are you even listening to me? THE CABIN IN THE WOODS thread (WARNING: SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILEROS! SPOILIDAD!)

directed by drew goddard
written by joss whedon and drew goddard
apparently a very controversial movie

witches
sexy witches
kevin

thanks NZA. I absolutely loved the way they came up with this kind of wacky premise and then just kept going with it. The way shit escalates is just crazy

like i just had a massive grin on my face at "system purge"

and i liked the Lovecraft nods too

i was particularly fond of the attention to detail (the multiple security feeds during the nightmare breakout!...did you guys catch the intern holding the sign? what did it say?!)

xp yes to lovecraft nod...if you're going to make a movie that tips its hat so freaking hard to sci-fi and horror legacies then you damn well better have some old ones

like i just had a massive grin on my face at "system purge"

yeah, this was my favorite part. as soon as i saw that button, i knew shit was gonna get crazy.

christ those Rex Reed/Jeffrey Wells reviews are angering me up

did you guys catch the intern holding the sign? what did it say?!

i dunno, but yes i caught it in passing. wanted to pause and go back so i could read it. lot of details went by almost too fast to catch. like the betting board, which someone thoughtfully posted in the other thread.

I was scanning the board like a madman in the theatre

this was AWESOME

when i saw it, right before it started, this girl, probably around 14, was running down the steps and fell and did a faceplant and everyone laughed. when the elevators dinged she and her two friends gasped so loud everyone in the theater heard it and laughed.

xp oh yeah and some guy down in front shouted "KEVIN!" when the board popped up

Sugarplum Fairy

kind of a "heavy-handed" ending, huh guys?

this was awesome, btw. total blast.

i wasn't really a fan of Franz Kanz though (i assume he's a Whedon regular?). Kind of an awkward comic presence, and not in a good way

I like him, but maybe I'm just envious of that bong

he was in Dollhouse, and (for me) he came across the same way as I imagine he did for you at the beginning of the series, but he eventually developed incredibly well. Same thing happened here, although instead of "incredibly well" it was just "well enough".

christ those Rex Reed/Jeffrey Wells reviews are angering me up

god that wells review is weird. key slice:

No horror film is about basking in the humanity of the characters and taking emotional saunas. All horror films say to the audience, "You're fucked." But even for a genre that has revelled in blood and torture and sadism over the last 25 or 30 years, Cabin In The Woods is a stand-out. Horror isn't about "scary" this time -- it's about an ice-cold spectator game that will deaden your soul. Nobody cares, everybody suffers, blood everywhere, take the pain, life hates you, we hate you, God hates you, Lionsgate hates you, fuck off, we want to hear you scream for mercy. Oh, and one more thing: you're so much more fucked that you know.

Sugarplum Fairy

yeah, it made me want to see all the other permutations SO DAMN BAD

that's the thing, the whole system purge bit is all about the pure joy of horror. All those scary creatures in the same place. It's just fun!

a musical number wouldn't have been that out of place in this

the fact that there was actual payoff for the merman joke is so damn awesome

Gah, the Rex Reed review is even worse than the Wells. And kind of embarrassing, too. He doesn't seem to have understood what was happening in the film:

It’s all part of an elaborate video game that allows paying customers to watch real people slaughtered according to the horror of choice. The five kids in the cabin are innocent pawns to test the mechanics of the game, the way fiends in a horror movie test the sounds of screaming babies as they feed them to the jaws of mutated crocodiles.

The game, like the movie, is a meaningless absurdity. If it sells, people with a passion for gore can experience real terror while the players are shredded, one by one.

the fact that there was actual payoff for the merman joke is so damn awesome

oh yeah, maybe the high point of the whole damn thing. or, well, one of many.

somehow never read a Rex Reed review before, but just from what I saw in his CITW review I can't stand him

yeah, a few critics seem to have gone with the "oh it's a reality show society is crumbling do you see" angle". No it's not. It's to appease THE OLD ONES

South Park had a similar idea in that Britney Spears episode, kind of brilliant and otm actually

the fact that there was actual payoff for the merman joke is so damn awesome

Had a brief disagreement on twitter about this. Guy thought the joke was ruined and should have just been a throwaway line. I disagreed. #teamblowhole

I was worried it was going to be Reality TV very, very briefly, as I think My Little Eye covered that territory pretty well.

the merman joke was expertly built up i thought

they did kind of hint at someone who was watching though right? was it, you know, ripley? or old ones?

did anybody else wish the end credits had rolled over a montage of the only ones completely annihilating the world. like with "holiday road" or something instead of nine inch nails? cuz i sure did.

lol "the only ones"

THEE OLD ONES

Another cabin, another planet

they did kind of hint at someone who was watching though right? was it, you know, ripley? or old ones?

if so, i didn't catch it. seemed to me that the video feed was only for the purposes of the monitors, though it was probably watched in different ways by people at various levels in the operation.

i smacka you face

^ old ones to urfs

a lot of people were awesome in this, but man did bradley whitford fucking knock it out of the park.

otm, though i can't let that go without raising a glass to richard jenkins

One niggling plot hole, though: thry had heart monitors watching all five of 'em, so why were they surprised when stoner dude turned up alive?

I kind of thought that he worked out there something monitoring him and tore it out but I'm making a huge leap there. That whole twist wasn't handled as well as it should have been. Though having the final girl fighting on the dock on those screens as everyone was partying was pretty great.

xpost I think the intern is holding a sign that says "I'm just the intern." May be an in-joke I don't get re: the actor.

Did you catch how many of the scenarios/horror movie cameos pop out of the elevators? Yes, the Angry Molesting Tree makes an appearance, but so does the elevator full of blood from "The Shining."

Still want to know how every international scenario was able to best its villain. You'd think this would be a little less convoluted, given what is at stake. There is a throw-away line like "this was a lot easier when we could just throw someone into a volcano." Well, why don't they? I did like the meta-joke that the reason all the other countries fail is that they are not good at horror, but that doesn't quite explain it.

Double-metagag when they imply the exploding tunnel ruse was messed up by something "upstairs," which briefly implies God. But in this film, the lab is downstairs, so by upstairs they mean the stoner fiddling around with the electrical box. Which they didn't know at the time. And kind of makes for a hilarious God-metaphor.

I used to read Wells a bunch, and I was a regular commenter, but to date that is the only site/forum that made me say "fuck this place," leave and never looked back. The dude is an ass.

Jeff Wells is NOT a critic, just sayin'

this was grebt imo. much funnier than BRIDESMAIDS and not much scarier, but great great fun. the whiteboard and the various horror cameos were brill. sugarplum fairy and Fornicus were champs during the free-for-all.

was kinda bummed that the *SPOILER ALERT* merman *END SPOILER* wasn't ultimately scarier-lookin' but there's no question it had to show. blowhole made up for unthreatening cartoony look.

"am i on speakerphone?"

