If you go down to the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise…
Five hapless teenagers, the usual gang of clichéd stock, head into the forest to spend the weekend at the cabin in the woods. At this point, normally, in such scenarios, death ensues in whatever spooky forms the genre permits.
However in this film, genres themselves become a point of mockery as we become aware of the story’s premise. Is it a horror? Is it a comedy? A horomedy?
We say, “See it.”
TAYLOR: I liked this movie. It started funny, it stayed funny –– a lot of laughs, a fun premise. Definitely more funny than scary, but that’s completely acceptable in the genre. I happen to be an expert on the very specific niche of funny horror movies about cabins in the woods. My resume includes having watched Evil Dead 2 over 100 times.
HOWE: Really, really, really enjoyed this film. I’m not a hack and slash fan and Cabin in the Woods is done tastefully. It could of been a lot gorier with the slayings, but director Drew Goddard kept it simple and I feel that is a bonus to the movie.
TAYLOR: It was cleverer than a hack and slash. I would have preferred to see a little more gore, but what we did get was quality work. It truly was entertaining. The kids in it, although exploited and cliched, were so with tongues in cheeks.
HOWE: Not one of the cast annoyed me. Usually you will find at least one person in this type of film that you don’t really care for, and hope that they get chopped up, sliced and diced or blown to pieces. This time, I was rooting for all of them to get away, even some of the bad guys.
TAYLOR: I wasn’t exactly rooting. Part of the thrill of horror movies is the art of the kill, the visceral chill, the bitter pill of knowing it’s coming and watching it happen. In this area, I was a little let down. There were a couple instances where shooting the film slightly differently would have made things scarier.
HOWE: I wouldn’t say it scared me, but it did make me jump a couple of times, and I think that this is what the film is after. Well done Cabin in the Woods, you did your job.
TAYLOR: Making audiences jump is easy. Making them laugh is much more difficult and that is the strength of this film. This is not a scary film unless you really buy into the reality of its disguised premise. There is a subtext to this film that hides within the hearts of all humans, in our ugliest and darkest parts. As we do enjoy it and as we understand why it is we enjoy it, we become privy to this darkness. Whether or not we embrace it, the evil must be satisfied. Mwa ha ha ha ha ha…
Howe gives Cabin in the Woods 3.5 see-through mirrors out of 5.
Taylor gives it 3.5 decapitations out of 5.
–– The feature is currently showing at the Galaxy Cinemas in Vernon.
–– Brian Taylor and Peter Howe are both movie critics living in Vernon.
