Review: The Cabin in the Woods

Plot: Five friends take a weekend vacation to a remote cabin for a couple days of booze, swimming, and sex. However, Dana (Kristen Connolly), Curt (Chris Hemsworth), Jules (Anna Hutchinson), Marty (Fran Kranz), and Holden (Jesse Williams) soon discover that unimaginable horrors await them in the secluded woods. But are the terrors they experience real or part of a much more elaborate plot?

Review: The Cabin in the Woods* is easily the most difficult film I've had to review since Inception. I say this because just like Inception it's almost impossible to describe any part of the movie without ruining the plot. Now I know some of you out there may have seen the commercials where it looks like the five unlucky vacationers are trapped in some elaborate game. You may think that's what the film is all about. Well you'd be wrong. Dead wrong.
The Cabin in the Woods is almost like a horror movie, wrapped in a conspiracy thriller, wrapped in a horror movie. Screen writers Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard (who also directs) have crafted a swift, sleek, and spellbinding story that flips the whole "cabin in the woods" paradigm on its head. I spent most of the movie on the edge of my seat and completely intrigued because I was trying to figure out what in the hell was going on. This film (pardon my french) is the biggest mindfuck since Saw. Think The Usual Suspects meets The Evil Dead and you'll kind of get an idea of what I'm talking about.
Fans of both horror films and thrillers will be extremely pleased with Goddard's work. The pacing is tight and effective. Goddard manages to blend just the right amount of humor, gore, and suspense, walking the delicate tight rope between horror and comedy. (The one scene where two people had this guy on speaker phone had me dying laughing.) To his credit Goddard succeeds for the most part.
Granted each of the five characters are very stock; there's a jock, a virgin (sort of), a slut, a brain, and a stoner. However, aside from Jesse Williams's** character of Holden who was completely bland, most of the actors are very strong. Hemsworth, who you may recognize from Thor, is excellent as the cocksure jock Curt and Anna Hutchinson's (Jules) scene where she makes out with a wolf's head is as bizarre as it is captivating. Kristen Connolly also succeeds as the terrified yet brave Dana.
The real scene stealer however is Fran Kranz. He carries this film as stoner slash philosopher Marv, dealing out one-liners and bong hits in equal measure. He acts as the center of the group and seems to be the only one that really knows what's going on. Plus he has a coffee mug that doubles as a gigantic bong...so there's that.
That's not to say that The Cabin in the Woods is a perfect horror movie. It's not. The production value isn't that great (it was made on the cheap for $12 million) and some of the dialogue was so cheesy you might have well stamped KRAFT on it. However, these things aren't enough to stop The Cabin in the Woods from succeeding as a smart, funny, and scary horror film.

My rating: 8/10

*Strangely enough this film actually finished shooting in May 2009. The only reason it took this long to release was because MGM filed for Chapter 11 in late 2010. It was definitely worth the wait though.
**Some people out there may recognize Jesse Williams from the television show Grey's Anatomy where he plays Dr. Jackson Avery.