Cabin in The Woods

[Mike Fang]

I went to see "Cabin in The Woods" this weekend. Personally, I'd say it's a pretty clever movie, but not really a "horror" film, 'cause I didn't find it scary in the least. To be honest, I'm not sure that's just because of my personal feeling of what is and isn't scary or if that was the intent of the movie. Some parts seemed like it was meant to be genuinely frightening, while others seemed to be meant to be taken as tongue-in-cheek, parody style humor.

To avoid giving anything away, I would say the movie is a mix of "Scream", "Beetlejuice", "Evil Dead 2", and Sci Fi Channel's "Cube".

 

[Fappy]

Cabin in the Woods is a parody in disguise. If you think of it that way it's a brilliantly fun movie. The last 30 minutes were a fucking riot... not to mention pretty much every scene with the corporate guys.

 

[antidonkey]

It's the first movie in a long time that I recall being highly entertained from start to finish. I'm still at a loss to describe the movie other than massively fun.

 

[krazykidd]

Cabin in the Woods is a parody in disguise. If you think of it that way it's a brilliantly fun movie. The last 30 minutes were a fucking riot... not to mention pretty much every scene with the corporate guys.

Pretty much this . The movie was so funny . My favorite scene is the guy and the motorbike . I saw it coming but damn . Oh and when the corperate party starts with the Live video of the girl in the back , priceless.

 

[CODE-D]

Id say horror comedy, which is what I prefer now that nothing really scares me anymore.
Like zombieland and a lot like scream yeah.

 

[Popadoo]

One of the best films I've seen in years. Like others have said, it's a parody of the cliches of horror films, like when (Milk Spoiler) they release the gas that makes them decided to split up, an annoying but regular occurrence in horror films.

 

[TheIronRuler]

Cabin in the Woods is a parody in disguise. If you think of it that way it's a brilliantly fun movie. The last 30 minutes were a fucking riot... not to mention pretty much every scene with the corporate guys.

.
The last thirty minutes for me were just a shock - it suddenly turned into a COMEDY!

 

[Forgetitnow344]

It wasn't supposed to be a horror movie. It sucked you in with its horror marketing campaign, then preached a message to horror fans... Then fell apart in the last five minutes. Seriously, no matter how you look at the movie, the ending doesn't make any sense.

Right up until then, it was brilliant and I loved it.

 

[Axolotl]

It wasn't supposed to be a horror movie. It sucked you in with its horror marketing campaign, then preached a message to horror fans... Then fell apart in the last five minutes. Seriously, no matter how you look at the movie, the ending doesn't make any sense.

Right up until then, it was brilliant and I loved it.

How does the ending not make sense?

 

[Verzin]

Cabin in the Woods is a parody in disguise. If you think of it that way it's a brilliantly fun movie. The last 30 minutes were a fucking riot... not to mention pretty much every scene with the corporate guys.

.
The last thirty minutes for me were just a shock - it suddenly turned into a COMEDY!

Thing is...it was supposed to be a parody/comedy from minute one. Anyone who went into it looking for a 'classic' horror movie might not have seen that in time.

I'd say the whole.. hysterical pheromones and betting board scenes gave it away though.

 

[TheIronRuler]

Cabin in the Woods is a parody in disguise. If you think of it that way it's a brilliantly fun movie. The last 30 minutes were a fucking riot... not to mention pretty much every scene with the corporate guys.

.
The last thirty minutes for me were just a shock - it suddenly turned into a COMEDY!

Thing is...it was supposed to be a parody/comedy from minute one. Anyone who went into it looking for a 'classic' horror movie might not have seen that in time.

I'd say the whole.. hysterical pheromones and betting board scenes gave it away though.

.
I loved seeing the creatures do their best with the folk in the facility.

 

[Forgetitnow344]

It wasn't supposed to be a horror movie. It sucked you in with its horror marketing campaign, then preached a message to horror fans... Then fell apart in the last five minutes. Seriously, no matter how you look at the movie, the ending doesn't make any sense.

Right up until then, it was brilliant and I loved it.

How does the ending not make sense?

Well the easiest perspective to view the movie in is a raw metaphor with these analogies:

Spoiler

Control room = Filmmakers
Foundation = Industry
Old gods = Consumers (us)
Sacrifices = Innovative thinkers

There is a mountain of evidence to support this ideology (eg. the control room guys referring to the Ancients specifically as the "customers"), but it crumbles at the last scene. You see, it all makes sense where the Foundation and the control room guys are working their best to churn out the same old junk to satisfy the Ancients. It's a statement on how predictable horror is because we, the audience, like that crap (at least according to box office numbers). Now when the Sacrifices find out the truth and are confronted by the director, instead of suggesting to find a new way or even submitting to the Foundation, they undermine everything and then submit to the Ancients. This doesn't make any sense from any perspective.