I dug this well enough, although hardly the "game changer, OMG 5 stars" that some press has painted it. Lots of fun, but *MILD SPOILER I GUESS* the bird hitting the force field in plain sight early on really spoiled the Evel Knievel attempt later as it totally telegraphed the outcome, whereas if that had just been allowed to happen then I'd have been much more WAU *END SPOILER*. Merman blowhole was A+ though, as was speakerphone lulz and as mentioned the attention to detail was v engaging. I did fuckin' love the evil Hellraiser style dude-with-puzzle-ball (is this a thing? I don't recall seeing it before).

Can't say enough good things about the wolf's head scene.

Thor was about to solve the puzzle ball in the cellar.

*MILD SPOILER I GUESS* the bird hitting the force field in plain sight early on really spoiled the Evel Knievel attempt later as it totally telegraphed the outcome, whereas if that had just been allowed to happen then I'd have been much more WAU *END SPOILER*.

That's what I said on the other thread. They blew an opp for another "Deep Blue Sea"-level gag.

I'm totally seeing this again this afternoon, this time with my wife, who has no clue. Before I went the first time, she was all, oh, I won't ruin it for you. So last night I asked her if she knew what was going on in the movie, and she's all, yeah, a bunch of kids go out to a cabin, and a whole bunch of horrible stuff happens to them. I said, you have no idea, and immediately booked a sitter. Though of course, when I saw it on Friday at noon, I was sitting in front of an extended Mexican family: grandma, two parents, possibly an uncle, four kids, the youngest maybe as old as four. I wonder what in the world they got out of it.

>Thor was about to solve the puzzle ball in the cellar.

Should've been clearer: I remembered the ball from earlier in the film, but wonder if this character and device are from the wider world of fantasy/horror than just this movie? It's a clear riff on Hellraiser, but was pretty striking visually and I liked the puzzle master's baleful gaze.

*SPOILER* Josh, spot on, regarding DBS. It seemed an odd misstep, and Thor's "don't worry, I'll get help and we'll kick their ass" speech would have been much more satisfying if his demise had been allowed to play out as a total suprise *END*

Potential cursed basement artifacts iirc included the puzzle ball, jewelry box, conch shell (I assume to call the merman!), mirror ...

Conch was def for the merman.

Pinhead and only Pinhead, I supsect, though I think I get what you mean. The motif and imagery resonate really strong in the moment, the, I dunno, twenty seconds it's confronted it in the CUBE prison.

Yeah, that shot held on the puzzle master's face was a successfully creepy moment, I thought. Rest of the film is a lot of fun, but barely a shiver raised throughout.

I'm of two minds w/r/t to the force field scene - it would have made a fine DBS type scene, w/ say the forcefield showing more strongly (brighter) to key the audience into what it really was and maybe a quick cut to Whitford saying "At least the forcefield isn't glitching, god knows we don't want a repeat of '05."

On the other hand, it's entirely in line w/ the movie's m.o., all the tropes underlined beforehand, the audience knowing ahead of the kids that the end-of-the-second-act uplift is gonna prove false and Thor's heroism is gonna falter, w/ our POV, by that part of the movie, pretty close to the middle-management down in the bunker.

Still want to know how every international scenario was able to best its villain. You'd think this would be a little less convoluted, given what is at stake. There is a throw-away line like "this was a lot easier when we could just throw someone into a volcano." Well, why don't they? I did like the meta-joke that the reason all the other countries fail is that they are not good at horror, but that doesn't quite explain it.

my assumption was that the ritual takes place according to a certain occult logic. there has to be a contest of some kind, and the form of the content has to reflect the ways in which we deal with our terrors. i.e., the contests have to resemble horror movies, because that's the form our anxieties now take. this isn't stated clearly, but it's the impression i got.

On the other hand, it's entirely in line w/ the movie's m.o.

this is true, but like i said in the other thread, the movie would have benefitted, i think, by being a bit more sparing with certain information. the eagle gag is a prime example. would have been a lot more fun if we'd been able to wonder for a second whether or not he might make it. and the exploding hawk scene wasn't that great to begin with.

[*BIG SPOILER*] I also wish they hadn't telegraphed the sacrifice theme and presence of the old ones quite so clearly. I had a pretty good idea what was going on from the film's first images (the drawings and paintings of sacrifices seen reflected in blood during the opening credits). Thought it would have been nice if the watchers' larger motives were allowed to remain a bit mysterious. We knew everything about what was going on before the movie was half over, and that left the second half a bit flat, imo. Funny, but never terribly suspenseful or surprising.[*END SPOILER*]

eagle, hawk, whatever

It's a tough balance, really. If they had saved it all for the end, the reveal would have been a bunch of expository talking. Then again, the Celebrity Cameo was mostly just expository talking, anyway, so who knows?

According to the imdb, someone asked the director after the first screening if there would be a sequel, and he was basically, did you just see the movie?

Like I said, seeing this again today. Anything you all want me to keep an eagle/hawk eye out for that you may have missed?

Puzzle Sphere = Fornicus, Lord of Bondage and Pain
Music Box = Sugarplum Fairy
Journal = The Buckners
Conch = Merman
Necklace = ?

no idea who the necklace might be connected with. and we have to assume that the basement was FULL of stuff we never saw, other items linked to the unicorn, the giant snake and bat, china doll killers, gorebot, etc.

also, didn't it seem that there were a great many more monsters in storage than were reflected on the betting board?

there definitely were more nightmares and sight gags in storage than we saw on the board. from what was on the board i'm quite sad we missed out on the wendigo/yeti. and the snowman.

Old school film reels were prob the werewolf, and there were def china dolls in there somewhere

forgot the film reels! okay yeah gonna have to see this again.

"actually I think we should split up... we can cover more ground that way"

from the pants-shitting thread:

http://i.imgur.com/BQaLg.jpg

husband's bulge

another view of the whiteboard

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b350/YoNoSe/IMG_0308.jpg

okay, what with "dolls" and "unicorn", that seems to cover just about everything we saw in the film. i think? except maybe the death machine...

Just back from second viewing. The necklace has some sort of spider on it.

Fave throwaway gag may still be stoner locking his car through his open car window. Also, noticed that the Ancient Ones give a little warning rumble when the Fool "dies," because they know he's not dead. Another gag is that when the werewolf sneaks up on her at the end, emerging from the darkness, the first thing you see are its teeth, which recall a certain capital A Alien ... which given the context, may not be a coincidence.

Do we see the Snowman in the assault? Wendigo/Yeti is a separate category, so is Snowman, like, a snowman? And do we see Sexy Witches?

i thought this was a bit shit.

well, total awkward boring shit for the first half (bar a couple of amusing office-worker style jokes in the lab), and then after the telephone call it switches into something much more entertaining and funny, but the first half was too long and the second half a bit too rushed. the elevator scene was the best! i would've rather more of the film was set in that giant pandora's box computer game area. the snippet of the japanese schoolgirls defeating their monster was great too, it made me want to see that film instead.

didn't feel there was much surprise value, the meta aspect is made clear straight away. the zombies were so perfunctory and it was impossible to be scared, which i know wasn't the point but you just ended up not caring much about anything in the first half.

