Cabin in the Woods owes a debt to Scream. Scream turned an entire genre of movies into a formula and used kids who understood the formula to change the equation, thus paying homage to the genre while also planting its tongue firmly in its cheek. The first 10 minutes or so of Cabin in the woods do the planting, and the rest of the movie crafts a fun homage to horror clichés and formulas. Each fun little reveal builds upon the previous ones to stand alongside Scream as a circumvention of the horror genre. It is sometimes scary, sometimes funny, but always smart and self-aware.
After the intro of the two 9 to 5ers (Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford) we are introduced to 5 stereotypes: the virgin (Kristen Connolly), the jock (Chris Hemsworth), the whore (Anna Hutchinson), the fool (Fran Kranz), and the brain (Jesse Williams). These carpe diem kids are taking their run-of-the-mill trip to their cousin’s cabin in the middle of nowhere. Guess what sort of hijinks they get into? However, thanks to the very clever script by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard, the story changes direction several times. By the time the end credits started rolling, I had been surprised by the directions the story had taken me.
Like Scream, Cabin in the Woods, is part horror, part comedy. Suffice to say, the comedic moments are far greater than the boo! moments. Much of the comedy is created by Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford, who collectively play the objective observer that we can relate to. Unfortunately, although the stereotype characters are certainly better than some of the other horror movie characters I have seen, they are still not well developed; I was more worried as to what was going to happen to Richard Jenkins than Chris Hemsworth.
If Scream is the appetizer to the self-aware horror movie, then Cabin in the Woods is the main course. It bravely takes all our assumptions about what can happen in a horror story and provides us with a fresh way to think about why we sit through these types of stories. Next time I hear a prophetic gas station attendant warily tell me to stay away from wherever I am going, I might want to pay more attention.