The Cabin in the Woods

[captainspud]

Spoiler-free part:

I don't watch horror or teen slasher movies. They're dumb. This is a teen slasher movie, but it isn't, but it is, and in the end it's clever and enjoyable and you'll have fun watching it even if you don't care about that kind of movie.

Bonus: the film contains next to no lazy, cheap "jump scares", which is good news whether you're a true horror connoisseur, or a timid sheep like me who just doesn't like that kind of thing (I hate roller coasters, too). So, if you avoid horror movies for that reason, you can safely see this one. This movie works for its scares.

Spoiler part, just because I had two thoughts/questions:

Spoiler

1. The question: They seemed to be hinting that someone within the facility was trying to wreck the scenario-- they allude to sabotage "from upstairs" vis-a-vis the tunnel collapse, and there's a shouted (and therefore somewhat unclear) bit of dialogue vis-a-vis Marty's drugs where I thought I heard Amy Acker say he was supposed to get tainted drugs but had instead gotten "immunizing" ones instead. There might have been other hints, but those are the ones I caught. The problem is, nothing happens with this thread, if it's there at all and not something I misunderstood. So, is this just an intentional ambiguity, or did my brain invent something that wasn't there?

2. The thought: I've seen a couple discussions of the meta-plot where people wondered why they would use such an elaborate and open-to-failure scenario instead of just shooting five people in the head; basically, the complaint was that while the horror movie menagerie is entertaining, it's ultimately counter-productive and serves no purpose in-universe, existing only to entertain us, the audience, at the expense of in-universe logic. This was actually my thought as well while watching the movie, but in listening to a couple podcast critics discuss it, a thought occurred to me: I think the intention of the filmmakers is to explain that a person asking that question is looking at it from the wrong direction.

In other words, the collection of horror movie tropes and monsters aren't happening to these people because the people running the scenario are re-creating horror movies they've seen. Instead, they're creating an overarching meta-mythology: every formulaic horror movie you've seen was an iteration of this scenario. American horror movies and Japanese horror movies follow different formulae because the American and Japanese sites operate different scenarios. Movies follow stock scenarios because at heart, the old gods are fans of movie cheese, and they get what they want. The US and Japan are the primary drivers of the horror movie genre in real life because their installations, and the scenarios they use, are the most consistently successful; other countries struggle to complete their scenarios because those scenarios kind of suck by comparison.

In short: horror movie tropes don't drive Cabin in the Woods. Rather, Cabin in the Woods created horror movies.

At least, that's my read.

[laughing paradox]

I enjoyed the movie a lot, and I'm a massive horror movie fan. My only complaint is that it wasn't scary, but that did not detract from the fun.

Regarding your spoilers..

Spoiler

1. The one who was sabotaging the electronics upstairs was Marty, the pothead! When he comes back (after we all assume he's dead), he takes the "virgin" girl into the grave, where he reveals that he's been messing with the electronics box and found an elevator. For some reason, Marty's marijuana actually immunized all the pheromones and chemical manipulations that the company was using. There really was nothing more to it, I don't think they meant to allude to a conspiracy.

2. The ancient gods they were trying to appease at the end were the American horror movie audience. The ancient gods always seem to want the same thing, with just a little variation, but don't seem to want something truly original in the genre. I actually agree with this, as most of the fantastic horror that's come out in the past ten years has been foreign films and most people aren't even aware of them. And yeah, I agree.. in regards to this movie.. they created horror movies, horror movies did not create the Cabin in the Woods experience.

[JeyNyce]

I really don't like slasher films either, but I heard that Cabin in the Woods was really well done