Adventures in Netflix: The Cabin in the Woods

This is another big film that I didn't catch in the theaters, was a little embarrassed to have to watch on netflix, but ultimately was glad it was provided. I heard a lot about this movie before I saw it so I was a little bit biased as I sat down. The majority of people who told me about it said it was great, revolutionary even. I don't exactly disagree but I'd like to pose an argument against those comments. The movie was a different take on the entire horror/slasher genre simply because it understood and outwardly embraced the formulaic nature of said genre. Instead of simply making a movie that fit the formula it made a comment about that formula. The whole film is a setup, people in this facility are making supernatural things happen to your stereotypical group of teenage(ish) friends. They know and comment to the audience that things happen the way they do in scary movies because it is in fact a ritual. It's akin to the fourth wall being broken as it breaks down the formula for you. Then, the main characters escape the formula and break into the puppet-master realm. While this is a nice concept, a self-aware slasher, I have a problem with the execution. The film does indeed use itself to make comments about the formula of horror films, but it does nothing to subvert that formula, and in the end, despite some twists and its meant-to-be-progressive attitude, it still follows the formula almost to a tee. At one point in the film one of the central puppet masters basically remarks that he is rooting for one of the kids to survive because she's got heart. Then immediately afterward he's back orchestrating her death in typical slasher fashion. If the intention of this film is to be revolutionary in its portrayal of slasher films it's not enough to have a character mention in passing that it's too bad a formulaic character has to die by the formula if they then continue to use them as part of the formula. Recognizing that the formula is stupid but then using the formula is just hypocritical. Toward the end it seems like the characters escape the formula because they are no longer playing the game that's been laid out for them. However, though they've escaped their planned demise they're still part of the movie formula, it's now just in a different skin.

So that's my issue. It is revolutionary in the sense that it's a horror film that unravels horror films and reassembles them in a transparent mesh. That's what it'd have you think, but it's not really a reassembly so much as it is taking the formula and replacing classic elements with elements that know they're elements. Similar elements nonetheless. All that said, this is still a ridiculously entertaining film. There are some really really brilliant moments and uses of classic horror techniques. The idea that this horror stuff is all part of a bigger darker circle is an interesting concept. And, despite this film still being indisputably categorizable as a horror film, it's still a unique film that hasn't been conceptualized before. 4/5 Stars.