive its energy from spoil-able suspense. Rather, it is a tight, simple script crafted in such a way as to draw genre aficionados into multiple viewings, the better to pay attention to the myriad minor details that litter scene after scene. Frankly, I'm looking forward to the film's blu-ray release so I can go frame by frame through a few segments that were so packed with stuff that I'm positive I missed some neat little touch.

If there was any true closure in filmmaking, The Cabin in the Woods would nail shut the box of horror film stereotypes that some filmmakers and audiences have used as crutches for decades. That probably isn't going to happen, but we can still celebrate Drew Goddard's movie as one of the most energetic, nimble and entertaining horror films to hit the screen in a long time.

/Film score: 9 out of 10

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• DVD & Streaming

The Cabin in the Woods

• Comedy , Horror

Content Caution

In Theaters

• April 13, 2012
• Kristen Connolly as Dana; Chris Hemsworth as Curt; Anna Hutchison as Jules; Fran Kranz as Marty; Jesse Williams as Holden; Richard Jenkins as Sitterson; Bradley Whitford as Hadley

Home Release Date

• September 18, 2012
• Drew Goddard

Distributor

Movie review.

It’s remarkable, really, that the cabin in The Cabin in the Woods ever finds buyers at all. Oh, sure, the property listing could be spruced up to look nice enough: “Eerily spacious cabin in the heart of tranquil forest!” it might read. “Within walking distance of bucolic lake. Snarling wolf head and creepy paintings included!”

But eventually, any prudent home buyer is going to hire an inspector to check out the place. And while the electrical work may seem fine and the plumbing may be up to code, the cellar is, well, the cellar’s a seller’s nightmare. While that inspector is down there looking for signs of termite damage, he’ll surely run across all the mysterious diaries and otherworldly puzzle boxes and weird fortune-telling machines that litter the place. And then he’ll find the other cellar, the one outfitted as a torture chamber by a previous occupant. And then he might even find the cellar underneath that cellar, where he’d see—

OK. Never mind. Tour’s over. We don’t need to go down there. What self-respecting potential homeowner would? Just a quick run through this property (and I do mean run ) would tell any competent real estate agent that haunted mansions in Amity would be an easier deal to do.

But somehow, the cabin keeps attracting new victi—, er, buyers, and this time around, the unlucky soul has allowed the place to serve as a makeshift getaway for five college-age youth and their stash of beer, pot and flimsy lingerie. They’re hoping to kill a weekend, not each other, of course. But the cabin—or rather, whatever’s lurking under the cabin—has other plans.

Positive Elements

Looking at the specifics, there’s not much to work with here: One of the cabin’s unfortunate “guests” does try to escape its nefarious clutches to save his friends. Other characters show a strong desire to survive. Still others try to save all of humanity (albeit while killing people to do it).

But that lack of specific goodness is part of the larger point for Cabin in the Woods . And there’s at least a measured dose of positivity to be found in that point—which I’ll tackle in my “Conclusion.”

Spiritual Elements

The cabin’s cellar eventually empties into a massive underground government complex tasked with sating what the film calls “ancient gods” who once ruled Earth. For millennia now (the film tells us), the world has offered human sacrifices to these creatures, and we see carvings and paintings depicting such sacrifices during the opening credits, along with what appears to be a depiction of hell. These days, souls are sucked into the gods’ vortex by way of a variety of horror film tropes, with the exact trope varying by country, apparently. In the United States, the sacrificial victims fall broadly into the same categories we’ve seen show up in Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street movies: young, slightly naive students who embody (or are made to embody) various archetypes, from athlete to scholar to fool to “slut.” They’re dispatched through horrific means as selected by the victims themselves.

Did I mention yet that this is a horror comedy ?

The victims we see in this movie “choose” (through reading aloud a mysterious Latin incantation) to be victimized by a zombie family brandishing a variety of sharp implements. But we later see that there were other options available—from vampires to werewolves to ghosts to unicorns to a freakish ballerina with a face full of teeth to Hellraiser -style aliens. (It’s unclear whether these creatures really are what they’re billed to be or if they’re somehow technological creations made by the government agency in charge.)

After the first sacrifice is made, a bureaucrat holds a religious medallion in his hand as he offers up a prayer of sorts, and the blood trickles down to its recipient.