From a metaphorical standpoint, it's saying that the innovative thinkers are just going to fuck everything up for everyone else and piss off the audience, causing the horror industry to fall apart. In these specific parameters, there is no hope for reconstruction. Is this what Whedon is telling us? The only way to fix the horror genre is to abolish it entirely? If so, that is an absurd moral.

From a literal plot standpoint, this makes even less sense. The film even says so itself. Instead of submitting to one simple, painless death, they doom the entire world to agonizing hell under the ambiguous tyranny and torture of the Ancients. This would be all right if it was some sort of rebellious action, like they flipped double-birds at the Gods and said things were going to be different, and a third option would be reached where they don't have to sacrifice to the Gods anymore, nor do the Gods get to stomp around and fuck shit up as they please. Instead, they just sit down and smoke a blunt while proposing they give "someone else" a chance.

Someone else? No, there won't be anyone else. That was the fucking point. The Ancients are the someone else. Why the hell would that be a better idea? They're the problem in the first place! This establishment you hate so much is all to appease them! That's like saying it's better to just let someone murder you rather than give them your money, when a third option exists to defend yourself. Yeah, the sensible option is to give them your money. But if you're trying to send a message, you'd pick the radical option. The option you DEFINITELY wouldn't pick is to let them fucking kill you.

So basically, if they had handled that final scene in basically any other way, it would have been tremendously better.

Also, it makes a second watch really goddamn difficult when you know that they're fighting so hard just to get to a point where they give up and smoke a fatty at the end. How anti-fucking-climactic.

 

[Axolotl]

It wasn't supposed to be a horror movie. It sucked you in with its horror marketing campaign, then preached a message to horror fans... Then fell apart in the last five minutes. Seriously, no matter how you look at the movie, the ending doesn't make any sense.

Right up until then, it was brilliant and I loved it.

How does the ending not make sense?

Well the easiest perspective to view the movie in is a raw metaphor with these analogies:

Actually the easiest way to view the film is by simply watching what happens in it.

Spoiler

Control room = Filmmakers
Foundation = Industry
Old gods = Consumers (us)
Sacrifices = Innovative thinkers

There is a mountain of evidence to support this ideology (eg. the control room guys referring to the Ancients specifically as the "customers"), but it crumbles at the last scene. You see, it all makes sense where the Foundation and the control room guys are working their best to churn out the same old junk to satisfy the Ancients. It's a statement on how predictable horror is because we, the audience, like that crap (at least according to box office numbers). Now when the Sacrifices find out the truth and are confronted by the director, instead of suggesting to find a new way or even submitting to the Foundation, they undermine everything and then submit to the Ancients. This doesn't make any sense from any perspective.

From a metaphorical standpoint, it's saying that the innovative thinkers are just going to fuck everything up for everyone else and piss off the audience, causing the horror industry to fall apart. In these specific parameters, there is no hope for reconstruction. Is this what Whedon is telling us? The only way to fix the horror genre is to abolish it entirely? If so, that is an absurd moral.

Which means you're whole metaphor falls down. If there is serious conflict between the film and the metaphor you're applying to it then the metaphor is wrong.

Spoiler

From a literal plot standpoint, this makes even less sense. The film even says so itself. Instead of submitting to one simple, painless death, they doom the entire world to agonizing hell under the ambiguous tyranny and torture of the Ancients. This would be all right if it was some sort of rebellious action, like they flipped double-birds at the Gods and said things were going to be different, and a third option would be reached where they don't have to sacrifice to the Gods anymore, nor do the Gods get to stomp around and fuck shit up as they please. Instead, they just sit down and smoke a blunt while proposing they give "someone else" a chance.

Someone else? No, there won't be anyone else. That was the fucking point. The Ancients are the someone else. Why the hell would that be a better idea? They're the problem in the first place! This establishment you hate so much is all to appease them! That's like saying it's better to just let someone murder you rather than give them your money, when a third option exists to defend yourself. Yeah, the sensible option is to give them your money. But if you're trying to send a message, you'd pick the radical option. The option you DEFINITELY wouldn't pick is to let them fucking kill you.

