Cabin in the Woods

I’m always worried when people start saying that a movie is a “Game changer” because what that means is that it will prompt a flurry of movies in a similar style but by people who completely missed the point about what made it a game changer. Take Hostel and then all the other installments of Hostel by Eli Roth who somehow seemed to miss the point of his own film. So I’ll start by dispelling a myth; Cabin in the woods is not a game changer, it’s moved on from the game, it’s finished the game, has packed all the pieces away and is checking the fridge to see if there is any pizza left. It does however make the upcoming remake of Evil Dead look unnecessary and misguided.

I will tell you now that Cabin in the woods is my top film of 2012 so far, I will admit that it’s been a pretty disappointing year really with only one film meeting my expectations and this was it. For a long time I was really worried that we were never going to get to see Cabin in the woods, it was made and then as Joss Whedon so eloquently said in 2010 “It’s currently languishing in a new circle of development hell, post development hell”. It wasn’t well understood by a studio that didn’t have the money to release it when MGM filed for bankrupsy the same set of circumstances that shut down the new James Bond.  

So instead of releasing it and cutting their losses MGM announced that it would be converted to 3D and then released, when it became clear that it wasn’t any more executive friendly in 3D they dropped it altogether.

It got shopped around by the new owners of the studio for a full year before Lions Gate picked it up and it somewhat had a release, to see it at all I had to go to one of the small independent cinemas we have in Melbourne, at 10:30, (the Nova, the one that has giant gold egg speakers dotted around the room).

 So why is this film so challenging?

Well for one thing it’s not safe, I don’t mean that the Blu-ray has sharp edges. It doesn’t play by the rules that we know and love, it is truly a sheep in wolves clothing. It pretends to be a traditional horror film with all the well worn tropes that horror aficionados know and love and then it proceeds to try and eat your face.

Normally I go through the plot of a film…so here it is.

Some school friends pack up during spring break and head to a cabin in the woods. Whilst there they get drunk, and experiment with sex.

Telling you any more will be doing this amazing film an injustice.

Oh ok a little more.

Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard have done an amazing job compressing the feeling of around 30 horror film into this one whilst mixing genuine horror, comedy, tender moments and a scenario where no-one is actually a bad guy. Except perhaps the clown. God I hate the clown. The thing that cabin in the woods does that so many horror films forget to do is to make you care about the characters so when it all goes wrong you’re not rooting for the monsters.  Great performances all round make this a must see.

It is good that the Avengers was such a huge hit because without it there would almost be no chance we would get to see the best horror film I’ve ever seen.

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