We see footage of a sacrifice gone wrong in Japan: A creepy, long-haired girl terrorizes a class of 9-year-old girls until the would-be victims form a circle, sing a song and turn the would-be killer into a frog. An American bureaucrat snidely references the event as a “what a friend we have in Shinto” moment.

Sexual Content

Two of the archetypes set for sacrifice, we learn, are the “whore” (who almost always dies first) and the “virgin” (for whom death is optional but suffering is mandatory). Jules is cast as the former: We learn that her IQ has been artificially lowered through the use of a special blond hair dye, and she seems to grow sultrier and stupider as the film wears on.

She and her boyfriend, Curt, are hoping to have lots of sex during their weekend getaway. Curt complains about her luggage until Jules suggestively tells him that he’ll be happy with everything she packed. She insists that friend Dana bring something titillating as well in the hopes that she’ll hit it off with another houseguest (Holden). He’s “good with his hands,” Jules says. Once at the cabin, Jules makes out with a stuffed wolf head, makes a lewd pass at tagalong stoner Marty and dances sensually in front of a fire in super-short shorts.

She and Curt go off into the woods where the two passionately kiss and make out. Curt strips off her pants and kisses her skin underneath. Then the camera cuts to Jules’ face, suggesting that he’s giving her oral sex. Jules unbuttons her top and reveals her breasts before the interlude is (painfully) interrupted.

Dana is cast as the virgin, even though it’s suggested that she’s not. (“We work with what we have,” someone says.) She’s not as overtly provocative as Jules, but we do see her parade around in a pair of panties and begin to undress in front of a secret one-way mirror. (Holden watches for a bit before telling her to stop.)

Dana and Jules both wear bikinis to the lake. There are sexual jokes traded, including one about erections.

Violent Content

The Cabin in the Woods is a snarky homage to the horror genre, offering nods to dozens of so-called classics— The Ring , Evil Dead II, Hellraiser, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre , you name it. And as it lovingly follows in those films’ bloody footsteps, it sheds gallons—no, vats —of blood itself.

The zombie family uses gruesome implements to do its damage, from a massive saw (which slices through a body) to a bear trap attached to the end of a chain (which clamps onto backs or clangs into heads). While the camera eventually drags itself away from the bloodiest scenes, it rarely blinks before the first blows—a knife through the neck, a spike through the hand, a stake through the back. When Dana desperately struggles with an undead monster, we see her on a bevy of video screens while bureaucrats celebrate a job well done in the foreground. But rather than minimizing the carnage, their indifference somehow makes the scene feel even more tragic and horrific.

The zombies are ugly things, what with their mottled flesh and missing limbs. And it’s impossible, or nearly so, to kill ’em. One is skewered through the skull with a crowbar and still manages to open its eyes—stilled only by several additional stabs with a knife. Another is completely dissected and piled in a heap. Yet it too still “lives,” its severed hand crawling along the floor with the intent to kill. A piece of it is sentient enough to deliver the head of a victim back to the cabin, where Dana (screaming) drops it and sends it rolling on the floor.

And all that blood is merely a precursor to the insane bloodbath that takes place under the cabin, where a hoard of supernatural creatures are unleashed to kill, dismember and eat their longtime captives. Giant snakes swallow victims whole. Werewolves chomp on necks. Zombies slowly eat security guards in a blood-covered room. One employee is laboriously ripped apart by creatures—a torture only terminated when he blows himself up, taking them out too. A technician is devoured by a merman who spews blood out of a blowhole on his back.

Other bloody moments to note: Someone is stabbed in the gut by a college student. An ax is buried in someone’s skull. A scientist shoots herself. An invisible force field kills a man. (We see him smash into the thing, then fall into a deep crevasse. An eagle is vaporized. We see a painting of a lamb being torn apart by men and beasts.

Crude or Profane Language

Nearly 60 f-words and close to 10 s-words. We hear multiple uses of “a‑‑,” “h‑‑‑,” “b‑‑ch,” “f-ggot” and “p‑‑‑.” God’s name is misused nearly 20 times (twice paired with “d‑‑n”). Jesus’ name is abused four or five times.

