Movie Review Cabin in the Woods (With guest Reviewer Faith Rogers)

Cabin in the Woods (2012) 

Directed by Drew Goddard 

Written by Joss Whedon, Drew Goddard 

Starring Chris Hemsworth, Kristen Connolly, Anna Hutchinson, Jesse Williams, Sigourney Weaver, Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford 

Release Date April 13th, 2012 

Published April 20th, 2012 

Sean: This week, in the very first installment of Faith Hates Critics we watched director Drew Goddard’s comic horror deconstruction “Cabin in the Woods,” one of my favorite movies of 2012 and one, Faith, I assumed you would love. As an admitted fan of horror movies you have likely seen the plot of ‘Cabin’ a few dozen times. Four college aged supermodels and their stoner buddy make their way to a secluded cabin, are warned away by a creepy gas station owner and proceed to die horribly accept for the virgin required for the sequel. It’s practically a song that gets covered and cracks the top 10 repeatedly.

“Cabin in the Woods” takes this plot for a spin and deconstructs it wonderfully by introducing a pair of controllers played by Bradley Whitford and Richard Jenkins who act as comic relief and as jaded, cynical, stand ins for the dozens of horror movie directors who’ve run through this same premise over and over for years. The humor of “Cabin in the Woods” is savagely meta-textual and unrelenting as one horror trope is trotted out, poked fun at and dispatched with enough surprise and gore to satisfy the horror audience, and people like myself who can’t stand the same-ness of most modern horror movies. For me, “Cabin in the Woods” is a refreshing, “Scream-esque” rebuke of the bad horror films that came before it.

Faith: I do love a horror movie they are possible my favorite genre of film.  However, I found “Cabin int the Woods” absolutely ridiculous.  It started off intriguing enough with four kids heading off into the woods, a great set up for your average gore-fest.  Throw in the “controllers” and that was an interesting enough twist.  But Sigourney Weaver where in the F*** did she come from.

My real disappointment comes from the cluster that is “Cabin” if you are going to have a scary movie with a plot then get to it at the beginning of the movie.  Don’t throw it in bits and pieces as the movie goes along and then hit you with what is really going on in the last 10 minutes of the film.  Otherwise, make is what it is frightening, bloody, mindless entertainment.

Sean: Admittedly, Sigourney Weaver was a bit random and unnecessary but she’s such a fun choice that I didn’t mind it. For me, by the end, as Dana, the ‘Virgin,’ and Marty, the stoner, were making their way toward Sigourney Weaver things had grown so outlandish and over the top that I didn’t mind the complete goofball choice to have the whole thing be predicated on monstrous Gods of the old Earth who will rise if they don’t get exactly the kind of sacrifice they desire. If there is puzzlement for me in “Cabin in the Woods” why do they have to build such an elaborate premise just to kill four college kids? Why not just kidnap them and put a bullet in them? That’s a big plot hole; one that’s briefly explained away by the controllers as an attempt to make the sacrifice more entertaining for some unknown audience, but I would have liked the movie more if they had further implied, via the Japan sub-plot, that many modern horror movies are actually real life sacrifices to these Gods and are made as movies as a way of covering up the murders and paying the bills for keeping the Gods fed. That might have made the movie even better for me, even as I love the movie as it is.

Faith: Sigourney Weaver just shows up out of nowhere and there is no explanation for her character.  Who is she?  Where did she come from?  Why show up in the last 10 minutes?  Oh right, so she could explain the plot and beg the virgin and stoner to die…no bueno!  For a horror movie just on its own it wasn’t very good.  There weren’t any memorable moments that made me jump or made my chest tight.  The blood bath at the end with the “gods” was just ridiculous but not in the least bit frightening.  If I am going to sit through two hours of any movie I want to be entertained and if it’s scary I want to be scared.  This movie just didn’t do any of that for me.  I have to ask though would you watch two hours of a movie about 4 kids getting kidnapped and having a bullet put in them?  That seems even less exciting than “Cabin” turned out to be.

Sean: Of course not, that movie likely would not last two hours. Your right about the final battle being ridiculous but, for me, that was part of the film’s charm. Once the movie lets loose with an ocean of blood and guts the movie completely spins out of control. The craziness just keeps ramping up from zombies to a mer-man to a murderous unicorn, it’s all so gloriously goofy. This is needed to get to the big reveal at the end of the hand of one of the Gods reaching out from beneath the surface of the Earth and crushing the cabin, thus beginning the implied end of all humanity. This is such an outlandish and unexpected ending that, for me, it seemed the only possible ending for a movie this out of control. I loved that CGI hand because it was bad CGI, it was played for laughs like the entire movie was played for laughs. After the film has exhausted all other ways out of this scenario, it turns to the kind of bad CGI that the SyFy channel has made famous to end it; hammering home the final cliché of the kind of horror movie ‘Cabin’ was made to destroy.

