The Cabin in the Woods(SPOILERS)

[FaxModem1]

Seriously, spoilers. If you haven't seen it by now, and you clicked on this thread, shame on you. Go see it, now. The movie works better if you remain spoiler free, so see it without seeing the trailer, or anything else. I'm not kidding, it works better if you see it as a blank slate.











SPOILERS:

Okay. So, this movie was a delight to watch. I stayed completely spoiler free going in, and that's how it should be done. A cliche slasher horror movie of 5 people going camping out in the woods for the weekend. There's the athlete, the stoner, the slut, the virgin and the scholar. While at the same time, we're seeing these people working in some giant office complex and betting pools.

From then on, everything gets turned on its head. The characters are actually people, and don't fit into the archtypes they're supposed to, but are forced to by all the chemicals they're under and the special effects getting them to fall into what they're supposed to be doing. They make the rational, right decisions, but because they're being drugged, start making the cliche decisions that get people killed in horror movies.

The real hoot for me was through most of the movie, watching the people at the office having a blast and acting as behind the scenes gurus trying to make it all turn out with them all dead. Also forcing the people into what they really aren't. The slut, isn't really a slut, but the dye job she got is spiked to make her a less cognitive thinker and she's getting pumped full of phermones. The athlete is actually a Sociology major and a nice guy, but is getting pumped with chemicals to make him more head strong and reckless. The stoner isn't actually an idiot, and his weed habit is actually helping him combat the drugging. These were all great.

It was also great to see Joss Whedon alumni in the movie, albeit in small roles.

What really does it for me though, is the end, when we see almost every type of horror movie creature come out to kill off the government agents. The smorgasbord of monsters was great. The Pinhead stand in, the Pennywise stand in, all of them.

I was able to figure out about halfway through that this was a Lovecraftian style conspiracy, but that made me enjoy it even more. Also, seeing Sigourney Weaver was great.

So, did anyone else see this movie?

[Zor]

The ending where all the monsters get loose in the underground base is just great.

Zor

[FaxModem1]

Yeah, seeing almost every horror monster or an Expy there of go on a killing spree was great.

[The Cooler King]

I saw it a few weeks ago and loved it. I'll agree with the sentiments on the characters; I love how they were all subtly fleshed out (Curt being a sociology major, and at school on a full academic scholarship, or Holden being athletic AND smart) and how they all acted intelligently until the gas started having its effects on them.

And Hadley and Sitterson (the techs) made the damn movie for me. I laughed so hard my chest hurt at the scene where they were on speakerphone with 'The Harbinger'. And, of course, the third-act clusterfuck as the "Army of Nightmares" is let loose. Funny and creepy and badass all at the same time. It did remind me a bit of a mashup between Buffy Season 4 (the Initiative, I think it was called-- the government agency capturing monsters) and the Senior Partners of Wolfram and Hart from Angel.

[FaxModem1]

Same here. At the end, I was thinking that this could take place in the Buffy-verse if one wanted it to.

[Nuts!]

Saw it, loved it. However, the government types get an F- on Evil Base Design and Evil Minion Weapons. You say "horror movie monster," I think "thermobarics" instead of "5.56mm."

[evilsoup]

Well to be fair, against any one of those monsters they'd probably have won... the real stupidity was in having a big red 'let all the monsters out' button.

[FaxModem1]

And I think that was just due to under-staffing, as I think the cages would be better guarded and people actually stationed in the booth with the big red button, but less than ten minutes earlier they were all drinking tequila and having a party to celebrate their victory and how they were done for the year.

[evilsoup]

Yeah, but still, just a big red button? Not even requiring a key (I'd personally have it have to be confirmed in the HQ room to open up the cages)? That's pretty stupid design.

That reminds me, though. There were two things that scared me in this film: the werewolf jump-scare, and the shot of the two remaining people stuck in that glass box, filed away with the monsters (for a moment I had a horrible feeling that the film was going to end there). Ugh.

[Nuts!]

Yeah, but still, just a big red button? Not even requiring a key (I'd personally have it have to be confirmed in the HQ room to open up the cages)? That's pretty stupid design.

That reminds me, though. There were two things that scared me in this film: the werewolf jump-scare, and the shot of the two remaining people stuck in that glass box, filed away with the monsters (for a moment I had a horrible feeling that the film was going to end there). Ugh.

For me, it was the "ding!" noise as the elevators opened. I didn't know whether to laugh or be scared when I saw it.

[Darmalus]

I loved the monster mash at the end, it just mad the movie for me.

I'm rather impressed that every single facility around the world failed, considering the resources at their disposal. Why can't they just throw people in volcanoes, anyway?

[Academia Nut]

I'm rather impressed that every single facility around the world failed, considering the resources at their disposal. Why can't they just throw people in volcanoes, anyway?

