Carl the Critic: Reviews "The Cabin in the Woods" [No Spoilers]

Let's start at the beginning.

This film was made in 2009, by "Cloverfield" writer Drew Goddard. Goddard directed and co-wrote the script with the film's producer Joss Whedon (the man who gave us "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel", and is also giving us "The Avengers"). However when MGM went into bankruptcy, a deal was made to sell the film to Lion's Gate Entertainment, the same company that gave us "The Hunger Games". This delayed the release of the film until 2012, and was released to theaters on April 13, 2012.

According to the filmmakers, they feel as though the horror genre has become more "torture porn" and it was their goal to revitalize the horror film to its original roots.

But did they really do any good for the horror genre? Well assuming that you've either seen the film or at least have been on IMDb or Wikipedia lately, you already know the answer to this and you don't need to read any more, but assuming that you are not sure if this is a film you'd like this film or not, keep reading.

5 stereotypical horror movie victims: The Whore, The Athlete, The Love Interest (in the film he's called "The Scholar"), the Druggie (in the film he's called "The Fool"), and the Virgin (in the film she's called... Oh wait a minute). They are going to spend the weekend at the Athlete's cousin's place, a cabin in the woods, because... Use your imagination. On the way to the cabin in the woods, they stop off at a gas station where we meet another stereotype, the creepy prophet whose back story is never revealed and because he only has ten minutes of screen time you don't have to worry about him. They get to the cabin in the woods, and strange things start happening.

Oh crap, sorry I forgot to mention, while all of this is going on, there are these two guys who are tracking these kids and control certain environmental elements like trap doors opening, pheromone mists, cave-ins, and other things.

I thought this was a very clever film; it's really different than most of the modern horror films, especially since it was more horror-comedy than actual horror. People have drawn parallels to films like "Evil Dead 2", and "The Truman Show", and even "The Hunger Games" (which some people claim that this was a rip-off of "The Hunger Games", even though this was technically made in 2009, and "The Hunger Games" film came out THIS YEAR!!! However it makes sense that the same company that distributed "The Hunger Games" would also distribute a movie with a similar reality-T.V. story). I saw it as mostly being like "The Truman Show", except darker and with references to other horror films like "Hellraiser", "Wolf Man", "Strangers", etc. Not only were there scenes of legitimate scares, but it has this great dark sense of humor that the film pulls off very well, playing with typical horror film clichés, and bringing forth a logic to them that can be used to explain why people in horror films do stupid things.

I found this film to be so enjoyable that I almost had no real criticisms for the film. I'm serious, from beginning to end I had such a great time that I almost gave this film a 10 out of 10 in my Overall. I guess the only main criticism for the film is about the ending, and how it drags out slightly. Around this time the film's energy is dying down, but it's not a bad ending, it ensures no sequels and it is a great way to end a film like this.

Like I said, I was going to give this film a 10 out of 10 if it wasn't for the ending. I will never look at unicorns the same again. I gave the film 9.7 out of 10.

Carl the Critic © 2012 HubPages.com