Goddard - best known for his work as a writer on Lost, Angel and Buffy the Vampire Slayer - takes all the most overused horror film tropes and inverts, subverts, turns them inside out and twists them into a Möbius strip. Cynical, nihilistic and unflinching, Goddard's work here will make audiences laugh out loud one moment, squirm in terror the next, and then make you question each of your emotional responses. Like no other, this film makes the audience understand our complicity in the horrors it serves up for our enjoyment.
Like the best entertainment, The Cabin in the Woods holds up a mirror to society and asks us hard questions about the world we've made for ourselves. Is it just? Fair? Why is there suffering when it's within our power to put an end to it? Or do we have that power - is it possible we're just pawns in some cruel taskmaster's game? If there's a fate, should we embrace it or spit in its face? What is the true structure of the world?
Produced and co-written by geek auteur Joss Whedon, this film makes good use of a number of Whedon alumni - Amy Acker and Fran Kranz among them - along with rising stars like Chris Hemsworth (Thor, Star Trek, The Avengers) and veterans like Bradley Whitford (The West Wing). Whedon's scripts are sometimes less than subtle, but in this case his tendency to write dialogue that's just a bit too clever is wisely muted. While there are a few laughs, they're designed to build empathy with the characters and to underscore the film's message.
It's all well and good to create a film with some intelligence and meaning, but is it scary? Let me put it this way: for the first three quarters of the film, I thought this movie might be one of the rare horror films Sylvia could enjoy without freaking out. But once the climax began, I quickly realized that she must never see it, lest she spend the rest of her life in a straightjacket. It is that effective and horrifying in its monstrous implications. (I exaggerate slightly, of course - I don't think it would drive Sylvia mad, but I have no doubt this film would present her with an extremely unpleasant experience.)
Make a trip to The Cabin in the Woods. You may have nightmares, but they'll be worth it.