~thee olde ones~ seemed a bit of a heavy premise for a basically good-humoured film.

felt a bit weird watching it after the hunger games which tbh "did" reality tv much more creatively.

Reality TV is absolutely the wrong touchstone for this but seriously if u enjoyed the hunger games more I just...

well it's not a direct comparison given how different they are, but by clever meta horror standards i thought cabin in the woods was pretty lacking

Cabin in the Woods seriously has nothing at all to do with reality tv.

I know this kind of horror film in and of itself isn't particularly groundbreaking, and if you went with it or didn't, that's cool, but to say it was lacking in clever meta horror standards feels a bit wtf to me.

There's nothing reality TV at all about this, though I concede it's a bit subtle. The "audience," as such, are The Ancient Ones. All the TV monitors are confusing, because it makes it seem like a broadcast, when in fact the proceedings are being ... monitored.

This movie is meta as fuck. We watch the ritualized actions (cliches) of horror films because they fulfill a primal desire, so here comes a movie that is literally about watching the ritualized actions of horror to appease something ancient. And we watch. Well, some of us do.

so you're saying there were no echoes at all of reality tv in a space where participants are bugged, technicians rig the setting to produce the most entertaining/titillating outcome and everything is captured on camera? riiiiight. it doesn't have to be an actual reality tv show to contain those very obvious overtones.

it's really really not about reality tv. It's about the experience of watching horror movies

to say it was lacking in clever meta horror standards feels a bit wtf to me.

i didn't say it lacked these, i said it wasn't very effective at doing stuff with them.

Yeah. It's not My Little Eye. If anything it's about viewers expectations for fictional Horror, not reality. They have to manipulate and influence the characters so they fit into the boxes the Old Ones expect and act stupid enough to lose.

ah right, well fair enough. would love to see a list of those btw. xpost

even typing out the "old ones" makes me cringe a bit. i mean, it's obviously about watching horror films as well, but the link is that it's about the audience gaze - how we expect to be entertained.

it just didn't do it very well! it makes its point clearly enough but not compellingly. (i mean, i enjoyed the second half but it could've been much better and the first half was just an extended longueur to set up the second half)

There's nothing reality TV at all about this, though I concede it's a bit subtle. The "audience," as such, are The Ancient Ones. All the TV monitors are confusing, because it makes it seem like a broadcast, when in fact the proceedings are being ... monitored.

― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, April 15, 2012 7:22 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah. and i think how condemnatory you read the movie as being depends on what you think of the ancient ones' need to be fed cliches - i said in post-2005 thread that i saw it as a gentle ribbing of the horror audience, but some see it as more damning

i think lex sort of has a point in that "reality TV" doesn't have to be explicitly invoked in order to justify mentioning the implicit similarities. it's about the idea of sacrifice, youth being destroyed (very literally in this case) in order to satisfy some primal need. this makes it a fine meta commentary on the function of kids in horror movies and the appetites of horror audiences, but it doesn't seem unreasonable to also draw connections between this and the function of shows like big brother and jersey shore.

though that's more an associative tangent than anything the film is apparently trying to address

yeah, but it seems unfair to compare to Hunger Games, which is (in a pretty cackhanded way) explicitly about reality TV.

well yes there are parallels but it's not "doing" reality tv which is what he said. There wasn't anything particularly creative about The Hunger Games either (especially considering it's premise was a total rip-off) but that's a whole other can of worms

Reality TV is specifically mentioned in the movie, but mostly as a punchline.

xpost I think it's less that the Ancient Ones like cliches, it's that they're cliches because they're sort of primal vestigial desires left over from the days of the ancient ones. Ergo, the ancient ones prefer virgins, but it's not important. They want the virgin to die last, but she doesn't have to. They want the whore to show her boobs, but it's more a preference. It's definitely a bit damning of horror viewers, that "we" crave the same cliches, again and again, only to be rewarded with sadism - what does that say about our needs? The movie couches it as the needs of the ancients, but, well..

I know Whedon has said it was conceived specifically as a response to torture porn stuff. It just got delayed and has appeared around that genre's ebb.

It's definitely a bit damning of horror viewers, that "we" crave the same cliches, again and again, only to be rewarded with sadism - what does that say about our needs? The movie couches it as the needs of the ancients, but, well..

yeah thats what i mean

i saw it as a gentle ribbing of the horror audience, but some see it as more damning

Yeah - the Ancient Ones strike me more and more as a good metaphor because they're absolute, they need to be appeased. The genre serves a purpose - the movie isn't condemning it from a high art perch ala Funny Games (a good point of ref. considering it was the very first homage in the movie; you made the Haneke ref., right Hungry?), it's very pop and proudly so, albeit detached pop. It just really wants to clear out the stagnant old tropes, squish 'em flat, let something new come along, which I think was alluded to in those final bits of dialogue.

I think by choosing a fantasy setting (vs. the reality setting of "Funny Games") the filmmakers let themselves and us off the hook a little. But then, I didn't leave wanting to punch them in the face, either. So it's a trade off.

I should also note, great use of Nine Inch Nails in the ending credits. They use NIN in the "Avengers" trailer, too. Guess Whedon is on a kick.

Heh: http://blog.moviefone.com/2011/10/11/nine-inch-nails-in-trailers/

(Sorry, back to Cabin in the Woods)

I think by choosing a fantasy setting (vs. the reality setting of "Funny Games") the filmmakers let themselves and us off the hook a little.

If it were a "realistic" context, you'd be positing an alternative, ala Haneke, and implicitly stating the genre as unnecessary. I think Whedon and Goddard love the genre, but just tired of overused tropes.

OTM. this wasn't a critique it was a love letter

or if u prefer an intervention

(but i don't prefer so: love letter imo)

As long as it knows we care.

xpost Huh? Do you mean "you'd" as me" Because I definitely prefer this to Haneke!

This is more critique than love letter, I thought, but it's having too much fun to come off harsh.

SORRY!

More the general abstract "you" i.e. not you, but hypothetical scenario-makers - no offense intended.

I know Whedon has said it was conceived specifically as a response to torture porn stuff. It just got delayed and has appeared around that genre's ebb.

yeah, this movie responds to the genre in much the same way that martyrs does, even using the same basic idea. i'd fault it for that, except that i hated martyrs and loved cabin, so...

It just really wants to clear out the stagnant old tropes, squish 'em flat, let something new come along, which I think was alluded to in those final bits of dialogue.