Drug and Alcohol Content

Marty is the film’s designated pothead, driving down the street while smoking a massive bong (which collapses into what looks like a portable coffee cup), rolling several joints and never really shaking free of his marijuana-fueled cloud. And in a twist, the pot—treated by government lackeys to make Marty even more impaired—actually immunizes him to many of the cabin’s effects. He shares joints with others.

The government scientists and bureaucrats drink during the day and throw an alcohol-drenched party when they feel as though the gods have been sated. All the college students are shown drinking and most get drunk. Their senses are also impaired by various chemicals the government spews in their direction. A dose of pheromones pushes Jules and Curt to make out in the woods, for instance. A gas station attendant chews and spits tobacco.

Other Negative Elements

Someone throws up during a fight. Government employees bet on what sort of entity will be used to dispatch the cabin’s victims this time. Someone makes a crass reference about anal retentiveness.

Joss Whedon, the mind behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer, co-wrote and produced The Cabin in the Woods . He describes the film as a “very loving hate letter” to the modern horror film genre—both an homage of onscreen scarefests and a snide critique of their excesses.

“The things that I don’t like are kids acting like idiots, the devolution of the horror movie into torture porn and into a long series of sadistic comeuppances,” he told totalfilm.com . “[Writer/director Drew Goddard] and I both felt that the pendulum had sung a little too far in that direction.”

It’s with a bit of irony, then, that The Cabin in the Woods swings its own blood-soaked pendulum so wildly. Whedon uses over-the-top violence to critique over-the-top violence, producing a ludicrously gory carnival of excess that is designed to leave fans gasping with fear … and laughter.

It is, artistically, not a bad movie. As satire, it has purpose. But neither wit nor heart can rescue this thing from the fact that it’s operating in a moral vacuum. It’s not that this is one of those films that leaves me feeling particularly horrified—appalled that a culture could craft such a thing. Perhaps that’s because the film satirizes the very thing it mimics. Perhaps its because, these days, it has so many compatriots it becomes hard to sort out one from the other.

During the film, a newbie security officer suspiciously watches the bureaucrats do their jobs.

“Monsters?” he asks. “Magic? Gods?”

“You get used to it,” a colleague wearily says.

“Should you?” the new guy on the underground block returns.

If the film has a moral, this is it. Folks have become hardened to horrific violence on movie screens. But should they? Should you? Should we open ourselves up to this stuff, munching popcorn as human after human is harvested for the sake of our gluttonous entertainment appetites? Whedon and Goddard, in their own malevolent and maladroit way, say no. And we’d be well advised to listen.

Maybe not watch . But listen.

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

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The Cabin in the Woods

Five college friends head out to a remote cabin for a getaway, but things don't go as planned when they start getting killed. They soon discover that there is more to the cabin than it seems... Read all Five college friends head out to a remote cabin for a getaway, but things don't go as planned when they start getting killed. They soon discover that there is more to the cabin than it seems. Five college friends head out to a remote cabin for a getaway, but things don't go as planned when they start getting killed. They soon discover that there is more to the cabin than it seems.

• Drew Goddard
• Joss Whedon
• Kristen Connolly
• Chris Hemsworth
• Anna Hutchison
• 1.4K User reviews
• 682 Critic reviews
• 72 Metascore
• 20 wins & 34 nominations

• Ronald The Intern

• Mathew Buckner

• Patience Buckner

• Father Buckner

• Mother Buckner
• Judah Buckner

• Labcoat Girl
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia The thermal coffee mug/bong was a fully functional mug and bong as portrayed in the film, the prototype of which cost $5000 to make.
• Goofs One-way mirrors only work when the room on one side is very brightly illuminated and the room on the other is very dimly lit. In the cabin it looks like both rooms are equally dimly lit.

Marty : Okay, I'm drawing a line in the fucking sand, here. Do not read the Latin.

