Austin Folkertsma
campus editor
“Cabin in The Woods” is a stereotypical horror film and that’s on purpose.
Chris Hemsworth and Kristen Connolly star in this Universal Studios production about five college students that vacation to a relative’s cabin, but little do they know, the choices they make are about to cost them.
Things go away after one of them opens a diary and starts reading it. After reading the sacred Latin text, their doom is soon to be discovered. As monsters began assaulting them, the five parted ways, coming face-to-face with a family of redneck zombies in their fight to survive.
When running for their lives, they find out that they’re being manipulated by scientists and discover that they are forcefully participating in a worldwide ritual and have been given the illusion of free will. When the other participating countries fail to complete the ritual, it is up to America to complete the blood sacrifice to appease the ancient gods below the earth’s crust.
Director Drew Goddard and writer Joss Whedon came together to try and bring a resurgence to the slasher film genre, creating an ironically sadistic film. It’s all about that horror feeling that we are all used to, but it puts a twist to it. It references older horror movies, and modern ones, like crazy.
It pays homage to “Hellraiser’s” Pinhead with a monster called “Hell Lord.” There are a lot of references to “Ash vs. The Evil Dead” such as the titular cabin, the reading of Latin text in the diary and the way they summoned the evil entities. The movie made a reference to “Silent Hill” with an appearance of a monster from the game. H.P. Lovecraft’s work is referenced in the film because his style of writing incorporates ancient deities.
This film is reference galore. Pennywise the Clown, the masked people from “The Strangers,” a merman referencing “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” creatures from various pantheons and even a reference to an Asian horror film called “Ringu.”
I don’t think the one nude scene in the movie was inherently necessary. I get it. Every horror movie has to have a dumb blonde, but I also thought the scene ruined the tempo of the movie.
I like how the make-up and special effects paid homage to the original screenplays it’s referencing. The visuals of the movie presented themselves in a much higher quality than the source material they’re taken from.
In the typical movie, there’s always a happy ending and the world is saved. However, “The Cabin in the Woods” doesn’t do what’s usually expected. It takes time to subvert expectations and exceeds in doing so.
Do not expect “Cabin in the Woods” to have this marvelous, blockbuster ending because if you do, I guarantee you will be greatly disappointed. I watched this movie and I thoroughly enjoyed it, but when I watched the ending, I sat there and was in awe by how garbage it was. It would have been better if they would have gone more in-depth about what was to come next.
