Of bongs and bear traps

Written by fanboy favourite Joss Whedon and directed by Drew Goddard, Cabin in the Woods is a halfway successful unravelling of horror film conventions. By the end, it’s three movies in one (survival horror; postmodernist horror; apocalyptic horror), and not one of those really gets its due. While certainly one of the better recent horrors of recent times – and certainly one of the funniest – it’s not nearly the genre reconstruction its rabid fans make it out to be. Please note that for reasons of spoiler sensitivity I will provide only the most basic plot set-ups, basically recounting what happens during the film’s opening scenes.

The film opens with a stroke of genius: Sitterson (Richard Jenkins) and Hadley (Bradley Whitford), dressed like two mid-level businessmen, have an important job to do. They like their job, which consists of various administrative responsibilities, and take pride in doing it well. Meanwhile, four teenagers (including Chris Hemsworth, Kristen Connolly and Fran Kranz) set off to a cabin in the woods for some post-adolescent debauchery. Soon after their arrival, they realise that all is not well at the cabin, and that their lives might be at stake.

So far, so horror formula, but Whedon’s take on what happens but also how it happens is rather refreshing. Cabin in the Woods is considerably meta; not only does the film explicitly foreground the beat-by-beat mechanics of the genre, it implicates the audience in what’s happening on screen. It’s no coincidence that the opening titles reference Haneke’s Funny Games (the Austrian’s film is far more terrifying and sophisticated). There is one scene in particular that succeeds in creating exquisite discomfort in the viewer, as a moment of celebration and a moment of bloody murder occurring simultaneously in the same frame. 

To be sure, Cabin in the Woods has its highlights: there’s a tense game of truth or dare that ends in a cross-species flirtation; the wonderful use of a marijuana bong; some inventive creatures appear in the third act. By the climax, though, the story goes much too big, and the ending is best described as deafeningly anticlimactic. As good as the film is, it cannot help but collapse under its own weight, and the final shot should never have made it past the editing room. Cabin in the Woods has been described as a game changer, but it isn’t. Despite its initial silliness and eventual gore overload (both of which are entirely appropriate for the genre), the film overplays its hand and overstays its welcome.