― "Fourvel - it's like Fievel, but one less." (R Baez), Sunday, April 15, 2012 5:08 PM (34 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OTM. this wasn't a critique it was a love letter

...or if u prefer an intervention

― all yoga attacks are fire based (rogermexico.), Sunday, April 15, 2012 5:25 PM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i didn't see it as an attempt to scold or correct the genre and its fans, but rather as an affectionate metafictional game. to deconstruct isn't necessarily to attack.

did anybody else wish the end credits had rolled over a montage of the only ones completely annihilating the world. like with "holiday road" or something instead of nine inch nails? cuz i sure did.

― BEMORE SUPER FABBY (contenderizer), Sunday, April 15, 2012 3:08 AM (19 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^^ otm!

I sure had a good time watching this movie.

Lots of fun, but *MILD SPOILER I GUESS* the bird hitting the force field in plain sight early on really spoiled the Evel Knievel attempt later as it totally telegraphed the outcome, whereas if that had just been allowed to happen then I'd have been much more WAU *END SPOILER*.

nah, I really liked the bird thing - it seemed like at least half the audience (incl. me) had forgotten about that, and the memory jolt kinda doubled the brainrush I got from the WHAM

this was so awesome, the ultimate by-fans-for-fans horror movie, but unfortunately the whole hilarious Whitford/Jenkins/title card thing is gonna turn off a mainstream audience i think. but fuck it! i loved the shit out of this. i loved that it got a lot of the great bits from both Buffy and Lost as well (so 2007, dudes)

re: the basement, don't forget the wedding dress -> undead ballerina with alien mouth and no face. next time i see this i'll be scanning the hell out of that scene

count me on the side that, yes, while this is a loving tribute to horror films, i interpreted the heroes of the movie basically sitting down and allowing the human race to be killed off horribly is a pretty harsh condemning of the contemporary horror movie audience. but yeah, it's not heneke-level

and bird thing was great! the whole screenplay was pretty damn great tbh

oh and another thing, i liked how the puppeteers' bullshit moralizing about how they "chose" to die at the beginning really doesn't make any sense at all, between the so-called warning from the gas station dude (oh, Mordecai and the speaker-phone) and how they "choose" their form of death in the cellar

what audience would say no to that awesome title card???

lol. best title card use since Drag Me to Hell, imo!

this was so awesome, the ultimate by-fans-for-fans horror movie, but unfortunately the whole hilarious Whitford/Jenkins/title card thing is gonna turn off a mainstream audience i think.

what audience would say no to that awesome title card???

― Hoo Nu Cookies (crüt), Sunday, April 15, 2012 11:19 PM (23 minutes ago) Bookmark

literally 5 people walked out of the movie at that point. it was only like 3 minutes into the film! i didnt get it at all, who the hell sits through 40 minutes of trailers just to go 'nah, i'm good' at the title card? maybe they were waiting for another movie to start or something....

they probably snuck in, lol

oh yeah, and my guess is "Killing Machine" was that giant mechanical scorpion thing

oh yeah, and my guess is "Killing Machine" was that giant mechanical scorpion thing

yeah, i just didn't see that on the betting borad

i liked how the puppeteers' bullshit moralizing about how they "chose" to die at the beginning really doesn't make any sense at all, between the so-called warning from the gas station dude (oh, Mordecai and the speaker-phone) and how they "choose" their form of death in the cellar

yeah, we were told the kids had to transgress in order to earn their punishment, but their transgression consisted of what, toying with some abandoned trinkets in a basement?

yeah...

they also had to be manipulated into the trangressions because the Old Ones expected a certain type of behaviour but in reality those people aren't so easily scaled down into obvious types. except maybe the stoner guy.

apparently they're marketing this as a wacky comedy now? just saw a version of the TV spot w some turd doing lame "comedy" reactions over top. on adult swim, so maybe special for that, i dunno. was horrible.

i think this para from the slate review is otm:

Perhaps because it cultivates this audience disengagement from the main characters’ fate—we’re rooting for our own entertainment, not their survival—Cabin in the Woods rarely comes across as more than a cleverly constructed meta-cinematic puzzle. It’s often funny and smart, but seldom deeply involving, and practically never scary. The last 10 minutes or so suffer from that problem not uncommon in high-concept movies, whereby the story paints itself into a conceptual corner and the forward motion flags.

(which is to say, i'm finding it more fun to think about this film and its various rabbitholes afterwards than i did to actually watch it.)

Sure, I'll concede that. The film chose the meta route above all else, and what it gained from that it lost on other fronts. Though ironically the only solution may have been another huge cliche - these beat up kids triumph over ultimate ancient evil, say, or that we're in some stupid dystopian world that can be changed. It's telegraphed early on that society deserves to crumble, so I credit the film for fulfilling the prophecy, as such.

Inconsistency unrelated to enjoyment: how can such a regular huge-scale save the world ritual that takes place across the globe and regularly puts dozens of young people in danger at the hands of supernatural creatures, a game of sorts run by several hundred staffers and scientists and soldiers, possibly remain a secret?

The most subtle joke of the film, possibly: that in the first few minutes it's revealed that the closest it has ever come to failure was chem department's fault, and that it turns out the turn of events in this scenario was largely chem's fault again.

Other subtle joke: when the "virgin" is making out with dude on the couch, pushes him away gently and says "I've never done this before." Then she gives this split second what the fuck am I talking about look when she realizes she's spouting nonsense.

her very first scene is about sleeping with her teacher!

(actually is that another subtle joke - the "athlete" is introduced by talking about textbooks, the "scholar" by catching the ball)

the whole hilarious Whitford/Jenkins/title card thing

The title card thing is a total lift from Eastbound & Down, in execution, soundtracking, and even aesthetic (filling the whole frozen frame)!

no, it's from Funny Games

In Italian, but you get the idea:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgczUZXVKWA&feature=related

Inconsistency unrelated to enjoyment: how can such a regular huge-scale save the world ritual that takes place across the globe and regularly puts dozens of young people in danger at the hands of supernatural creatures, a game of sorts run by several hundred staffers and scientists and soldiers, possibly remain a secret?

well, we have to assume "massive government conspiracy", which seems sufficiently plausible to me for the purposes of meta-movie comedy

also agree completely with the excerpt from the slate review that lex posted. my emotional investment in the last ten minutes was practically zilch, and after the madhouse of the final act, it came as a bit of a letdown. didn't diminish my enjoyment of the film as a whole though.

But why would there even need to be a government conspiracy?

