This is one of those films I can't review without spoiling EVERYTHING because that was exactly how Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard intended it to be. So just to sum up I thought this slasher movie was innovative, well acted, interesting, and so gory I screamed into a cushion several times. It's a horror film for Whedonites, he is my god and to me everything he touches is golden.
I did go into hysterics once the film was over though, and I mean proper hysterics where you can't breathe properly for several minutes and laugh so hard it hurts your body without being overly sure what you are laughing at...
Now for my review with aforementioned SPOILERS.
Now I know many reviews gave this film one less star than I have, also friends of mine have mentioned that they thought it was 'ok but not the best'. As previously stated Joss Whedon is a god to me and I really appreciated his touch with this film. The humour was evident throughout and the bloodbath at the end was akin to the ridiculous edge that the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie had (which Whedon wrote as well as creating the iconic TV series).
Goddard on the other hand is most famous for writing Cloverfield but this is his first foray into directing. However you imagine Whedon was never far away for guidance, especially as he co-wrote the film with Goddard.
That said I thought the direction and writing were tightly woven, the film never lost focus and remained weird, funny and scary throughout.
Weird is the optimal word for this film because, let's be honest, it's bat shit crazy. Well produced madness, but completely nuts nonetheless. I enjoyed the blend of cliches from all 'college kids in the woods' movies and the innovative ideas behind the reality TV style production. It was like the Hunger Games really with the puppeteers pulling the strings like TV executives, worried about putting on a good show.But it also cannot be directly compared to the Hunger Games because, although humans were pulling the strings, the mysterious gods were the reason behind such an elaborate ritual sacrifice.
I think that is what stood out for me, that the slashing of these young people was to appease mysterious Titans that would rip the Earth apart if not sated by a blood offering. Also the manipulation of the kids (I know they are meant to be late teens/early twenties but 'kids' is quicker to describe them from now on) was brilliant, from infusing the blond hair dye of one of the girls with chemicals to make her stupid, to infecting the house and surroundings with pheromones and decision altering gases to prevent them being sensible and making the decisions viewers often scream at the idiots on the screen such as "DON'T SPLIT UP!"
I loved the group of college kids going off to the cabin, not just because of Thor (aka Chris Hemsworth) but also Fran Kranz and Jesse Williams (Greys Anatomy). To be honest at the beginning I was rooting for the boys to survive. And I forgive stoner Marty for putting himself before the Earth because he was a fantastic character, and I'm kind of in love with Fran Kranz...for those who have no idea who he is watch Dollhouse and I dare you not to fall for Topher Grace.
The fact is the college kids fall into every pitfall and cliche category possible.They carry on to the cabin even after meeting the scary as feck Mordecai, go into the cellar when it just bursts open, read the Latin poem that raises zombies from the dead (sorry they were murderous redneck zombies, totally different category). The zombie did scare the crap out of me, I was actually screaming into a cushion because they were pretty horrifying. But then Whedon does what he does best, and makes them funny. The zombie hand that Marty had dismembered with a trowel 'saves' Marty and Dana, which he praises as if it were a dog that has caught a stick.
I laughed a lot, and out loud. OK so I was watching this movie on my own in my house with a cushion to protect me so I was a bit more vocal than I would be in a cinema or if I was watching it with another human being. Nevertheless I still think I would have laughed, from that opening where Sitterson and Hadley are conversing about fertility treatments and what they are up to at the weekend and its suddenly comes up CABIN IN THE WOODS in startling red letters that fill the screen, to the bird of prey flying along after the college kids but gets disintegrated by the protective wall that encases the cabin in the woods, and even the bloodbath. Yes I laughed a LOT at the bloodbath. That may have been the hysterics kicking in, but it was just SO ridiculous and funny. More importantly it felt like it was on purpose. Amy Acker (Angel) being eaten by a giant...snake? Hadley being eaten by a longed for Merman, a cruel irony which he acknowledges before his death scream.
Sitterson and Hadley were the kinds of characters you do find yourself sort of rooting for. Just doing their jobs, but doing them well. Manipulating the kids into making bad decisions and just trying to not make the world end. Sitterson was played by Richard Jenkins who seems to get small parts in a great deal of films, but is probably best known for playing the dead father in Six Feet Under (you'd also recognise him from Dear John and Friends With Benefits). Hadley is played by Bradley Whitford who was in the West Wing (something I never watched), but I loved him in this film. He showed compassion for the kids, especially Dana. Though I particularly enjoyed his final, meaningful speech to his team being interrupted by the prospect of tequila and a big party.
Like Hadley I also began to root for Dana, she'd had her best friends head thrown at her by a zombie, seen her friend motorcycle into an electric wall of death (funniest death scene because you knew what was about to happen and they all still had so much hope), and a potential love interest be spiked through the neck whilst driving where she ends up in the lake, only to be met by the super scary zombie when she struggles out. Which is why I, though I didn't want him to die, felt I understood when Dana pulled a gun on Marty at Sigourney Weaver's behest (she gets great small, evil roles in movies now which is fab). She also is the one who works out what prompted the horrors of the redneck zombies, where the kids chose their deaths - another facet of this film that I really liked.
Apart from the humour, the horror, the script and direction, the best thing by far was the acting. Joss Whedon is lucky to have an arsenal of actors who fall over themselves to be part of his work, even if the role is tiny. Most important though everybody played it straight, no-one was in this movie thinking 'this is actually a bit of a spoof and a comment on horror cliches so I'm gonna ham it up' they were all serious about their roles. When Dana goes crazy in the cube of death you really feel for her because her connection with the crazy chainsaw guy in the next cube feels quite powerful. Then she decides everyone in this underground facility of horrors should get a taste of their own blood and you can't help going 'yeah you go girl'.
I enjoyed this film far more than I thought I would, which is most likely because I am a supreme wuss when it comes to horror so cannot compare it to a lot of other slasher movies. But it was also funny whilst being gory and horrific, and the humour wasn't from forced one-liners or deliberately funny scenes. No-one could say that a bloodbath is intended to be funny, but the design and the deaths were ridiculous enough for me to both squirm and laugh at the same time.
The end was a moment of brilliance and I think the cause of my (continuing) hysterical laughter. Marty and Dana sit sharing a spliff, wishing they could be witnesses to the apocalypse rather than just causing it, when a huge molten hand erupts from the earth to smash the cabin to bits. End.
I couldn't breathe for quite a while and the memory of it is making me tear in laughter once more. I don't know, maybe I'm just weird or too easily pleased? I guess I called myself the Friendly Film Fan for a reason, and I don't come much more friendly than when reviewing a film from Midas himself, Mr Joss Whedon.
I loved it. I laughed, I screamed. Its pretty much all I want from a horror film.
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