Faith: Maybe we have blurred the lines a little bit here.  When we sat down to watch a horror movie that’s what I thought we were watching.  Not a silly little movie that was less than scary and absurd.  Maybe my problem is not so much with the silliness of the movie and how over the top it was but with the marketing of the movie.  If you imply you are a horror movie then you need to scare me otherwise, you are not and you misrepresented the entire movie.  Maybe if I had gone into it with a clear perspective I wouldn’t have been so disappointed.  Let me know the movie is on par with “Army of Darkness” and I am glad to watch it that way.  Make me believe the movie is going to scare me then I am going to be disappointed when it turns out silly and awkward. Which I think are the two best words to sum up “Cabin in the Woods” silly and awkward.

Sean: That’s a fair point. The creators of “Cabin in the Woods” were quite cagey about the marketing of the film because they didn’t want the secret to get out. They allowed the film to be marketed as a horror movie so that no one would reveal the movie’s secrets. That likely led a lot of people, like you, to feel misled about the kind of movie they were seeing. I had read enough of the pre-release hype that I was a little more prepared for the kind of movie “Cabin in the Woods” turned out to be. I’m also a big fan of Joss Whedon who co-wrote the script and produced the film. His reputation was built on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and the deft deconstruction of both horror cliches and the cliches of modern teen culture and the teen soap opera genre. With Whedon involved I knew to expect far more than just a slasher movie. You make a very fair point however; as there is no question that many people were given the impression of a straight horror movie and wound up in an absurdist send-up of a straight horror movie.

Faith: I very much enjoyed “Buffy” and the fun behind that series.  However, regardless of who had a hand in “Cabin” I would never watch it again and I would never recommend it.  I don’t want to be sold a lie when I see a film trailer and as that is the case with “Cabin” I really can’t get behind it as a good or even average movie.

Sean: And so we begin with a respectful disagreement. I love “Cabin in the Woods” for what it is and you, quite fairly, dislike it for what it pretended to be. In the future, I will expect far more vitriol Faith but for a first outing, Thanks for not punching me.

Movie Review: Cloverfield

Cloverfield (2008) 

Directed by Matt Reeves

Written by Drew Goddard 

Starring T.J Miller, Mike Vogel, Jessica Lucas, Lizzy Caplan, Odette Yustman

Release Date January 18th, 2008

Published January 18th, 2008

The monster movie has grand history. Not just the great Godzilla but the subtext that accompanied the great lizard. Frankenstein's monster was both a force of horror and a force of subtext, addressing repression, discrimination and the dangers of mob mentality. The modern monster movie has had less and less on the subtextual front with movies like The Mist reveling in the technology necessary in creating giant monsters rather than crafting a message to work in behind the monster.

Now comes Cloverfield from producer J.J Abrams and director Matt Reeves. Much like The Mist, Cloverfield is mostly about technology and movie magic and not so much about stimulating the brain or making audiences think.

There is however, some visual allusion to deeper meaning. Because Cloverfield is about a monster destroying New York, crushing skyscrapers and such, the spector of 9/11 lingers in the margins. Director Matt Reeves makes a very conscious decision to use imagery of that day in his monster movie and these moments are highly discomfiting. For all the great subtextual moments in the history of the monster movie, some movies aren't worthy of such serious underpinnings or deeper meanings. Cloverfield with it's cardboard characters and giant monster motif simply is too superfluous to refer to our nations greatest tragedy without seeming to demean it.

Rob (Michael Stalh David) is leaving New York for Japan. His closest friends are throwing him a huge going away party. While Rob's brother Jason (Mike Vogel) runs around causing trouble for his long suffering girlfriend Lilly (Jessica Lucas), Rob's best friend Hud (T.J Miller) has been left with the task of filming the whole event for posterity. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the guest of honor, his friends have invited his ex Beth (Odette Yustman) to the party. Actually, Rob and Beth are supposed to be just friends but we know that they have slept together and that Rob screwed things up really bad, so bad that Beth arrives at the party with a date.

All of this personal angst is rendered meaningless when an explosion rocks the apartment building and suddenly the head of the statue of liberty is flung down the street. Soon a mass evacuation is underway and our new friends are frantically running the streets with Hud filming the whole time as is typical of our youtube culture.

I must say that though I find Cloverfield to be shallow, it is quite thrilling at times. Crossing The Blair Witch Project's shaky cam with a big budget CGI monster, Cloverfield creates a viscderally exciting atmosphere where this giant moster attack feels real. Director Matt Reeves made some interesting choices in allowing actor T.J Miller who plays Hud, to actually shoot some of the film with his little handheld camera. Most of the action is captured with a steadicam and skilled operators but all of the action feels authentic in it's slightly goofy, monster movie way.

I'm still hung up on the shallow allusions to 9/11. While I appreciate the history of moster movies and great subtext and metaphor but something about Cloverfield feels unworthy of the tragedy it samples more than metaphorically reflects. Cloverfield plays like 9/11 movie mashed up with a monster movie and the two elements coalesce like Weird Al Yankovich mashed with Radiohead.

That said, I cannot deny that Cloverfield is exciting and compelling. I was caught up in the films run and hide and run some more plot and at a mere 80 minutes, Cloverfield does not overstaty it's welcome. Puddle deep with uncomfortable allusions, Cloverfield is little more than a modern monster movie with new age movie magic employed to good effect. I recommend it for anyone with a strong stomach, all that shaky cam can tend to make some a little queasy.