Because, like, those Japanese school girls? And all the other victors? Won't they just go home and tell everyone they conquered an ancient ghost spirit or giant ape? The gov conspiracy would therefore entail an elite squad killing all those Japanese kids to keep the secret secret. Which is possible (again, I'm just arguing for the sake of it, I liked the movie, and this aspect of it doesn't bother me for a second), but again begs the question: wouldn't it just be easier to kill a bunch of people then rely on this faulty Rube Goldberg scenario?

i don't think the survivors need to be killed. so long as they don't know anything about the involvement of the puppetmasters, their story is that they successfully defeated a ghost or demon or kevin or w/e. people tell crazy stories every day, after all. just provides more belief fodder for the next round of young victims.

i got the impression that the sacrifice's mechanics weren't entirely the result of the puppetmaster's desires. they pine for the simplicity of throwing a virgin in a volcano, after all. we don't really get any answer as to why things are the way they are, but that's okay, imo. an unanswered question isn't necessarily a plot hole. i assumed it was a product of the old ones desires, bureaucracy and the way we now process fear in our culture. the scenarios had to resemble horror movies because horror movies are the "myths" we now use to relate to the idea of supernatural terror and evil.

strike on or the other of those "after alls"

Kiko's spirit will live in the happy frog

lol at complaints about that this became less satisfying in "the last 10 minutes" [aka after the sacrifice is well and truly botched] - u r grumpy old ones do u see?

Kiko's spirit will live in the happy frog

I smell sequel!

Hell Comes To Frogtown!

lol at complaints about that this became less satisfying in "the last 10 minutes" [aka after the sacrifice is well and truly botched] - u r grumpy old ones do u see?

oh sure, but that's not a get-out-of-jail-free card. big exposition scene that reveals only what we already know plus a rote moment of crisis with no possible good outcome = a dud of an ending no matter what the genre or theme. plus shouldn't we old ones be thrilled that we finally got to smash the world at the end?

lol. best title card use since Drag Me to Hell, imo!

― Nhex, Sunday, April 15, 2012 10:21 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

I thought the same thing! I enjoyed this movie much more than I expected to.

the more i think about it the more i think "sorry i let the werewolf attack you...and ended the world" is one of my fav all time last lines

holy shit, hell comes to frogtown! THE DANCE OF THE THREE SNAKES

i enjoyed this movie. my wife and i saw this and hunger games on the same day and i didn't realize til this morning that the dude who plays gale and the "jock" from this movie are brothers.

CITW was much better than hunger games btw.

Which one is Gale? Is he the bro who's in the background of that movie for, like, a minute? Must be, because the other one is Peeta, right?

Silly Hunger Games. Could have used more Kevin or Reptilius.

i think this was commented on above but it was weird to me that this was being reviewed as a satire of horror movies because as a satire it was pretty weak. "horror movies have stale character archetypes" is not much of a zing. but it worked as a straight-up comedy so whatever.

yeah gale is the dude who's back at home, he's more important in the rest of the series.

richard jenkins and bradley whitford were A+ in this movie btw

It's no satire. It's more subversive takedown.

how so

old ones are the horror audience; puppetmasters are horror filmmakers; pain, gore and death are the "sacrifices" offered by the genre to our baser selves

re: satire i loved the "remember when we could just do the girl and a volcano bit" har har

Yeah, as I mentioned above: we, the audience, pay to see innocent people killed in creative ways to appease ancient audience pleased by the same cliches we accept again and again. Real life audience on the losing end of this.

old ones are the horror audience; puppetmasters are horror filmmakers; pain, gore and death are the "sacrifices" offered by the genre to our baser selves

with this in mind, another way to go would have been to have the "puppetmasters" cheating and just showing horror movies to the old ones to keep them mollified. "look, we sacrified like 11 kids in this year's ritual. it's called friday the 13th. no just be good and go back to sleep for 12 months." they try to keep the gods in the dark about the subterfuge, but something happens and they rise up, hilarity ensues.

I really want to read a Geoffrey O'Brien review of this.

There are prob. tons of essays which dwell upon "the horror genre as a necessary ritual", but I keep flashing back to his chapter in The Phantom Empire, re: horror as a genre where quality may be welcome but simply isn't necessary - as long as certain rules are adhered to, the genre's central ritual has been performed well.

otm, and it helps explain horror fandom's happy acceptance of the most wretched drek, so long as it's "done right".

important to keep in mind that this isn't really unique to the horror genre, though. action movies, thrillers, sci-fi, comedies and even romances are similar. all that's really important is that the right sort of spectacle or reward is offered. this is even more apparent in genre fiction, where the production costs are lower.

Though horror films are the only ones that specifically trade in sadism and blood. Those aspects are ancillary to action flicks and rom-coms and whatever. In a lot of horror films (most horror films?) the promise of blood and death is the draw. I mean, tons of action films are violent, but the creative kills scenes themselves are not the specific draw. Hence the advent/rise of torture porn, wherein the elaborate, prolonged, horribly graphic kills are the main attraction, much as explicit sex is the main attraction in conventional porn.

Like, there are "rituals" to all these genre works, sure, in the form of cliches or whatever, but I'd suggest the rituals in horror films reflect the most poorly on the audience.

Yeah - you could extrapolate it to pretty much every genre, though it does resonate specifically w/ horror; I don't know any rom-com fanatics who spend every Saturday with three nigh-random dvds...

oh yeah, horror fandom is intense. it's like metal fandom that way. but sci-fi fandom is v similar, and that doesn't typically revolve around death/killing at all.

my point was that it's a little to easy, imo, to get caught up in the specialness of horror's "sacrificial offering". lots of popular genres exist to provide a certain type of reward (or punishment, perhaps).

edit: "a little too easy"

"horror as a genre where quality may be welcome but simply isn't necessary - as long as certain rules are adhered to, the genre's central ritual has been performed well"

Yes you'd think the Old Ones (as genre aficionados) might have decided against bringing on the apocalypse, given the undeniably spectacular upside to their ritual going wrong.

Maybe the Old Ones just really hate that whole Lovecraft thing.

Meantime:

http://io9.com/5902424/everything-you-didnt-know-about-cabin-in-the-woods

Though horror films are the only ones that specifically trade in sadism and blood.

r e e a l l l l y? -- 'sadistic' always used to be in the top three adjectives used to negatively describe crime fiction and spy fiction; i think maybe it's a thing lost sight of in the later progress of those genres but there's so much of it buried on some level. how i hate sex murderers, thought morse.

I mean, tons of action films are violent, but the creative kills scenes themselves are not the specific draw.

hm.

Hence the advent/rise of torture porn, wherein the elaborate, prolonged, horribly graphic kills are the main attraction, much as explicit sex is the main attraction in conventional porn.

think about the work 'as' is doing here

"hence the advent/rise of fx porn, wherein the lovingly crafted computer-generated effects shots are the main attraction, much as explicit sex is the main attraction in conventional porn"

That's fine, if you want to split hairs. The only reason there's no real dismemberment in movies is because it's illegal, but the simulation is not so inaccurate as to preclude the comparison. I mean, if you used animatronic dummies, squibs and prosthetics to graphically simulate porn-sex, it'd be close enough to porn to count as porn. But most movies don't bother, because the real thing is a real, real cheap alternative.

r e e a l l l l y? -- 'sadistic' always used to be in the top three adjectives used to negatively describe crime fiction and spy fiction; i think maybe it's a thing lost sight of in the later progress of those genres but there's so much of it buried on some level.

