The Cabin in the Woods

The Cabin in the Woods (Drew Goddard, 2012)

While getting into things as the typical horror slasher film where every character must be typecast and situations  of scares and behaviors like having sex in the woods or reciting an ancient formula to rise their death, The Cabin in the Woods twists it topsy turvy and uses the stereotypes to demonstrate its manipulation of the characters and the viewers. Director/writer Drew Goddard and co-writer Joss Whedon are showing the strings behind your typical horror flick and translate it in a some kind of dark prophecy for film geeks and satire lovers. All that in a fashion way to criticize torture porn and a great sense of dark comedy. 

With a premise that easily remind of Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead bringing five college students to a remote cabin and where no help or emergency services are offered, Goddard gets to the obvious consequence and goes into it while deconstructing it. Just like Wes Craven with his modern take on the slasher with Scream, Goddard and Whedon are entering into a post-modern interpretation of the horror sub genre. 

It is evident that the public was divided by this bright and wit idea that shows how horror films manipulate its viewers and how much you can make belief anything from resuscitating a family or getting a charging unicorn. As for the horror fans out there we agree to believe that those surreal elements can exist in a horror picture because we let our mind believe in this parallel system that is the movie world. I believe that The Cabin in the Woods is an analysis of our beliefs on films and it is not afraid to go places never been seen before. It’s logic is that there is no logic when you have chosen to embark on its journey. Just like the millions of followers of the TV series Lost, that Goddard wrote many episodes, we let ourselves believe that in our world there’s an island where supernatural things happen. 

With The Cabin in the Woods, Goddard and Whedon bring many things up and even if we were not ready to receive them just like some of the landmarks in film history, it will leave a mark in its genre and give Goddard a name for himself for his directorial debut. Next to that, I’ll have to get to Cloverfield that he wrote for the producer J.J. Abrams.