Cabin in the Woods (Drew Goddard)
– Elaine Brennan-O’Dwyer
Cabin in the Woods has all the staple features of a classic horror flick: the character archetypes, the set-up, the title — all of which suggests a typical slasher movie. A group of college friends get away for a weekend to a cabin so isolated and remote there is no telephone reception. It is totally “off the grid”. The script by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard (collaborators on Buffy the Vampire Slayer) sets up a shamelessly referential plot, spilling with horror clichés, winks and nudges. Easing the audience into a sense of familiarity, the film begins with some light comedy and a generous exposition. You think you know how the story will play out, but you are wrong.
A parallel plot is simultaneously at play. The diegetic story is embedded within a bigger story, framed by a bigger narrative. A team of white-collar men and women are toiling away at a mysterious high-tech work-shop, housed underground, beneath the cabin. Led by Sitterson (Richard Jenkins) and Hadley (Bradley Whitford), the unit monitors the movements of the young students, manipulating their actions and betting on the choices they will make. It is a workplace like any other: casual conversation, employee rivalry, joking over cups of coffee.
The five students arrive at their destination (a mirror image of the iconic cabin from Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead) only after ignoring the warnings of a creepy-yet-comical gas-station attendant along the way. There is the “jock”, Curt (Chris Hemsworth), the “slut”, Jules (Anna Hutchison), the “nerd”, Holden (Jesse Williams), the “stoner”, Marty (Fran Kranz) and the “virgin”, Dana (Kristen Connolly). They all settle in with some dancing, drinking, and a game of Truth Or Dare, which leads the group to the cellar. Therein lies an old diary and, upon reading it, a family of “redneck torture zombies” is summoned. And so the horror commences. One by one, the characters are knocked off. But all the time we are wondering, what is going on beneath the cabin? Why are these people being watched?
Removed from the carnage, Sitterson, Hadley and the team look on the victims of their surveillance with a surreal immunity to empathy. One character says of the bloodshed, “You get used to it”, to which her colleague replies: “Should you?” It seems the film means to comment on *our* relationship to onscreen violence.
Cabin in the Woods works as a parody of generic conventions, insistent on disrupting our cinematic expectations. As more twists, turns and cameos are revealed, it is difficult to remember how the film started. Even the smuggest fanboy will be left chuckling and chin-stroking with this meta-horror-comedy-conspiracy-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Honourable mention:
Tabu (Miguel Gomes)
Samsara (Ron Fricke)