I get it, but here I am being literal. Horror films, at least in the golden years of gore and beyond, are by and large about someone or something doing physical or mental harm to someone. In other genres, said harm is often incidental, not the be-all. That is, no action movie is literally just about some guy blowing things up, though that happens. But many gory horror films are about people getting killed. Like, that is the plot, basically. That's what I mean by sadism; we watch to see horrible things happen.

sure, but there are degrees of sadism

Of course! But I can't think of any genre other than horror where watching people get killed is the whole point. That's what makes, I dunno, "Ten Little Indians" not horror but a who done it.

That's certainly true of certain subgenres within horror, and for the last few decades has often been true of the genre as a whole.

Nevertheless, his tangent grew out of my attempt to make the point that people put up with sub-par filmmaking in other genres, too, so long the films in those genres provide their expected rewards. I agree that horror is somewhat unique in its dedication to death and bloodshed, but it's not unique in offering a reward to the faithful.

"this tangent"

And I agree! I was just stressing that the reward in horror's case is often sadism, which is why it reflects more poorly on the audience than, say, sub-par romantic comedies, sports movies and other films that trade entirely in routine and cliche. It doesn't say anything bad when some plops in a movie, craving nothing more than two attractive people getting together, or the underdog team overcoming the visitors. it does when someone plops in a DVD hoping for just a few creative kills. And maybe a couple of boobs in the process.

And by reflect poorly, I really do mean this in the abstract. People watch movies for all sorts of reasons.

i watch horror in part for the gore, transgression and titillation. perhaps this does reflect badly on me, but c'est la guerre, it's by far the least of my faults and vices

also, i'm not sure why such things should "reflect badly" anyway. genres such as the war film, the thriller, the action movie and the murder mystery play to similarly macabre, brutal and/or bloodthirsty interests, and no one seems to have a problem with that.

ironically, i'm very vocal about the fact that i draw the line at prolonged depictions of helpless suffering, which i see as unbearably sadistic. perhaps i'm trying to excuse my own base appetites by condemning them in others. and perhaps we all draw a similar line somewhere, i dunno...

I hold that onscreen violence/gore is one of the few (or only) instances where a filmmaker has to create something that exists irl, but that s/he's likely never seen. Aside from other dramatizations. (Unless there's a secret vault of filmed decapitations at Horror School)

i don't think anyone i've ever known who has been into deeply over the top and horrible horror film has been into it for reasons of sadism ... ?

(or, okay, none of them have gone 'man, i really enjoyed watching that man's head be sliced open like a cantaloupe with that machete. it just did it for me, it did')

& going from my own experience of watching ... any horror movie ever, my feelings at scenes of on-screen violence are way, way less likely to be pleasure-at-another's-pain than feelings associated with on-screen violence in a cop film or an action film -- the audience is invited to empathise w/ james bond's sadism more than it is jigsaw's. whatever that means -

also josh you kind of completely missed the point about why the porn comparison doesn't work, but i'm assuming that's because you hate women

I am SO seeing this again. There is so much detail in the third act that you can't catch it all in one sitting.

i don't think anyone i've ever known who has been into deeply over the top and horrible horror film has been into it for reasons of sadism ... ?

I don't mean that people (like me) who watch horror movies are literally sadists, though I'm sure some (like me) totally hate women and need to see them transgress and then get punished. It keeps the Ancient Ones at bay.

Elucidate your porn point, please. Because yeah, I missed it.

I hold that onscreen violence/gore is one of the few (or only) instances where a filmmaker has to create something that exists irl, but that s/he's likely never seen. Aside from other dramatizations. (Unless there's a secret vault of filmed decapitations at Horror School)

― poxen

let me tell you about ogrish.com ...

actually i think the new popular one is called "bestgore.com" or something like that

also i am pretty sure people saw some pretty gory shit in WWII, korea and vietnam so maybe as horror got more and more graphic some people weren't just working from imagination

Doesn't Tom Savini say he drew on his experiences in Vietnam for inspiration?

btw there is actual sadism that you act on, and then there is the thing where we can't help but want to peek inside the body bag or crane our neck to see a better view of the auto accident

i remember reading something when i used to read critical theory (maybe sontag?) on the popularity of things like weegee and "faces of death" being about a basic human need: when we see others destroyed, it reinforces our own sense of solidity and wholeness

is that part of sadism? i dunno.

ha ha I am totally not going to either of those sites! thank you though! and it's not just "i myself have seen an arm sliced" but "this is how i'm going to film a slicing of arm".

Stuff and things:

http://io9.com/5902873/the-secret-firefly-easter-egg-in-cabin-in-the-woods

Including:

They're not ruling out a sequel. Just because the ending is pretty final doesn't mean you can't come back from that, because with these kinds of comedic films, there's always a way, says Goddard.

Also, one of Goddard's favorite monsters was Kevin, a sweet-looking guy who seemed like he might work at Best Buy — until he dismembers people.

Really loved this and thought, aside from the lulz, that it was well-plotted. We see the force-field at the beginning, but that didn't tell me that he was going to hit it - I expected them to have him run out of gas in the bike at the last second or something and defy expectations there; thought there was a possibility they'd kill the Fool only to have it turn out he was the Virgin or something like that, too.

the four suited people in the ceramic masks - is that a Japanese horror myth? it seemed really familiar but I couldn't place it.

dunno. it reminded me both of brazil and something grant morrisson would write.

Probably Japanese. Only A PAGE OF MADNESS, from way back in 1926, leaps to mind though.

something grant morrisson would write.

Quimper, from The Invisibles?

i was thinkin' Professor Pyg and his creepy army

^ yeah, that's what i was thinking of

lolled again at the thought of v. serious monologue about the virgin interrupted with "tequila's my lady!"

haha that was the fucking best!! TUH TUH TEQUILA

kind of want to create a kickstarter for the telescoping bong

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4zqSfqj-MQs/TxdG852ZKUI/AAAAAAAAFf4/1vcBewWk9Vk/s1600/the-strangers-_3.jpg

this was lots of fun!

i am definitely not enough of a horror fan to have caught all the references, though. anyone have any idea as to what jenkin's character was referring to in the beginning when he says they "haven't had a glitch since 1997"?

or 1998, something like that?

Isn't that when Scream came out?