Because the sacrifices have to suffer first, but the guys running the scenarios really don't want to do the torture and killing personally. They want to remain in their safe, clean operations booths, far from the blood and screams. They want to be able to say that what they do is necessary and needed while still being able to go back to their families and look them in the eye without blowing their own brains out. It's why they talk about how the kids have to go into the cellar and 'transgress', and how they talk about the creepy old guy as being a big warning sign that everyone ignores (despite the fact that they have set them up to fail). Theoretically the movie could have been a take against outright torture porn rather than slashers, but the creators have expressed outright disgust and loathing at that part of the horror genre and I'm pretty sure that movie has already been done and was just downright unpleasant since the only people not disgusted by it were the ones who failed to get the message.

Also, I think the global failure of the scenarios despite the immense backing is a way of saying that the rest of the world is moving on, but the horror genre is mired in its own formulas and cliches and failing to advance and grow and is thus becoming stale and no longer particularly good at the job it is supposed to be doing.

[JLTucker]

I am one of the few who did not like it overall. I was with it until the end, when the writers decided to pull out social commentary. This would have worked wonderfully if the genre being lambasted had an influx of movies with social commentary. I can think of very little to justify such an out-there move. It felt lazy and the cameo was the icing on the cake.

[evilsoup]

Uh social commentary? What?

[JLTucker]

Uh social commentary? What?

Yeah. I'm talking about the tacked on moral quandary at the end and the nihilistic message that followed. It was unneeded It felt like the writers thought they were being clever making statements that any one and their mother can come up with.

[Ziggy Stardust]

Could you be more specific? I, for one, don't entirely follow what you mean. There is a spoiler tag on the thread so don't worry about giving away plot details.

[evilsoup]

OK well that isn't really social commentary. I thought it was well set up through the whole film, and it was a bit of a lol that the guy refused to sacrifice himself, only to get exploded anyway at the end. At the risk of sounding like a tvtroep-er, it was a nice subversion of the reluctant hero self-sacrifice thing, and all the reactions were entirely believable (maybe if he'd had time to think about it... but just springing 'oh you gotta kill yourself TWO MINUTES GO' would never work).

But really I don't think there was any particular 'message', it was just made by horror movie fans gently mocking the conventions of the genre.

[JLTucker]

The final scene is what I am referring to . We are the gods that need people to be sacrificed so we can be fulfilled. This would work better if the genre consisted of such commentary. The horror genre rarely has films that say somethinng to this effect, let alone anything to ponder.

The "sacrifice ourselves to save mankind" is the tacked on moral quandary that is completely out of place. What was the point besides the implication that mankind should not be saved? It has no place in the satirization of the genre. It should have remained a movie that pointed out how stupid slasher films are. Everything from the set-up scenario to the releasing of gas to induce Stupid Decision Time worked very well. The ending ruined this because Whedon and co. decided to end the film with a cliched message.

[FaxModem1]

I honestly loved the ending, as it turned into a straight up Lovecraft story and the Ancient Ones were finally be released. I wish the hand was more tentacle like, instead of just a hand, but meh.

[fuzzymillipede]

I think the hand at the end may have been another nod to The Evil Dead. Look at this poster.

[FaxModem1]

Well, that explains that then.

[JLTucker]

I think the hand at the end may have been another nod to The Evil Dead. Look at this poster.

That looks like a Mondo poster and I doubt many people have heard of that group of artists. So, I find this unlikely to be the case.

[Jade Owl]

Sorry for resurrecting this thread, but the movie just premiered over here.

I really liked, although the damn trailers spoil the fact that the Fool hadn't been killed.

I'm rather impressed that every single facility around the world failed, considering the resources at their disposal. Why can't they just throw people in volcanoes, anyway?

Because the sacrifices have to suffer first, but the guys running the scenarios really don't want to do the torture and killing personally. They want to remain in their safe, clean operations booths, far from the blood and screams. They want to be able to say that what they do is necessary and needed while still being able to go back to their families and look them in the eye without blowing their own brains out. It's why they talk about how the kids have to go into the cellar and 'transgress', and how they talk about the creepy old guy as being a big warning sign that everyone ignores (despite the fact that they have set them up to fail).

I didn't see it that way. I's not just a matter of suffering, it's a matter of entertainment for the Ancient Ones. If suffering was the point, I'm sure that the people running the facility would have no trouble whatsoever coming up with some psychos who'd have no qualms about personally torturing the kids.

The movie makes clear that the Ancient Ones want to be entertained by the sacrifices being tormented and killed in a very precise and formalistic way.

Also, free will on the side of the sacrifices is and issue. The point of the Harbinger and the "transgression" in the cellar is not to let the people in charge of the sacrifice keep a clean conscience. It's about the need to allow the sacrifices to exercise a measure of free will as required by the ritual:

- They must choose to ignore the Harbinger's warning that they're headed towards danger.

- They must choose to go into the cellar.

- They must choose to mess around with one of the artifacts that summon the monsters, the "transgression" for which they're punished.

That is, in my opinion, the reason why all the rituals failed all over the world. The controllers can only push the sacrifices so far but must leave them a measure of free will, and it's the exercise of that free will which screws up the rituals.

[lance]

Not to mention

-The slut had to die first

-The virgin had to die last/survive

The other facilities had their own rules