Cabin in the Woods - Grading, Discussion, Spoilers

[Argus Skyhawk]

So what do you think of Cabin in the Woods?

[PsychoPere]

As I mentioned in the previous "delays" thread, the movie exceeded all my expectations quite handily - which was great, since my expectations were pretty damn high. I couldn't help but chuckle every time an actor Joss Whedon had worked with on previous projects showed up (and when he had his own cameo!). I saw it with a couple friends, and all three of us left the theater already wanting to see the movie again. It was an absolute great experience from the first scene.

[Ethros]

Right, we doing this then?

Well as I also said in the previous thread... loved it, but kinda don't wanna say much about it really so as to spoil any of it somewhat. Not saying its the best film ever made of all time, but yeah it was awesome and a lot of fun.



And I'll just add, Kristen Connolly... mmm

[SG-17]

It was brilliant. The humor blended well with the classic horror film format.

"Am I on speakerphone?"

Also, seeing a former Power Ranger's tits is always a wonderful surprise.

[Ethros]

Feel the need to spoiler code a lot. Just some random observations

Merman!


Great having Fran Kranz and Tom Lenk in the same film. Also I kept semi expecting a cameo from a Firefly actor, given that we had the others represented
Buffy- Tom Lenk
Angel- Amy Acker
Dollhouse- Fran Kranz



"I dare you all to go back upstairs"



I would agree with this little piece though that maybe the trailer gave too much away http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16972394
In that you did know who was gonna survive to the end and who therefore wasn't, and so I was just expecting their deaths through a lot of the movie.

[stj]

Very clever, often funny. Never frightening, never unsettling. Sometimes gross. but the picture I saw was so dim it was hard to make out faces and tell exactly what grossness was happening, which considerably lowered the ick factor.

Essentially a horror movie about making horror movies, commenting on the audience (negatively,) and asserting that the Fool is really the smart guy; the Virgin is just who we have to work with; the world really will come to an end if we don't cathartize our negative emotions; fuck the world, I'm not going to sacrifice my life or my personal friend's life. The take away messages are why the movie doesn't really do anything emotionally I think. Even a horror movie should inspire some real feelings. Woman in Black could do it, but not this one.

Rated good for clever. But this much cleverness should have made an excellent movie, and it isn't.

[Trek4Ever]

Won't say much for fear of spoiling it, but once the you know what hits the fan, this film's premise is very clever and out of left field. The stoner dude was my favorite character in the film!

[OdoWanKenobi]

I freaking loved this film.

I can't however, say why without giving anything away. Just go see this movie. This is one where you absolutely should not be spoiled.

[D Man]

OdoWanKenobi wrote:

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I freaking loved this film.

I can't however, say why without giving anything away. Just go see this movie. This is one where you absolutely should not be spoiled.

Completely agreed. Fantastic movie!

[Brikar99]

D Man wrote:

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Completely agreed. Fantastic movie!

I was discussing it with a friend at dinner and he was saying that he was surprised I thought it was so good because the trailers looked pretty lame. I was having a tough time explaining that the reason why it was so good was something I couldn't tell him.

[davejames]

Huh. Thought it was pretty fun... but somehow after all the hype and buildup I was expecting something a LOT more twisty and surprising and mind-bendy.

But this plays out pretty much like you'd expect from the beginning, with the main villain being the kind of thing we've already seen countless times on Buffy and Angel. In fact the similarities were a little TOO obvious. When I saw that final set, I almost expected to see a big kung fu battle play out on it. Lol

[DarKush]

I thought it was just okay. The Whedonesque wit and jokey dialogue didn't always mesh well with the story. I actually nodded off a couple times during the film, but the last act got very good. If it wasn't for the monsters gone wild scenes I would say this film was a disappointment.

[DarKush]

stj wrote:

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Very clever, often funny. Never frightening, never unsettling. Sometimes gross. but the picture I saw was so dim it was hard to make out faces and tell exactly what grossness was happening, which considerably lowered the ick factor.

Essentially a horror movie about making horror movies, commenting on the audience (negatively,) and asserting that the Fool is really the smart guy; the Virgin is just who we have to work with; the world really will come to an end if we don't cathartize our negative emotions; fuck the world, I'm not going to sacrifice my life or my personal friend's life. The take away messages are why the movie doesn't really do anything emotionally I think. Even a horror movie should inspire some real feelings. Woman in Black could do it, but not this one.

Rated good for clever. But this much cleverness should have made an excellent movie, and it isn't.

Interesting interpretation. I also thought the film was too dim a lot of the time and it made the action hard to follow. I also thought it was a bit too clever for its own good.

[Dark Gilligan]

stj wrote:

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Very clever.

Now see, I didn't find it clever at all. It was one Whedon trope after another, beginnig to end, as if he was winking at us everytime another one popped up. No spoilers, but anyone even remotely familiar with Whedon's body of work will know what I mean. After the closing credits my wife turned to me and said "I feel like we just watched a bad mash-up of Buffy and Dollhouse".

[stj]

^^^The only work of Whedon's I'm familiar with is one Alien movie; the Buffy movie; one episode of the Buffy series; maybe seven episodes of Firefly; the Serenity movie; about three episodes of Dollhouse, and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Loved Dr. Horrible, (maybe that's because I'm a sucker for musicals with real plots) but I don't think the rest of it constitutes a notably good body of work.

Still, it is obvious that I haven't seen enough of the years of episodes of Buffy the series and years of episodes of Angel to be so familiar with Whedonesque tropes. And I'm sure that there are many people in the same position as me. But I can easily imagine that those who are familiar with all those hours of Whedon can find Cabin in the Woods rather familiar, not novel nor clever. For instance, the plot hinges on a character inexplicably but fortuitously returning from apparent death. This is a moss-covered plot device save for the twist that the character who returns is not the villain, but the hero. (If you can call someone whose actions doom humanity the hero, except that the movie plainly deems him the hero.) Look, a plot hole in an unusual shape! Clever, yes, but not as clever as writing a plot without holes.

Whedon and his co-writer weren't just winking at us, they were giving us the finger too. Why not? Why do we want to see the slut get killed?