• Connections Featured in Maltin on Movies: The Cabin in the Woods (2012)
• Soundtracks Hold Please Written and Performed by Jamie Dunlap , Stephen Lang and Scott Nickoley Courtesy Marc Ferrari/Master Source

User reviews 1.4K

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• Jul 25, 2022
• What is "The Cabin in the Woods" about?
• Is "The Cabin in the Woods" based on a book?
• So what is really going on?
• April 13, 2012 (United States)
• United States
• Official Facebook
• Căn Nhà Gỗ Trong Rừng
• Coquihalla Canyon Provincial Park, British Columbia, Canada
• Lionsgate Films
• Mutant Enemy
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $30,000,000 (estimated)
• $42,073,277
• $14,743,614
• Apr 15, 2012
• $70,038,838

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 35 minutes
• Dolby Digital
• Dolby Surround 7.1

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Screen Rant

'the cabin in the woods' review, anyone willing to suspend a bit of disbelief and not get too bogged down in the film's logic will likely be ready for an entertaining and worthwhile experience..

The ups and downs of The Cabin in the Woods release delay had little to do with co-writer and producer Joss Whedon, or writer-turned-director Drew Goddard's movie; rather, the horror genre hybrid was simply caught in the middle of the MGM Studios collapse. Despite a few big names being attached to the long-withheld project - Avengers star Chris Hemsworth and director Joss Whedon -  does  The Cabin in the Woods  actually offer a fresh and enjoyable horror experience? Or is the film little more than a middle-of-the-road effort that could have easily been left on the shelf?

Much like Eli Craig's tongue-in-cheek effort,  Tucker & Dale vs. Evil , The Cabin in the Woods is far-from a typical horror film. The trailers for the movie spoil one of the most intriguing elements - which not only differentiates the project from regular slasher films, but also gives the writers and cast an opportunity to poke fun at the cliches of the genre without entirely undermining the scares.

In an effort to prevent spoiling the film for others, I'm not going to directly discuss the "twist" or where the filmmakers take the especially ambitious premise; however, I will say that, for readers who are already interested in checking out the film, it's unlikely that the experience is going to disappoint. The Cabin in the Woods is hardly the most serious, or smartest, horror film audiences will have seen in a while - there are plenty of eye-roll-inducing dialogue moments and the over-arching setup might be hard for some moviegoers to accept - but, for anyone that's ready for an entertaining (albeit over-the-top) horror movie, avoid the film's spoiler-filled trailer and head to your favorite cineplex knowing as little as possible.

On the surface level, the story follows five friends Curt (Chris Hemsworth), Holden (Jesse Williams), Jules (Anna Hutchison), Marty (Fran Kranz) and Dana (Kristen Connolly) as they journey up to an isolated cabin for a weekend of drinking, swimming, truth or dare, and other scandalous behavior typically associated with college student getaways. A pre-trip meet up spells out the group dynamics: Dana is the good girl, Curt and Jules play-against stereotype as a hot blond and jock couple that in addition to good looks are also accomplished students, Holden is Curt's bookish but still charming friend, and Marty is the group's lovable pot-smoker.

Once on the road, the group encounter an ill-tempered gas pump attendant that, despite his disdain for the college kids, warns the group about their destination - asserting that visitors regularly disappear up in the woods. Dismissing the warnings, the group reach the cabin where, that's right, things quickly devolve into bloody mayhem.

While many of the proceeding events center around good girl Dana, all of the friends are utilized in interesting ways - especially as the film toys more and more with genre stereotypes. As mentioned, these aren't the dumb college kids audiences normally see in slasher-type films - and, while the plot can be somewhat convenient at times, there are plenty of interesting twists that arise out of having characters that, despite their basic caricature origins, defy expectation by making different (and, subsequently, more interesting) decisions. Given the difficult task of both embracing and rejecting these horror stereotypes, the cast (which, at the time, included a lot of untested talent) does a surprising job with the more serious moments - coupled with plenty of humorous nods to the audience.

That said, The Cabin in the Woods isn't just different because it includes smarter versions of typical horror archetypes, the over-arching premise of the film is a game-changer, splitting open the genre format more and more as the film progresses - resulting in a final act that offers some truly enjoyable reveals. Where other filmmakers might attempt to setup the project as the first in a multi-installment franchise, Whedon and Goddard hold nothing back - peeling layer after layer away until they show audiences all that there is to see in The Cabin in the Woods universe. Nearly every recurring piece of mythology, horror, or comedy eventually comes full circle - offering a solid pay-off for moviegoers who can lock into the film's wild (or absurd), but still satisfying, setup.

