Cabin in the Woods - Grading, Discussion, Spoilers

[Admiral2]

So what do you think of Cabin in the Woods?

I liked it myself. And there a lot of unexpected surprises. My ownly criticism is does Bradley Whitford know how to play any other character except for Josh Lyman form the West Wing?

You obviously never watched The Good Guys.

That actually goes to the point. The Good Guys sucked. ("It's an orange gun!!")

 

[Ayelbourne]

Much better than Hunger Games.

Mainly because CitW had an extremely satisfying payoff, which was totally MIA on THG.

I watched it for the whedonesque and that's exactly what i got.

 

[Saul]

Wasn't going to watch it until I heard a lot of talk about it. Kept myself spoiler free and decided to check it out. T'was a fun movie to watch. Not great but it gave me a few good laughs, in particular the Japan ghost since I love J-Horror. A good film for Horror geeks and it makes me want to check out some old school horror films for the hell of it.

 

[Derishton]

I saw it a second time tonight. Amy Acker's character has a line that I'd missed the first time. She says that her team was supposed to swap out the stoner's pot with their own, but they "missed a batch."

This is one of a few moments that look like a very subtle insinuation that somebody was sabotaging the ritual at every opportunity: the delayed explosion is another. I found another aspect interesting: as someone says above, the blood in the ritual was not the blood of the victims. The whole ritual reveals the artificiality of religious ceremony, and only at the end does it confirm that the artificiality is not just in the connection between the event and "belief", but in purpose. Jesus doesn't love nor does he want you for a sunbeam. The gods are just infinitely stronger than us. Classic Whedon, in a good way.

 

[Ethros]

Yeah what was the deal with the delayed explosion? They made big deal of declaring they never got the orders through, just wondered was that about?

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Yeah what was the deal with the delayed explosion? They made big deal of declaring they never got the orders through, just wondered was that about?

Topher stopped it, he fiddled with the wires in the lift shaft. They said it was stopped upstairs and upstairs there was just him.

 

[Derishton]

Do you mean Marty? Why would the controls for something completely unrelated be in the monster elevator shaft thingy? (Although it's a very silly movie, so I suppose it's not worth thinking about too much.)

And the scary red phone call comes from upstairs, where the Director is, I think (could be wrong - I've only seen it once.)

 

[Captain Craig]

I voted "good".

A unique type of horror film that I found to be very fun.

Team Whedon is going to have lots to celebrate.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Do you mean Marty? Why would the controls for something completely unrelated be in the monster elevator shaft thingy? (Although it's a very silly movie, so I suppose it's not worth thinking about too much.)

And the scary red phone call comes from upstairs, where the Director is, I think (could be wrong - I've only seen it once.)

Yeah, Marty. Couldn't think of his name. Upstairs was where the "kids" where and they said interference came from upstairs. The Director's call came from Downstairs. Downstairs was where the more powerful people were. When they said that something upstairs stopped it and when we went back upstairs Marty was fiddling with the wiring in the lift shaft and said that he'd found them earlier after hacking up the Zombie... At least that's how I read it.

 

[Pingfah]

Saw this last night, very entertaining. Funny, original, and unexpected, exactly what you'd expect from Whedon.

A lot of blink and you'll miss it references and jokes, so I think I will need to pick this one up on Blu-ray when it comes out and give it a few more watches. I have a feeling it will take a long time to get old.

After such a long delay getting to theatres and what will probably be a modest take, i'm hoping this gets to the home video market sooner rather than later.

 

[Starkers]

Loved the first two thirds, hated the final third.

First off it is very funny, but a truly classic horror/comedy should be scary as well as funny and this wasn't remotely creepy enough.

I think whether you like it or not depends on if you just roll with the finale, and I found I couldn't, it just seemed stupid. That's not to say off the wall, crazy and bonkers can't work, but they should at least conform to their own internal logic, and the story had no logic.

As has been said, either the ritual is important or it isn't, so how come anyone can kill stoner guy at the end and complete the ritual? And why is it so important that the five kids represent the archytypes when, one presumes, there wasn't a slut or a jock amongst the Japanese schoolgirls? And I imagine Spain/Norway etc had something different still.

And the end hacked me off as well!

Still, it had a good cast and like I say was very funny, so I will watch it again on the small screen someday and with hindsight I might like it more.

Oh yeah, and to paraphrase Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back...."I think Cliver Barker gonne sue somebody!"

