You think you know the story – five teen friends go for a break at a remote cabin in the woods, bad things start to happen.
So what is the secret lurking beneath the stereotypical creepy cabin? And perhaps more importantly, who will survive and what will be left of them?
The Cabin In The Woods begins as pitch perfect horror in the vein of the many ‘teens in peril’ set ups that horror fans know so well.
But because this is being produced by fanboy favourite Joss ‘Firefly’ Whedon and collaborator/director Drew ‘writer of Cloverfield’ Goodard, things soon take a jaw dropping and highly amusing turn which rips the rug from underneath the viewers.
All is very much not what it seems – and in the interests of not wanting to dilute the pure pleasure of seeing and working it all out for yourself I will not explain anything. Just take it from me, you may never watch a reality TV show in quite the same way ever again.
The main cast are obviously having a good time, including Chris ‘Thor’ Hemsworth as alpha male Curt, Jesse Williams as the brainy Holden and a cracking turn from Fran Kranz as dopehead Marty – imagine Shaggy from Scooby Doo, just even more wasted!.
The girls are represented by the slutty blonde Dana (Kristen Connolly) and the stereotypical cute virgin Jules (Anna ‘Yellow Power Ranger’ Hutchison).
These stereotypes make up the quintet whose life expectancy doesn’t look too good – but also on hand are some nefarious corporate types, embodied by Richard Jenkins and Bradley ‘West Wing’ Whitford.
What The Cabin In The Woods does best is balance some serious disturbing gore and horror with some fantastically well observed laugh out loud comedy moments.
It is this knowing interplay between the two that makes the film romp along so well, dragging the audience screaming with equal parts shock and delight in its wake.
Yes, it gets pretty nasty at points and I certainly wouldn’t recommend anyone squeamish or easily disturbed taking a trip in these woods.
But any horror fan looking to have their world shaken up by a game-changing blast of scary endorphin stimulation, this might be the best horror film to hit for years!
Spotting the masses of horror film references throughout is a fun additional bonus.
And the climax is so Cthulhu-inspired and over the top that this is one freak-em-up thrill show you’ll never forget.