While the movie has a lot going for it in the way of an intriguing twist, the "horror" in The Cabin in the Woods  might be underwhelming for some die-hards in the genre. There are plenty of tense moments, but many of the surface-level scares will be familiar (and easily anticipated) by a good portion of the audience. This might initially come across as lazy set-piece planning, but as the story plays-out, it's clear these were intentional choices by Goddard and Whedon - which works to the success (and logic) of the overarching plot.

Ultimately, The Cabin in the Woods is a surprisingly entertaining effort that works because it strikes a smart balance - embracing, as well as rejecting, the viewer's expectations and knowledge of the horror genre. The set-up is executed with a tongue-in-cheek attitude but presented with a straight face that could be off-putting for viewers who are expecting a straightforward slasher film or a "gritty" and serious scare-fest (such as The Descent or Hostel ). However, the final product succeeds in paying homage to the movies that inspired it, poking fun at the often static state of the horror genre, all while simultaneously delivering a few fresh surprises. Anyone willing to suspend a bit of disbelief and not get too bogged down in the film's logic will likely be ready for an entertaining and worthwhile experience. For many, this trip to The Cabin in the Woods will have definitely been worth the wait.

If you've seen the movie and want to discuss details about the film without worrying about spoiling it for those who haven’t seen it, please head over to our  The Cabin in the Woods  Spoilers Discussion !

If you’re still on the fence about  The Cabin in the Woods , check out the trailer below:

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For an in-depth discussion of the film by the Screen Rant team check out our  Cabin in the Woods episode of the SR Underground podcast .

Follow me on Twitter @ benkendrick  - and let us know what you thought of the film below.

The Cabin in the Woods is Rated R for strong bloody horror violence and gore, language, drug use and some sexuality/nudity.

The Cabin in the Woods : Burning Down the House of Horror

Five college kids go into the woods in Drew Goddard's directorial debut. What comes out? Pain-loving zombies, a wicked sense of Buffy-style humor and a film that finally shakes up the slasher-movie genre.

The less said about the plot of Drew Goddard’s fiendishly clever  The Cabin in the Woods the better. I’ll give you just this: Five nice college kids head to a remote lakeside cabin for a fun weekend of swimming, smoking pot and messing around. They barely have time to engage in any of these activities before an unscheduled encounter with zombies wielding vintage carpentry equipment. Or maybe farm equipment. In any event, sharp things with many jagged, toothy blades.

If that sounds unappealing to you, we’re on the same page. But though it has elements in common with every movie that ever sent a batch of comely youngsters into the wilderness (for starters: The Ruins , Wolf Creek , Wrong Turn), The Cabin in the Woods is not strictly speaking, a slasher flick. It’s not even a horror movie exactly; the terror is minimal. In his first outing as a director, Cloverfield and Lost  scribe Goddard, who co-wrote the film with his producer and old boss from television’s  Buffy the Vampire Slayer , Joss Whedon, has made a very gory critique of the blood lust, caricature and objectification of horror films. Cabin goes beyond the parody of the Scream franchise into darker, richer territory.

(MORE:  Top 10 Ways to Survive a Horror Movie )

Goddard establishes a parallel story in the first frame of the film, featuring a pair of bored engineer-types at work in a bunker-like structure. Sitterson (Richard Jenkins) and Hadley (Bradley Whitford) are preparing for some big event with the help of an anxious young woman in a lab coat (Amy Acker, from Whedon’s Angel ), but it’s nothing so momentous as to distract Hadley from grousing about his wife and her obsession with her fertility treatments. This introduction is deliberately disorienting. Aren’t we here to see young people die in the woods? Isn’t that the point of most modern horror films?

Cue the pantless-for-no-good-reason young woman Dana (Kristen Connolly, who has the interestingly lush and squishy features of a young Uma Thurman). She’s packing to go away with her bubbly roommate Jules (Anna Hutchison), a potential new love match, Holden (Jess Williams) and their stoner pal Marty (Fran Kranz). Jules’ boyfriend Curt (Chris Hemsworth, who shot this film before Thor ) is taking them all to a remote cabin his cousin just bought. It’s off the grid, naturally. “It doesn’t even show up on the GPS,” crows Jules.

