Cabin in the Woods - Page 2

I was floored when I saw that it didn't do at least 25 & 6. With all the hype and good reviews I figured it would dethrone Hunger Games. I liked the movie and so did my wife. It started out painful though with the typical lame characters and premise. Where were all the teenagers and horror fans on opening weekend?

I loved the movie. It is very hard to pull off humor in a horror film. 8/10

+1. Which is why I usually hate horror comedies Ã* la Sam Raimi's. There. I said it.

I attended a matinée and had some great laughs. Definitely has an element of dark comedy ala Whedon to it and a lot of homages to other horror flicks.

Yep.

If it's a "horror/comedy" then there's little hope of there being any actual horror (that is suspense or anything to scare, over mere gore or monsters).

One of my pet peeves was how horror became watered down in the 80's by introducing the comedy element, or by just watering down the scares to appeal to broader audiences. It's like horror films felt they couldn't be taken seriously anymore so there were so many winks at the audience "Don't worry, we aren't taking this seriously, so neither should you."

Sam Raimi's Evil Dead movies (even though I enjoyed them) was part of this (how anyone ever was fooled that The Evil Dead was a scary horror movie, as many people were, is beyond me), but so were movies like The Goonies, Gremlins, and for me the big "uh-oh, horror is dead" movie was Poltergeist. I know lots of people love that film, but for me it tried to be too many things, and traded true horror for crowd-pleasing special FX. Not a moment scared me or creeped me out in that film even as a teenager, and from then on it seemed like so many other horror films started losing their bite.

For me, the best movie ever to combine comedy with true horror/scares successfully was Jaws (at least back in the day when the scares were still fresh). The scary parts were truly seat-ripping, with scenes like the floating head giving nightmares for weeks. Which was part of the reason why all the funny little character moments got real laughs as well - a way to ease the tension. Somehow in Jaws the balance was perfected, but in other movies too often the laughs or the winks undermine the threat in the movie so it tames all the scares.

Saw Cabin in the Woods. Loved it. Or didn't. For a week now haven't been able to make up my mind. Kranz was great though, esp. the 2nd half.

I liked it but I can't say its a 10/10 horror movie. Will have to see it again

Sometimes that fence just gets in the way.

I just saw Cabin In The Woods.

Like most I found it pretty entertaining. The writing was just funny enough, and the plot was just twisty enough to make it entertaining on a "I wonder what happens next" level. It was hardly genre-busting since send ups and twists on the cliches of the horror genre have been done for quite a while.

Though I enjoyed it on it's own terms, it did raise once again my beef with these types of movies. Given the horror wasn't taken remotely seriously (that's ok if it's a comedy) there was never an ounce of actual scare or suspense...the "horror" moments feeling utterly undermined by the light hearted tone and feeling so wrote it could be time to take a nap.

So it sort of irks to see films like this referred to as a "horror movie" rather than a comedy. It's not a "horror movie" with some comedy. It's just a comedy/horror-movie send up. I associate horror movies with actual intent to scare the audience (and hopefully fulfilling that goal). When these types of films get referred to as horror, it has a way of watering down the genre. Like what happened in the 80's....once a light "we want to make sure you know we aren't taking this seriously" tone was interjected into the genre, fewer movies were actually scary anymore, and you never really knew if you were going to see an actual horror/scary film or a goof-up on horror.

This is the type of film that is fun once in a while, but I agree with the way Pat Travers of Rolling Stone started his review: "If it's true that you always kill the thing you love, then horror honchos Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard have taken an ax to slasher cinema in The Cabin in the Woods and chopped it up for kindling."

Insofar as this would inspire similar takes on "horror" it certainly does take the life out of the genre. Though, fortunately, I'm not really expecting it's influence to stop others from making real horror flicks.

But, still, ....fun!

What a stupid POS this was. Wasn't scary, wasn't funny...HA, HA. F U Josh whedon. Can't believe I wasted 2 hrs on this crap. The avengers damn better be good next Tue or I'm forever done with this Mo Fo hacker. Thank god NF had also sent me a copy of Katy perry a Part of me which was 100x better and entertaining and washed away this trash from my head.