So basically, if they had handled that final scene in basically any other way, it would have been tremendously better.

Also, it makes a second watch really goddamn difficult when you know that they're fighting so hard just to get to a point where they give up and smoke a fatty at the end. How anti-fucking-climactic.

Spoiler

It was a rebellious action, they were saying fuck you to the people who were running the facilty because they'd been tormenting them.

And it ends with evils god destroying the world, how the fuck is that am amticlimax?

 

[Forgetitnow344]

Snip

Spoiler

But the Director stated it at the end. They weren't doing it for fun. They weren't getting back at the Foundation for tormenting them. If that was the revenge, then Mission Accomplished the second they unleashed the monsters. By letting the Ancients destroy the world, they basically negated the whole premise of fighting for your life. What was the point of anything in the movie if it all culminated in giving up? I don't care if the Ancients destroy the world or not. Whatever ending is reached needs to be earned. You can't have something that dramatic happen just because your characters are assholes and don't want to sacrifice themselves, despite the fact that they'd die no matter what. Hell, that's not even true. They could have just killed the Fool and the Virgin would still live. She actively killed herself just because the guy who's been high the entire time said it would be a good idea. It's an anti-climax because there is no excitement. We've seen the world end in a ton of other movies, why does that still count as an exciting event in itself? It needs more meaning than that.

I'd give the movie a 9/10*

*The ending is shit, make up your own instead and you'll agree with 9/10.

 

[DevilWithaHalo]

Snip

Spoiler

But the Director stated it at the end. They weren't doing it for fun. They weren't getting back at the Foundation for tormenting them. If that was the revenge, then Mission Accomplished the second they unleashed the monsters. By letting the Ancients destroy the world, they basically negated the whole premise of fighting for your life. What was the point of anything in the movie if it all culminated in giving up? I don't care if the Ancients destroy the world or not. Whatever ending is reached needs to be earned. You can't have something that dramatic happen just because your characters are assholes and don't want to sacrifice themselves, despite the fact that they'd die no matter what. Hell, that's not even true. They could have just killed the Fool and the Virgin would still live. She actively killed herself just because the guy who's been high the entire time said it would be a good idea. It's an anti-climax because there is no excitement. We've seen the world end in a ton of other movies, why does that still count as an exciting event in itself? It needs more meaning than that.

I'd give the movie a 9/10*

*The ending is shit, make up your own instead and you'll agree with 9/10.

Clearly we watched two different movies because I saw...

Spoiler

She was going to kill him to save the world and then the Werewolf intervene and saved him, removing the means she was going to use to kill him (the gun). After he killed the director, they were both dead anyway (neither one was getting out of their alive and she was in no shape to kill anyone). At that point it was a matter of whether or not you wanted everyone to go down with you; considering there was an entire organization built for the sole purpose of sacrificing you to the ancient gods, why not fuck them all? It was the final joke at the expense of the audience; humanity wasn't doing all that great anyway, let someone else have a shot.

 

[Forgetitnow344]

someone else

Spoiler

That's the point. There was no one else. There was the Ancients and us. What kind of fatalist attitude is just throwing the entire world under the bus just because you think something better may happen? Are you saying this is how you would want the world to end in real life? You don't want whoever's in control to at least fight for the life of everyone you know? You'd appreciate him just sparking up a joint and chilling instead of saving you?

That's absolutely retarded.

 

[The Big Boss]

Did anyone else think that the big corporation in the film may have been Wolfram & Hart from Joss Whedon's Buffy spin-off Angel?

 

[MorganL4]

Snip

Spoiler

But the Director stated it at the end. They weren't doing it for fun. They weren't getting back at the Foundation for tormenting them. If that was the revenge, then Mission Accomplished the second they unleashed the monsters. By letting the Ancients destroy the world, they basically negated the whole premise of fighting for your life. What was the point of anything in the movie if it all culminated in giving up? I don't care if the Ancients destroy the world or not. Whatever ending is reached needs to be earned. You can't have something that dramatic happen just because your characters are assholes and don't want to sacrifice themselves, despite the fact that they'd die no matter what. Hell, that's not even true. They could have just killed the Fool and the Virgin would still live. She actively killed herself just because the guy who's been high the entire time said it would be a good idea. It's an anti-climax because there is no excitement. We've seen the world end in a ton of other movies, why does that still count as an exciting event in itself? It needs more meaning than that.

I'd give the movie a 9/10*

*The ending is shit, make up your own instead and you'll agree with 9/10.