Goddard puts a new spin on the concept of the grid itself, and for once the obligatory exposition before the first gush of blood actually feels fresh. Respectively the quintet represents, with some qualifiers, the usual potential victims in horror films: virgin, whore, scholar, fool and at the wheel, the athlete. Only they’re all likeable and they don’t exactly fit their stereotypes: Dana slept with her professor; Jules only just went blonde and is pre-med; Curt is actually a sociology student on full scholarship and so on. None of them feel disposable, not even Marty, who turns up with a kaleidoscoping bong made out of a travel thermos and cracks wise throughout. “I dare you all to go upstairs,” he says when a game of Truth or Dare (of course) leads to an assembly of all five characters in the cabin’s super scary cellar.

Cabin gets seriously funny around the time a tobacco chaw-stained wretch – who the kids encounter at a dilapidated gas station – makes a phone call. (I won’t tell you whom he calls, except that the exchange on both ends is hilarious.) His name is Mordecai, but he’s blatantly referred to as the harbinger. Mayhem breaks out and the parallel plots veer into each other. There are winks to international styles of horror, including, most astutely, Japan’s fascination with spooky little girls, although the hillbilly horror of  Cabin  establishes it as definitively American. “If you want good product, you’ve got to buy American,” one character says. He sounds proud of Hollywood product, but the movie doesn’t share that pride. It doesn’t go quite as far in sending up Hollywood as it could have, or as much as I confess I wanted it to, but when the spokesperson for the Big Bad is called The Director (and is the best cameo this side of 21 Jump Street ), a point is being made.

All this talk of comedy may suggest that  Cabin  is not violent. Let me be clear, it is. There is a decapitation, a death by hook through the neck and many examples of other awful ways to die. But even someone who has willingly sat through all seven installments of the Saw franchise may not be able to ignore the movie’s own stance that there is something wrong with the bloodshed — not just the enjoyment of it, but the numbing of our emotional response to it. The accompanying commentary isn’t exactly scolding, but it continually needles and raises questions. “You get used to it,” one character says of a gruesome death. “Should you?” asks another. What’s on trial here are the ridiculous rules of horror — that say, a whore (that’s in Limbaugh terms, i.e., a sexually active unmarried woman) is supposed to die while a virgin may live as long as she suffers — and what they say about our society.

(READ: TIME’s Richard Corliss on the Saw franchise )

That is, to put it mildly, exciting. But can  Cabin  be, as a promotional poster for it proclaims, a “game-changer”? Can any horror movie serve that purpose? Certainly the self-awareness of Scream reawakened interest in the genre and opened the door for the flat-out comedy of Scary Movie . Both franchises quickly grew tiresome, but they did shift our expectations of the genre temporarily before the torture porn of Saw took over. The Cabin in the Woods should stir some self-reflection. At the very least, it’s awfully entertaining and for Buffy fans, reason to put down the boxed sets and run off to the cinema.

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Cabin in the Woods review

The characters (and even the stories) are formulaic to a fault, and that is what Cabin in the Woods exists for. Cabin Co-writer/producer Joss Whedon and Director/co-writer Drew Goddard have made their names over the years with shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer , which continually took traditional and even clichéd moments, then made them fresh and original — or mocked them. Over both of their careers, Whedon and Goddard have continued this method of deconstructing the predictable and twisting it. Cabin in the Woods is no exception.

It’s tough to really explain what Cabin in the Woods is without spoiling what makes it worth watching. It is a horror movie, but it is more accurate to call it a horror movie within a comedy that is in another horror movie. There are layers to the film that contrast each other. One moment you are watching a gore-filled blood bath, the next you are listening to two guys crack jokes about their favorite monsters. It is similar to last year’s Tucker & Dale vs. Evil , which took a similar twist on an expected horror convention but focused more on the comedy angle.

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I pity the people left in charge of marketing this movie. It is a difficult film to explain without ruining it. You have five kids–all of which match existing horror movie archetypes like the jock and the hot soon-to-be-naked blonde—heading to a remote cabin for a weekend of fun. Bad things happen.

But this is just one part of it, and not even the main driving force of the plot. As the kids are busy trying to avoid being horribly murdered, a mysterious group is watching them and manipulating events for their own purposes. And that’s all you’ll get from me.

The cabin horror narrative plays on the conventions of the genre to the point that it almost becomes like meta-fiction as they seem to recognize and comment on the situation they find themselves in, which leads to some very funny commentary. There is a price to pay for this approach though.

