Cabin Fever

Over the weekend, I went to see The Cabin in the Woods, the new twisted horror movie co-written by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard. Being a long time fan of Whedon's work, I first heard about this movie almost three years ago when it was originally shot. Unfortunately, the division of assets in the bankruptcy of MGM relegated this film to the vault until now, when it was finally bought by Lionsgate and released to the public.

In fairness, no movie would truly be worth a wait like that. But it was pretty damn entertaining.

If you know nothing about the movie already, I would strongly recommend you keep it that way. If you like horror movies, or like anything Joss Whedon has ever produced, that's really all you should need to know to put this on your list. Go see it. But if you find yourself needing a bit more information to convince you, I'll try and give you the rest of this review with the smallest amount of spoilers I can manage.

The plot -- as much as I care to share of it -- revolves around a fun conceit. We all know how classic horror movies seem to feature the same tropes: specific character types behaving in predictable ways, making expected mistakes, getting offed in a particular sequence, all on the way to a typical climax. This movie shows us why that is.

The movie stars a mixed cast of relative unknowns (Kristen Connolly, Jesse Williams, Anna Hutchison), actors who were unknown three years ago but are far bigger now (Chris Hemsworth), veterans of Joss Whedon's various television series (Fran Kranz and Amy Acker) and a few long-working character actors playing in the "Whedon-verse" for the first time (Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford). It's a strong ensemble that perfectly delivers Whedon's trademark blend of earnestness with irreverence. There's also a fun cameo appearance from a performer with plenty of fanboy genre cred, best left to see for yourself.

There are a couple weaknesses in the film. One is that it's part of the point that the characters hew close to established archetypes. There are some minor tweaks, but overall, this group of characters doesn't pop as well as many other Whedon creations. (Though with less than two hours of screen time versus several seasons of television, I suppose that's only natural.)

The other is that tweaking the horror genre is itself already traveled territory. Scream was really the first film to lay out many of the "rules" this film plays with. Plus, in that unfortunate delay between the filming of this movie and its release, there's also been Tucker and Dale vs. Evil playing in a somewhat similar space.

That said, these are fairly minor weaknesses. The film does deliver a full spectrum of entertainment, with a few scares, plenty of laughs, several clever ideas to make you think, and more. I'd rate the film an A-, and I definitely recommend that you go see it for yourself.