 

[Trekker4747]

As has been said, either the ritual is important or it isn't, so how come anyone can kill stoner guy at the end and complete the ritual? And why is it so important that the five kids represent the archytypes when, one presumes, there wasn't a slut or a jock amongst the Japanese schoolgirls? And I imagine Spain/Norway etc had something different still.

I'm guessing that each area had their own "ritual" that had to happen that conformed to the archetype of what we know about that area's monster movies. So Japan, for example, didn't have to have those different archetypes because Japanese "horror" movies aren't known for that (but they are known for children getting into the mix.) And part of the "joke" is that Japan never completes the ritual because in Japanese monster movies the humans pretty much always win and the monster is often defeated by (or with the help of) children.

This movie was more poking fun at the entire monster/horror movie genre rather than trying to be a part of it. It was sort of like the "Movie-Movie" movies only it was original instead of just being a series of scenes directly ripping off the movie(s) they're emulating.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Loved the first two thirds, hated the final third.

First off it is very funny, but a truly classic horror/comedy should be scary as well as funny and this wasn't remotely creepy enough.

I think whether you like it or not depends on if you just roll with the finale, and I found I couldn't, it just seemed stupid. That's not to say off the wall, crazy and bonkers can't work, but they should at least conform to their own internal logic, and the story had no logic.

As has been said, either the ritual is important or it isn't, so how come anyone can kill stoner guy at the end and complete the ritual? And why is it so important that the five kids represent the archytypes when, one presumes, there wasn't a slut or a jock amongst the Japanese schoolgirls? And I imagine Spain/Norway etc had something different still.

And the end hacked me off as well!

Still, it had a good cast and like I say was very funny, so I will watch it again on the small screen someday and with hindsight I might like it more.

Oh yeah, and to paraphrase Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back...."I think Cliver Barker gonne sue somebody!"

As Trekker said, the ritual conforms to the local traditions. The Director said they ritual has changed over the years and is different in different areas. Basically it just conforms to the expectations of the locals. America that's stupid teens getting punished for having sex and taking drugs. Japan that's ghosts and spirits taking revenge. The ritual is as important as any ritual, usually it's what it symbolises that is of import rather than what actually occurs, just make it conform as closely to the expectation and hope the gods accept.

Personally I liked the ending.

 

[Starkers]

Actually I think the joke was that Japan always completed the ritual, because in Japanese horror often the humans pretty much die and the evil can't ever be completely vanquished.

I did laugh when the schoolchildren won, especially given the American guy shouting "Fuck you!" at them on the telly while they celebrated.

It just seemed odd that the elder gods didn't really care which ritual was completed as long as one of them was, and that in itself seems to suggest the actual nature of the ritual was unimportant? And this is born out again by the fact that they're just ordering the guards to shoot the two of them, the only caveat being that he had to die first.

Your comment about the film poking fun at the horror genre without wanting to be part of it rings true for me. Scream was funny, and Scream played around with horror tropes/homaged the genre, but it was also, at heart, part of the genre. Yes it got funnier as it went along, and less scary as the villains were shown to be quite inept but in places, and in particular in the opening with Drew Barrymore, it was damn scary.

 

[Derishton]

The Director's call came from Downstairs. Downstairs was where the more powerful people were. When they said that something upstairs stopped it and when we went back upstairs Marty was fiddling with the wiring in the lift shaft and said that he'd found them earlier after hacking up the Zombie... At least that's how I read it.

Yeah, that does make sense. Thanks, I clearly will just have to see it again!

 

[Trekker4747]

I'm pretty sure Japan's ritual failed since the children lived and there may have even be a shot on the TV with "FAILED" on it, which was the joke Japan always failed it.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I'm pretty sure Japan's ritual failed since the children lived and there may have even be a shot on the TV with "FAILED" on it, which was the joke Japan always failed it.

No, Japan never failed, until this particular time.

 

[Ethros]

I demand there to be screencaps released of Kristen Connolly in her pants at the start of the movie.

I can't wait that long till the Blu ray is out

 

[Captain Craig]

I demand there to be screencaps released of Kristen Connolly in her pants at the start of the movie.

I can't wait that long till the Blu ray is out

True. And I was quite disappointed they didn't play out the two-way mirror scene. I get they were breaking and tearing down tropes but that one, that one where it clearly would've happened in any other horror movie, that scene should've been the exception and left to unfold!

 

[Ethros]

Joss Whedon truly has the best Cute Girl Detector ever