96. I've seen some people speculate that it refers to the Roland Emmerich's Godzilla

I thought it was just a line to show that this has been going on for some time. Sometimes a cigar is just a etc.

i can't believe it was just an expository line, especially from whedon

iirc the '98 glitch was on the chem department -- who later fails to account for the effects of marty's weed smoking -- so maybe they are referring to the faculty? recreational drug kills monster, and the kids all survive at the end

i've been about that one wondering myself. what else came out in '98?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_horror_films_of_1998

Clearly a ref to Die Hard Dracula.

oh hey thanks guys I had forgoten I saw urban legend and was happy

hahah! let's not forget H20

not to pick apart the internal logic of the movie too much, but at the end the director is talking about the sacrifice of archetypes she says "it's different in every culture but it always requires youth," it kinda suggests that different cultures enact different rituals to appease THEE OLDE WUNNES, which is also supported by the footage of the japanese school children being terrorized by the creepy ghost girl. no '5 archetypes' there.

but if the ritual adapts to different cultures, and also adapts over time (no more throwing the virgin into the volcano), why are the Old Ones so specific about the sequence of the death of the 5 archetypes? #overanalysis #uselessquestions

the Old Ones seem to represent what that culture wants to see (virgin suffering but not necessarily killed, bringing down popular/successful kids like the jock and the whore as well as the more outcast, like the scholar and the fool), it seems more a criticism/homage to the whole Final Girl idea

it's in the memo abt tps reprts iirc

Surprised no one has noted that the actor who plays Marty was also the cause of armageddon on Whedon's "Dollhouse." Another fanboy joke, I guess.

this was fun -- the scene where te elevators open and all the monsters rush out was the most glee i've felt at the movies in a while

jw and elmo and i went to school w/ jesse williams. we were friends in eighth grade, but kind of lost track of each other afterward (read: he was way cool)

just saw this. loved it. i haven't read this whole thread yet (can't wait for the backlash!) but two things that i immediately wanted to share -- apologies if they've already been well covered:

1. love any slasher movie that ends with the stoner figuring everything out and then ending the world
2. thought that in addition to all the other themes (Lovecraftian horrors, storytelling, myth/symbol etc), one of the smartest was the way he messed around with audience identification and the final girl. i particularly liked the bit where whitford says something like, "after all of this, i'm rooting for her. she's been so strong -- TEQUILA!" i don't know if whedon intended this but i like how it undercuts these readings of pop culture as spaces of cultural resistance, or transgression. like, Clover, does the final girl trope get a mostly male horror audience to identify with a virginal female figure by the end of the movie? maybe, but only for a second before the audience is distracted by something else. you don't want to overstate the impact of that identification

1. love any slasher movie that ends with the stoner figuring everything out and then ending the world

Wasn't this the punchline of "Cabin Fever," that the stoner/drunk dude is the only one that survives?

was there anyone in that movie who wasn't a stoner or drunk?

There was one dude, if I recall correctly, who as soon as shit started happening was all "fuck this," and went off to a cave with a bunch of beer. And I want to say that the alcohol made him immune to the virus? But I could be making that part up.

yeah, that's what i remember. maybe it was a tent or a lean-to or something tho? memory of that film is hazy.

For some reason Cabin Fever has a following, but I really don't like that movie. There's a few moments of fun zany humor in it, but it's pretty tedious for the most part.

your welcome for the completely unsolicited opinion

you're welcome

u r welcome

back to bed

I hate "Cabin Fever." Eli Roth can suck it. Was that him cameoing in "Cabin in the Woods" as a security guard? May as well have been.

This was awesome, kinda amazed by the stray reviews that either say "not scary enough" or think the movie is making fun of them instead of the industry.

Dunno if anyone else has been pushing this interpretation, but what if the angry cliche-demanding gods aren't the audience, but studio execs?

Nah, I don't think this was a bite-the-hand sort of play. It's definitely the audience that's intended as the target of (mild) scorn.

movie seems so much more a parody of the cliche-ridden process, than an even remotely earnest critique of "the dark urges". also the angry gods are supposedly worse than anything normal people have ever witnessed, which is what people say about Harvey Weinstein.

anyway, i don't mean to suggest these guys thought about it too hard when they spent a weekend laughing and writing this, just that if people get uptight about any supposed shaming, they can easily extricate themselves from the metaphor

It's about Ronald Reagan's America.

thought an interesting almost throw away line @ the end was "i dont even think Curt has a cousin"

I know, right? Like they were so played they didn't even notice the most glaring red flag.

i don't think 'the fool' archetype is meant to be limited to drunks or stoners, like, what about the autistic savant in CUBE

Also, one of my fave jokes is that none of them adhere to their type: the Fool is smart/perceptive, the Virgin is not, the jock bro is on academic scholarship, the Whore is basically slipped a mickey ...

Dammit, I liked this one. Why are all the backlash reviews making me nod my head in agreement?

http://filmfreakcentral.net/screenreviews/cabinlockout.htm

bc it's a movie like dark knight or inception. high-concept popcorn movie that has broad appeal. backlashes to such films are even more transparently about status signaling + class than most backlashes. contrast with high-concept highbrow movies like tree of life.

that reviewer is 7 different kinds of butthurt

The thing is, it's not the tightest of films, so if you go in expecting both halves of its conceit - the horror movie half and the meta-commentary half - it doesn't all work, to be honest. No, it's not particularly scary, well-shot, acted, etc. But all those things can be overlooked once you focus on the other half of the set-up, which that above review pretends (incorrectly) is just 20% of the movie.

True, I relished the backlash against The Tree of Life. Made me feel special.

i'll admit if this film isn't funny to you it's probably offensively pretentious/judgmental/whatever is putting a bug up some horror enthusiasts' asses

bc it's a movie like dark knight or inception. high-concept popcorn movie that has broad appeal.

Likely the intent but:

6. The Cabin In The Woods (Lionsgate) Week 2 [2,811 Theaters] R
Friday $2.4M, Saturday $3.3M, Weekend $7.7M (-47%), Cume $26.9M

Needed more pencils in eyes.

I love all the moments where this filmfreak guy basically says "the only people who will like this movie are the kind of people who will like it!"

The film doesn't care (neither do its fans), but wasn't there a better way out of the puzzle besides...that? Especially in a movie all about being clever--unless the fact that it's so stupid that only a backwards idiot would accept it at face value is its clever poke. At you. At us.

It's a joke for the filmmakers and their buddies and the "Firefly" fanclub--a big, wet circle-jerk. The Cabin in the Woods will get you off, is what I'm saying, but only if you're into that sort of thing.

well, yeah - doesn't mean it's successful at doing that, but that'll clearly be the context of the backlash. the term 'backlash' suggests that you're responding to something that has already gotten positive spin. if cabin in the woods was a direct to video release without joss whedon's involvement it would just be some cool netflix watch instantly movie you found and there'd be no pressure to outline all of its problems. (this was totally the context i saw Cube in - had never heard of it before and if ppl had been raving about it before i saw it i probably would've been more put off - instead i really enjoyed it.) so clearly what you're backlashing against is the ppl who like it, not the movie itself (nested in the crit is: 'this movie does not deserve the praise you're giving it' not 'this movie deserves no praise').

why is it fans of the the most socially transgressive genres are often the most sensitive to mockery?

afaic, if you can find absolutely no pleasure in this movie (and really in whedon'dom in general) you're probably getting more pleasure out of not finding any pleasure in it. in which case, live + be well, who am i to tell someone not to enjoy their curmudgeonliness?

oh kiss my ass

It's just weird to me the extent to which it's pissing off a certain demo of horror fans. At worst, it's a stupid movie, not "anti art," like I saw someone charge it with on FB.

