The Cabin in the Woods (2012)

Film: The Cabin in the Woods (2012)
Stars: Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford, and one other very famous actor who is going to get a label and be listed below, but for the sake of avoiding spoilers, I won't put here
Director: Drew Goddard
Oscar History: Not a chance
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

I don't seek out horror/slasher films.  In fact, aside from Cabin in the Woods, I literally cannot remember the last time I saw a horror/slasher film.  For me, they're too predictable, too sensationalist without any bite-they're not my cup of tea, and thankfully for the OVP, they're not Oscar's either.  So why, you may ask, did I catch The Cabin in the Woods?  Because of the reviews-Best Picture nominees would envy a 91% at Rotten Tomatoes-when a seemingly generic horror film gets that kind of score, it's time to take off your snobbery blinders, and give it a shot.

(Spoilers Ahead, and with this movie, the less you know ahead of time, the better) The film starts out as if you're still watching a before the movie trailer.  I'm going to be honest-I never once watched the trailers to this movie, so the only headliner I knew going into the movie was Chris Hemsworth.  To my surprise, Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford showed up, inexplicably, and then we saw a weird cut to Chris Hemsworth and pals gearing up for a weekend at a cabin.  It was an odd juxtaposition, but I was aware based on the reviews that this couldn't possibly be a standard horror film, so I had to assume that there was going to be something odd going back and forth between these two story lines.

With the five twentysomething college students, it proceeded as expected.  You had your jock (Hemsworth), his bleach blonde girlfriend (Hutchison), the stoner (Kranz), the sweet girl you just know will make it to at least the final scene of the movie (Connolly), and the hot, smart guy who is meant to be her love interest (Williams), all headed to a remote cabin in the woods.  After the inevitable titillating scenes (Connolly, Hemsworth, Hutchison, and Williams all parade in various states of undress in the first third of the film, and for the record, Hemsworth, while obviously very cute, was not in his Thor-perfect shape here, just gym rat perfect), they accidentally raise a family of zombies in the basement, and one-by-one, they all start to perish.

Sounds pretty stock, no?  Stick with it, because in the Jenkins/Whitford timeline, we're seeing what appears to be some sort of reality television show that's produced using these characters, all to appease some unknown entity.  What's fascinating about these scenes is the completely caviller attitude they have as they slowly orchestrate the way that the five people in the cabin are going to die, pretty much forcing them to die in some cases.  And they do it with little thought or morose.  It's clearly a commentary on the desensitization of violence and decency in modern culture (it is Joss Whedon who wrote this film-a larger commentary is not too much of a stretch to assume in the film's message), and you get two truly abominable scenes as a result-the first, the scene with the characters betting on which form of demise the five will be punished with, and the second, and more disturbing one: after seemingly finding victory due to Williams' death, the men and women on the inflicting side of the violence start partying, while Connelly is clawed and beaten on the television screens.  She isn't even required to die, so they could try to help her, but instead they are popping champagne and randomly flirting with coworkers, as if they hadn't just killed people.  There's a lot of "we have to do it" sort of mentality in the film, that it's not their fault because they didn't want to kill the people, they just had to do it.  It makes their comeuppance a bittersweet mentality, as they clearly didn't mind that they killed these people, but once you find out the reason why they're doing it, you feel somewhat for what they were required to do (for the record, though, they didn't need to bet on it).

For what they're required to do is appease a set of ancient gods with human blood, as revealed by double spoiler alert Sigourney Weaver, as the overall director of the entire operation.  I should mention that I saw Weaver's cameo coming a few minutes before it happened, or rather I heard her coming, as she spoke on the loudspeaker before she makes her first appearance (I would recognize that voice anywhere).  Weaver tells the two characters left standing (those played by Kranz and Connolly) that if Kranz's character doesn't die, humanity will go with it.  In one of those "only in a horror movie" sort of moments, Connolly is about to kill Kranz and then she's attacked by a gigantic vampire bat of sorts (not really sure what that was), and that allows Kranz to live, at least a little while longer, while Weaver falls to her death, and the end of humanity is implied.  It's a melancholy ending, and amusingly brings up a major plot hole (how did they get to the cabin in the first place if it was all a trap?).  It's also refreshing that this is one of those rare horror movies that will not have any sequels, something to celebrate in itself.

There are a lot of other great visual gags in the film, the best of which is the cavalcade of monsters that spring forward when Connolly's character releases them.  Unicorns, giant snakes, faceless little girls, and yes, more zombies emerge.  The film isn't flawless (when you're trying to be tongue-in-cheek about cliches and turning them on their head, there's always the chance that you fall into cliches, and the ending kind of got there for me-I think most anyone would have shot the gun to save the earth), but it's surprisingly fresh for a genre that's always getting stale, especially with a half dozen films a year to peruse in the slasher/horror field.

And what about you-I know I'm late to the conversation on this one, so tell me what you thought of the film.  Did you enjoy the Weaver cameo (and did you see it coming)?  And what else could be done to the slasher/horror genre to keep it new and interesting?