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Wednesday, April 11, 2012
MOVIE REVIEW
The Cabin In The Woods
Youth Served In The Horror Games, By Remote Control
Jesse Williams as Holden and Kristen Connolly as Dana in Drew Goddard's "The
Cabin In The Woods". Diyah Pera/Lionsgate
by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
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Wednesday,
April 11,
2012
Drew
Goddard's "The Cabin In The Woods" is a droll horror film that constantly
comments on horror and the horrors of horror, and on when horror goes horribly
wrong and spins out of control. Take five young, supple, muscular
20-somethings. Put them on a road trip to a cabin. Watch them
traipse through assorted horror film clichés, have sex, smoke pot and have nasty
meetings with blunt asymmetrical contraptions.
Opening tomorrow night at midnight in the U.S. and Canada, "The Cabin In The
Woods" serves up a certain vanity in its endeavor, a voyeurism rewarded by
one or two of the most unlikely money shots horror movies can buy. Its
good-looking victims are mirrored by the ugliness of its older, frustrated
nerds, fully intent on desecrating and defiling aimless, wasteful youth. A
sunny, haloed glow radiates at the film's start, then like a progressively
graying day soon disappears, submerged by a grim foreboding.
Youth is served, and served up by remote control, by a group of nerdy older
people whose industry it is to make an amusement park ride out of horror and
offer up the unsuspecting for a perverse blood sacrifice. This is no
ordinary cabin, and the film's pupeteering malefactors, like those in last
month's
"Hunger Games", have every intent of setting up pitfalls and watching
youth bleed dry. The cynicism of these bloodthirsty control tower elders
is blinding, to the point where they even resemble a dyed-in-the-wool horror fan
audience's own expectations and frustrations when those who are supposed to be
killed don't die.
Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford are the captains of this sci-fi ship of
gadgetry and gratuity, which features a West Wing of amputees, crawling limbs,
snakes, wolves, zombies and the kinds of robotic dolls you've seen in countless
horror films. This duo's expectations are confounded. The crew of
people they lead take bets on who will live and who will die, and how they will
perish. Some of the film's youth, led by a stoner, are funny, but "The
Cabin In The Woods" is best if at all as an awkward treatise of survival of the
fittest and wiliest. It is fitting and ironic that the most untutored and
innocent will likely prevail amidst such chaos.
Mr. Goddard's film is clever to an extent but increasingly self-distracts and
exasperates with its mash-up of different horror varieties. If you thought
Heinz had 57 varieties, then "The Cabin In The Woods" has even more than that in
its blender. A dizzying potpourri of sharp digital effects, abrupt shifts
and blood-drenched schlock, the film is a mix of comedy, parody and fetish.
The types of people who are a party to this horror festival are outlined in
stark clarity by film's end by an unexpected but welcome surprise guest.
When that person's presence comes it's a nice bit of casting, rounding out and
further tilting a film that has long run off the rails on its own train of
carnage.
"The Cabin In The Woods" looks at Roger Corman and Dario Argento and other
horror-masters and laughs, piling on the gore, the guts, the entrails, so much
so that the film, as unpretentious as ever, cannot possibly be taken seriously.
I found the film a pointless exercise overall, and an acquired taste at best.
Likely to be loved or abhorred, "The Cabin In The Woods" gets a point for
shaking things up, but its endless distractions ensures that its audience won't
settle down. Timothy Leary once said that it was a long, strange trip, and
Mr. Goddard's film turns on, tunes in and drops off the radar much quicker than
it should. Cheekily written by Mr. Goddard and Joss Whedon, the movie has
a mischievous streak, displaying its instruments and tools of fatality with
relish.
Mr. Goddard squeezes the bottle of ketchup and forgets to let go or loosen his
grip or pressure, as his film becomes an exercise in anarchy and nihilism.
It's every beast for themselves, and when you live by the horror sword and drink
from its trough you are guaranteed to have its inevitable boomerang effect hit
you square in the gut. This cabin hasn't been vacant for a long time, and
even Norman Bates wouldn't have an earthly clue why.
With: Fran Kranz, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Amy Acker.
"The Cabin In The Woods" is rated R by the Motion Picture Association Of America,
for strong bloody horror violence and gore, language, drug use and some
sexuality/nudity. The film's
running time is one hour and 35 minutes.
COPYRIGHT 2012. POPCORNREEL.COM. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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