"The Cabin In The Woods" - Great Movies You May Have Missed - #2 - Horror

Spoilers may be present in comments. NSFW Images may be present.

As an aspiring connoisseur or the horror genre, I am always looking for something that brings a new concept to the genre. Unfortunately, I am frequently disappointed. If pressed, I would be forced to concede that the quality of the average horror film may actually be on the lower side, as genres go. Some series with otherwise interesting plots, such as Saw, are let downs for some viewers based on excessive gore or shoestring casting budgets. So, when the horror genre drops a movie in my lap that I can legitimately recommend to non-fans of the genre and force girlfriends to sit through, I'm always pleased.

The Cabin In The Woods is completely unlike any other horror movie I'm aware of. The plot is unique in the truest sense. There is no "torture-porn" present, and in fact, an undercurrent of comedy runs throughout the movie. I would even call this a Horror-Satire or Horror-Comedy. If Shaun of the Dead is 90% comedy / 10% horror, A Cabin In The Woods is 75% horror / 25% comedy.

By my reckoning, The Cabin In The Woods is an automatic top-5 horror movie, and I'd put it in contention for the very top spots. It shares a critical asset with the finest action film of all-time, Aliens:

She mostly comes out at the end....mostly.

I highly doubt you will be able to predict the twist, or the twist after the first twist, or the final plot twist after all the other twists. It's just twists, all the way down, but thankfully not in an Inception sort of way. If this movie isn't the twistiest twist you've ever twisted, you'll have to direct me to your twist dealer. I mean, look at the poster; it's Rubik's Cabin.

It's also worth mentioning, for fans of creature design, that The Cabin In The Woods has the most varied, and some of the best animated, creature roster I am aware of in any film. I constructed this roster on my laboratory whiteboard:

I was rooting for "Sexy Witches" (I've heard even witches have itches), and against "Angry Molesting Tree", but then again, I'm a humanitarian.

Previously, without spending any time researching it, I might have handed that honor to Thir13en Ghosts, an awkward (and critically-reviled) movie starring Monk as the protagonist, but containing beautiful set and creature design and a reasonably interesting hook (or nail).

Yeah, Tony Shalhoub is a match for that guy.

Also, you may recognize Tavon from The Shield (a masterpiece I'll attend to in a later post):

For those doubting the legitimacy of the film, it was written by Joss Whedon (who also wrote The Avengers, Firefly, etc.) and Drew Goddard (producer on Lost, writer on World War Z).

Unfortunately, The Cabin In The Woods is one of those movies where I'm not able to reveal hardly any of the good bits, lest the whole plot be ruined. For the same reason, you should be careful of spoilers in the comments. But, I can at point out not casting this gent as Shaggy in one of the Scooby-Doo movies was a missed opportunity:

I strongly recommend avoiding the trailer, and simply locating this movie as rapidly as possible in a legal fashion. Make sure you encourage this sort of risky, outside the box work by contributing to it.

If you have any movie suggestions for me to look at, leave them in the comments! Thanks for reading!

Copyright Lions Gate Entertainment