Don't worry, you won't hear anymore from me as this is my only piss on this garbage. I'll revisit and read just so I can keep tabs on who around here fell for this nonsense.

So I assume you're not a fan of horror comedies then? ...I hate them too. I like scares, tension, dread... I was disappointed too by the film, because the trailers looked very intriguing ; but then it becomes a farce as the story unfolds. Which was the point, but I don't like it.

...You haven't seen The Avengers??????... Well you can't compare the two really. It's a perfect balance of action, humor, summer blockbuster fun, and Marvel characters. It just works. My favorite superhero is still Batman (not because of Nolan, simply because he's always been my favorite), but Marvel did a perfect job building these franchises and finally getting the gang together. And when I say Marvel, I mean everyone involved in these films. It probably was no simple task to "assemble" them in The Avengers, but Whedon pulled it off perfectly.

Pardon my quoting myself, but my profound views on the film bore repeating:) I still don't know where I stand on it, other than it wasn't a waste of time. I think anyone watching it now though can't help filtering their view of the film from what has happened since. Hard as it is to believe now, at the time Whedon seemed to have lost his mojo. Coming off a cancelled tv show that had even some of his fans shaking their heads and a cancelled attempt to make WW, things weren't looking too good. So he locked himself in a hotel room with one of his former writers and had a laugh. It wasn't meant to be serious art, I don't think. Course by the time it was finally released everything had changed...

Hmmmm...
I haven't really read anything about the plot and don't really have a clue about it, other than JW was involved.
My NF copy arrived today and will try to get to it tonite.

I rented this on Vudu the other night and enjoyed it more than I did in the theater. I think the biggest misconception leading to letdown for me was that this was a "horror" film. Not worth owning IMO but it was entertaining. Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

Remember spoilers, folks! Thanks.

Up until the exposition, I thought the movie was pretty good except for maybe some of the silliness that doesn't seem silly to younger people. After that it was so-so. Some good effects and neat "monsters", but I just watched it to see what eventually happens. I thought the premise was pretty good, but I'd like to see someone else take a more serious stab at it. Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
larry

Pretty good flick. Like Disturbing Behavior or The Ruins caliber. It is just "horror" enough to warrant that tag but barely.

I’m surprised at the overall positive feedback from this one. I’m with zoey; I thought it was bad – a jazzed up B movie. I didn’t find anything that was scary, but maybe that's because it was targeted to the teen audience, and the more I see of the teen targeted horror movies the more I dislike them. Three or four reasonably good-looking teens (or young college students) do stupid sh*t. Been there, done that.

When they “released the hounds,” it was so ridiculously over the top that it became laughable. Gore, just to have as much gore as you can possibly provide. I think the genre has been tapped out.

What a warped bunch of people that controlled this mess. With the exception of one person, it was Super Bowl Sunday for everyone else. I could have accepted it had it been set in the future but it wasn’t.

The best character with the best lines was the pot-smoking dude.

With the success he’s had recently, why in the world did Richard Jenkins sign up for this?
Edited by Aliens - 10/2/12 at 6:03am

I pushed the like button but I need to do this: +1K. You know, as a statement.

Which is ok by many. The Ruins and Disturbing Behavior come to mind as favorites in this area.

I checked out The Ruins, and I haven’t seen it. But Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

Seems that you completely missed the point of the movie, which was an obvious deconstruction of and commentary on all of those genre cliches.

but it was too much of a caricature.

I’m with these guys.

David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter remarked, "It’s just too bad the movie is never much more than a hollow exercise in self-reflexive cleverness that’s not nearly as ingenious as it seems to think.”

A.O. Scott of The New York Times said, "Novelty and genre traditionalism often fight to a draw. Too much overt cleverness has a way of spoiling dumb, reliable thrills. And despite the evident ingenuity and strenuous labor that went into it, The Cabin in the Woods does not quite work."

As a whole it didn’t work for me, but it worked for others and that’s okay.

The SQ was excellent.

As the movie progressed, the more the one girl reminded me of Emily Blunt. The blond was very sexy. I always find something enjoyable.

Actually, I think it was the opposite problem. It didn't go far enough in the deconstruction (until the finale, but even that eventually fizzled.)