Spoiler

You have got to figure, If you have just seen all your friends die and then got mauled by a werewolf, would you be willing to kill the last of your friends when he is the one who just killed the werewolf? AND saved you from the redneck zombies? I mean she was pretty stressed out and at that point I don't know if you would give a damn about the rest of the world... I mean seriously? Would you, after "the rest of the world" required you to be tortured in order for it to live, you are then supposed to show it compassion? I don't think most people would. Also, if greek mythology ( and star trek) have taught us anything it is that gods need worshipers, so they'd have made someone else I mean they are gods...

 

[Forgetitnow344]

Snip

Spoiler

But the Director stated it at the end. They weren't doing it for fun. They weren't getting back at the Foundation for tormenting them. If that was the revenge, then Mission Accomplished the second they unleashed the monsters. By letting the Ancients destroy the world, they basically negated the whole premise of fighting for your life. What was the point of anything in the movie if it all culminated in giving up? I don't care if the Ancients destroy the world or not. Whatever ending is reached needs to be earned. You can't have something that dramatic happen just because your characters are assholes and don't want to sacrifice themselves, despite the fact that they'd die no matter what. Hell, that's not even true. They could have just killed the Fool and the Virgin would still live. She actively killed herself just because the guy who's been high the entire time said it would be a good idea. It's an anti-climax because there is no excitement. We've seen the world end in a ton of other movies, why does that still count as an exciting event in itself? It needs more meaning than that.

I'd give the movie a 9/10*

*The ending is shit, make up your own instead and you'll agree with 9/10.

Spoiler

You have got to figure, If you have just seen all your friends die and then got mauled by a werewolf, would you be willing to kill the last of your friends when he is the one who just killed the werewolf? AND saved you from the redneck zombies? I mean she was pretty stressed out and at that point I don't know if you would give a damn about the rest of the world... I mean seriously? Would you, after "the rest of the world" required you to be tortured in order for it to live, you are then supposed to show it compassion? I don't think most people would. Also, if greek mythology ( and star trek) have taught us anything it is that gods need worshipers, so they'd have made someone else I mean they are gods...

Spoiler

Then most people are cowardly. I would sacrifice myself for the world in a heartbeat. Think about this: no matter how worthless you feel, wouldn't it be nice to trade your life for every other human life on the planet? How worthwhile would you feel? It's absolutely shameful to just sit and huff about it and it makes the movie unwatchable a second time around.

 

[DevilWithaHalo]

someone else

Spoiler

That's the point. There was no one else. There was the Ancients and us. What kind of fatalist attitude is just throwing the entire world under the bus just because you think something better may happen? Are you saying this is how you would want the world to end in real life? You don't want whoever's in control to at least fight for the life of everyone you know? You'd appreciate him just sparking up a joint and chilling instead of saving you?

That's absolutely retarded.

Considering it still relates to the movie... incoming spoilers...

Spoiler

There were the ancients, us 'and' all the other manner of supernatural critter. What really interested me personally, is how the system was started and maintained up to this point. Why did the gods go to sleep in the first place? How was the deal made? How did round up all those horrors to use on the sacrifices? Without answers to some of those questions, I have to draw my own conclusions.

Was is the end of the world? Maybe, maybe not. Keeping the secret and sacrificing 4-5 people a week (that was the impression I got) to appease ancient powers seems like feeding a fat kid a cookie every now and then so you don't have to deal with him. The various screens of other nations attempting the same thing indicated to me that the failures of the other corporations could mean we finally had the means to combat them. That being the case, forcing the failure in the cycle forces the confrontation, possibly meaning the ends of the ancient gods. So you lose a few million people in the process, but you'll never have to deal with them again.

Do I sympathize with him? Certainly. I figure my final act in this life will probably be a defiant one, and I can certainly understand his reasoning. He was dead, no matter what; why continue being a part of something no one knows instead of forcing the situation so the whole world knows the truth and can decide for themselves what they want to do about it? It's a theme Jos has used before; are the sufferings of a handful of people a reasonable price to pay for the well being of an untold amount? I'm not convinced.

I also found it incredibly ironic that the most clear and level headed person there was a pot smoker; which indicated to me that the status quo was not to be supported in this film. The only way one could break free of an infinitely pointless system of sacrifice and placation was to break it entirely. The alternative being that humans continue an equally pointless venture in their own destruction and misery at each others hands. It was a shit choice, and the only thing he could do in the end was make a choice.

I would have done the same thing. Albeit for slightly different reasons.