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“You think you know the story,” confidently proclaims the tag line, as director Joss Whedon’s highly anticipated horror film aims to set a new standard for a struggling genre. Coming from a strong science-fiction background with a cult following of fans from shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly, Whedon presents a fresh take on the age-old tale of five friends going to a creepy cabin for a vacation.
The five friends, initially, seem like typical horror film stereotypes – you have the ditzy flirt, the preppy jock, the fool, the secret intellectual and the virgin.
What sets this film apart from the B-movie straight-to-DVD flicks of the past is the horror and gore take a backseat to the storyline. Instead of being one-dimensional plot fillers, the characters all have surprising amounts of depth, which makes you root for them.
As per any Whedon experience, fellow fans will recognize cameos from their favorite actors from shows such as Dollhouse and Buffy, as well as a surprising superstar at the very end. The leads, however, are mostly unknown new actors with the exception of Chris Hemsworth from last year’s action-hero juggernaut “Thor.”
A story within a story, the film revolves around two different perspectives: the kids in the woods being threatened and hunted by creatures of the night, and some middle-aged corporate workers (Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford) in an office working on a project that controls the fate of the world.
The best example of the film’s radical difference from the camp of past horror can be seen in the first five minutes. Quickly contrasting stereotypical blood and gore with mundane water cooler conversation between the corporate workers, the film lulls the audience into a false sense of security before providing the first big fright of the movie as the title flashes across the screen.
The film’s overall tone is diverse, and members of the audience will be crouched in the fetal position peering through their fingers one second, only to be tearing up from laughter the very next.
The film satirizes other horror films as those traditional aspects of implausibility (i.e., don’t go in that room, don’t read the creepy foreign text, don’t split up, etc.) are taken with a dose of hilarious commentary. The audience is inserted into the film as the voice of reason, saying: “Are you really going to do that?”
Imbued with clever wit, subtle social commentary and plot twists that are obvious but have no shame in presenting themselves as such, Whedon’s “Cabin in the Woods” looks to be a surprising success in the spring movie season.