Sure, there is a reason for it that plays into the entire motif of the story, but none of the actors ever really have much to anchor them to the film or to make you feel invested in their fates. There are a few brief moments at the very start that attempt to quickly humanize and characterize the roles, and Fran Kranz as the paranoid stoner Mitch stands out a bit, but otherwise none of them really have much impact.

As a bit of a bonus though, the movie is also filled with several Buffy-verse familiars so fans of Whedon have extra incentive to check it out.

Cabin in the Woods is essentially one long “in-joke” between horror fans. It is the humor that will keep people talking, and it is the critical eye on the genre that will be remembered and have a lasting impact. After this, it will be tough to watch another traditional horror movie without thinking back to the conventions that Cabin called out.

Cabin in the Woods is a clever and insightful parody of traditional horror films on one hand, and a genuinely decent horror movie in its own right on the other. The humor sometimes overshadows the horror, but in general it works on several levels. Fans of the medium will love the deconstruction of the familiar conventions, while non-fans can enjoy the unfolding mystery and wit of the film.

The only nagging issue is the lack of any real bond with the lead victims, who are generally overshadowed by the plot and the other characters in the film that are far more original. That is by design, but it is also a bit of a missed opportunity, especially late in the movie. That’s a minor concern though, and not one that seriously impacts the film.

After you see Cabin in the Woods , it will be hard to watch other horror movies that use traditional conventions without thinking back to this movie. So basically Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard may have just ruined the horror genre. Or maybe they helped to save it.

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Ron Shelton's 1992 sports film White Men Can't Jump is a classic. Hulu's newly released remake of the same name, meanwhile, is an airball. The new comedy distills everything great about the original movie into an uninspired, unnecessary retelling.

2023's White Men Can't Jump is directed by Calmatic, who was also recently behind House Party's remake. The remake, which hit Hulu on Friday, stars Jack Harlow in his acting debut as Jeremy, an annoying and cocky personal trainer that believes he is the second coming of Steve Nash despite having two blown ACLs. Together with former high school legend Kamal Allen (Sinqua Wells), Jeremy hustles streetball players in gyms across Los Angeles. Slam dunk? This remake is mostly an airball The film has as much personality as a deflated basketball, with uninspired storytelling leading to a stale product. Shelton's film was able to embrace its imperfections and its setting, resulting in a kinetic and fun movie that instantly creates a connection between viewer and character. Its sly interrogation of Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes' characters results in an engaging flick where every beat, every game has more than meets the eye.

Thirty years ago, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers morphed for the first time and helped form countless childhoods, including my own. Now, Netflix is cashing in on that widespread nostalgia with the release of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once and Always, an hourlong reunion special that just hit Netflix on April 19.

The special reunion brings back some favorites from the original 1993 television series, including David Yost and Walter Emanuel Jones as the Blue Ranger and Black Ranger, respectively. The movie – which is more 0f a long version of a classic Power Rangers TV episode than a full-fledged film — does exactly what it has to do: it's Power Rangers through and through. But is that enough to warrant its existence? Even for fans nostalgic for their mighty morphin '90s youth, is Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once and Always worth watching? A blast from the past

There are few directors better at making movies that get under your skin than M. Night Shyamalan. Ever since The Sixth Sense in 1999, the prolific director has largely stayed in the horror genre, crafting tales of alien invaders (Signs), creepy family members (The Visit), and a reverse fountain of youth (Old).

With 2023's Knock at the Cabin, Shyamalan puts his unique spin on the apocalyptic horror subgenre. When four strangers arrive at a family's cabin and demand that one of them must kill another family member to prevent the apocalypse from occurring, questions about faith, religion, and brotherhood are asked and uneasily answered.

‘Who by Fire' Review: A Canadian Cabin-in-the-Woods Getaway Goes Strangely and Rivetingly Awry

As a general movie rule, when a group of happy weekenders head to a woodland cottage for a bit of rest and relaxation, the great outdoors has some grisly surprises in store for them. In "Who By Fire," however, the horrors all come from inside the house - or more specifically from the people themselves, many of whose worst impulses and insecurities are unleashed by their tranquil surroundings. Dramatizing a curious case of cabin fever with keen human observation and patient wrangling of intangible dread, the third narrative feature from Quebecois director Philippe Lesage underlines his ability to carve a semblance of a horror movie from everyday domestic drama - confirming him as a filmmaker of considerable grace and daring.

It's been six years since Lesage's last film, "Genesis" - a long wait for his admirers, a select club still largely confined to the festival circuit, notwithstanding the polish and rigor of the director's work. Despite his gifts, international distributors have yet to embrace Lesage in a big way, while even festival programmers have been circumspect: At this year's Berlinale, "Who By Fire" premiered in the festival's lower-profile, youth-oriented Generation 14plus strand, an odd fit for an imposing art film not especially geared toward young audiences, though it did deservedly win the top jury prize there. That might encourage more programmers and buyers to take a chance on Lesage's latest, if they can get past its hefty but justified 160-minute runtime.

Where "Genesis" served as an indirect sequel to Lesage's haunting 2015 breakout "The Demons," "Who By Fire" cut ties with that specific saga of childhood anxiety and desire, though not with many of its themes and shifting moods. Nor with its Generation X milieu, as Lesage once more sets his story at some cellphone-free point in what appears to be the early 1990s: An opening closeup of two teenagers' hands, unoccupied by devices as one clutches a diary and the other restlessly smoothes his corduroys, stresses the point. In the back of a car, Jeff (Noah Parker) sits awkwardly between his best friend Max (Antoine Marchand-Gagnon) and Max's precocious older sister Aliocha (Aurelia Arandi-Longpré), on whom Jeff nurses an ill-concealed crush. Accompanied by Max and Aliocha's father, nebbishy screenwriter Albert (Paul Ahmrani), the three are headed to the remote, rustic home of Albert's old pal and collaborator Blake (Arieh Worthalter), a once-celebrated filmmaker who has recently moved into documentaries, having left the mainstream along with city life.

For aspiring filmmaker Jeff, whose friendship with Max isn't terribly demonstrative, it's a trip nervously bristling with opportunity: to make his move on Aliocha, for one thing, and to make an impression on Blake. But Aliocha would rather hang with the adults - who also include veteran actor Hélène (Irène Jacob) and her partner Eddy (Laurent Lucas) - while the affectedly macho Blake isn't impressed by anyone so much as himself. His reunion with Albert, now working largely in kids' TV, seems largely an excuse to haughtily compare their achievements; Albert retaliates by listing the failings of Blake's personal life, an estranged son among them.

The discord between the men escalates in ways both pettily prankish and more profoundly wounding, all while a more quiet rift between Jeff and Max widens. Lesage demonstrates an acute understanding of straight male friendship in all its bluffly disguised intimacy, and his film tensely hangs on the subtle shift from jocular passive aggression into outright hostility. First among equals in a perfectly pitched and balanced ensemble - marked once more by Lesage's deft facility with young performers - Worthalter's performance is at once mesmerizing and repulsive in its cocksure alpha energy. You can practically see Blake's hot reserves of inner anger straining against his cool posing.

But there's much happening here besides, from Aliocha's own reckless, sometimes ill-advised gestures of sexual independence to the fate of an ailing dog, placing Blake's loneliness and self-imposed social isolation in relief. In three separate scenes of dinner-table conversation, played out in precisely poised long takes, the film's lines of conflict come queasily together. As the knives come out, DP Balthazar Lab gazes across variously flushed or nonplussed faces, lit by candlelight that becomes progressively less cozy with each passing minute. Even when they contrive to release the tension, things go too far: In one remarkable set piece, an actual needle-drop of The B-52s' infectiously silly novelty record "Rock Lobster" cues a group dance-along that turns practically feral in its thrashing physicality.

When the cabin can no longer contain this clash of egos and hormones, the group must quite literally take it outside - cuing a third act of predatory mind games, elemental danger and unexpected loss in the wild that reveals new reaches to Lesage's already expansively fraught script. Lab's camera drinks in the saturated autumnal coppers and enveloping hunter greens of the forest, but the views here aren't emptily panoramic: Any jeweled image of nature comes with a tacit threat of decay or death. Winter is coming, and so is adulthood, and so is old age. By the end of this beautiful, unusual coming-of-age story, the line between adults and children hardly seems to exist, as all its principals regard each other with equal uncertainty, wondering what might become of them.

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