you're such a weirdo xp

haha whoops, mordy sorry. For some reason I thought you were saying there was no pleasure in whedon'dom except the absence of pleasure. totally misread you!

i thought the whole conceit of the archetypes was only partly a riff on conventions of the horror genre, but also how adults (the old ones) stereotype and marginalize young people

Oh noes. Liking this movie = lol ur old

(Which would explain the mockery of the "I learned it from watching you, dad." bit in review above.)

i saw a long article about that on philly blog this week (about how the film is about marginalizing millennials) but as ideas go it only needs a sentence or two to exhaust its possibilities and this post gave it like 2000 words:
http://blogs.phillymag.com/the_philly_post/2012/04/19/millennials-cabin-woods-boomers/

Kind of a new high in self-defeating early-onset self-obsolescence to reason that one's "getting" the joke when the kids don't means it's lame and irrelevant.

i mean i don't really think the ultimate aim was to gut the horror genre, but it played with genre conventions to make a larger point about youth culture, even if that point didn't really resonate for me in the end

Man, that FFF review is touchy. The bullies picking on the nerdy horror kids? Is there anything nerdier than Whedon fans? They go to conventions in brown dusters, FFS.

i thought they kept it scary enough that ppl who don't like horror movies would not like this either. i kinda half-tricked my wife (who hates horror movies) into seeing this and she was covering her eyes for the first half of the movie and threatening to walk out (i know, this makes me the worst person ever) but was laughing throughout the entire second half and said she was happy we saw it bc it so successfully dismantled the horror present in the first half. (tbh, i didn't think the first half was scary since it seemed undermined by the ppl in the lab from the get-go, but i like horror movies)

it kinda fits into buffy's complicated view on teenagers, who have real troubles, are complex and contradictory and precocious -- in CITW we get a brief glimpse of three-dimensional characters who are quickly flattened into paper dolls to be torn apart for malicious sport

milo otm, calling whedonites 'heathers'? smdh

Dude who wrote that also "adored" CLOVERFIELD so.

I just figured "Cloverfield" was improvised.

It's kinda sad because the monster's best takes were left on the cutting room floor

This was a blast. Really wasn't expecting the broad-brush satire, the trailers had made the whole meta aspect pretty clear but not the comedy so that was a nice surprise.

Scariest moment for me was maybe the pull-out reveal on all the monster cages with our protagonists trapped in the middle. Just for a moment I had the chilling thought that the film would end there, abandoning them in that maze of horrors. (Where did they all come from anyway? All the ghosts and monsters and aliens and witches. This is obviously some Alan Moore type metafictional world where all horror figures are real, must have been a herculean effort to catch and cage them all.)

Slightly disappointed with the giant stubby-fingered humanoid hand at the end. Wasn't aware that the elder gods were in the habit of making people in their own image.

nb the actual scariest moment was when there was a lot of thumping on the back of my (otherwise empty) row of seats and I looked round and saw, three seats away, a bare foot protruding through from the row behind.

Slightly disappointed with the giant stubby-fingered humanoid hand at the end. Wasn't aware that the elder gods were in the habit of making people in their own image.

Agree with you, but it was obviously there as a nod to the many classic horror callback with the hand emerging from a grave

oh aye, i suppose.

I'm glad you could understand that sentence, cos reading it back it's pretty garbled

did anybody else wish the end credits had rolled over a montage of the only ones completely annihilating the world. like with "holiday road" or something instead of nine inch nails? cuz i sure did.

― BEMORE SUPER FABBY (contenderizer), Sunday, April 15, 2012 12:08 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I just want to say that this would be the greatest ending to every movie ever made. Can we kickstarter the shit out of this?

thought an interesting almost throw away line @ the end was "i dont even think Curt has a cousin"

I thought this line was really weird... If it was meant to be a joke, it wasn't a particularly funny one. And if it wasn't, wouldn't it imply Curt knew what the cabin really was? Because why would he be talking about his cousin's cabin, if there was no cousin? But if he knew they were set up, why didn't he ever mention it, even at the point where his girlfriend had been beheaded and he was about to get killed as well? That was just a weird line.

Dammit, I liked this one. Why are all the backlash reviews making me nod my head in agreement?

http://filmfreakcentral.net/screenreviews/cabinlockout.htm

― jungleous butterflies strange birds (Eric H.), Monday, April 23, 2012 10:41 AM (4 days ago) Bookmark

walter chaw's a pretty good critic

i like this (somewhat negative) review too: http://outlawvern.com/2012/04/17/the-cabin-in-the-woods/

Outlaw Vern is so great. I bought his book.

which one? seagalogy's second edition was just released!

http://i.imgur.com/XcRd7.jpg

Nah, his broader collection. Not into Seagal enough to invest in the other one.

I have to say, while I enjoyed the film, I thought it's idea of the formula that the Old Ones (i.e. horror movie viewers) crave for felt out-of-date. Wasn't all this horror movie archetype stuff (final girl/virgin survives, lustful girl/whore dies first, the jock is punished for being a bully, etc) already effectively deconstructed 15 years ago in Scream? I'm not a big horror movie buff, but all the post-scream American horror movies I've seen have either twisted that formula in one way or another, or scrapped it altogether. So basically it felt like TCitW was criticizing horror movie fans for expecting a formula that no one actually expects these days.

Because of the above, until the very of the movie I thought there would be an extra twist that would be more in line with what horror movies of today are. After the corporate people had been killed by the various monsters, I actually expected the Director to explain that all this was part of the show, that nowadays Old Ones don't care for the classic horror formula but expect the story to have shocking twist (this would've also been an effectice criticism of the post-6th Sense fad of adding a twist ending to every horror movie) and even more bloodshed. So the massacre ending would've been part of the Old Ones' entertainment (this would've explained the more corny bits in the finale, like the Big Red Button or the complex's lack of proper security); the corporate people would've been just the second level of the show instead of the ones who run it, and there would've been an even larger group of employees manipulating them.

Maybe this solution would've been too complicated, but as such I felt the ending was kinda weak, as all it did was have Sigourney Weaver "reveal" things that the audience could quite easily guess halfway into the movie, the first time the Old Ones and the sacrifice were mentioned.

thought an interesting almost throw away line @ the end was "i dont even think Curt has a cousin"

I thought this line was really weird... If it was meant to be a joke, it wasn't a particularly funny one. And if it wasn't, wouldn't it imply Curt knew what the cabin really was? Because why would he be talking about his cousin's cabin, if there was no cousin? But if he knew they were set up, why didn't he ever mention it, even at the point where his girlfriend had been beheaded and he was about to get killed as well? That was just a weird line.

― Tuomas, Friday, April 27, 2012 5:45 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

presumably he forgot he didn't actually have a cousin, for the same reasons he forgot he wasn't actually a dumb jock

xp i like that idea! but yes it would perhaps be tricky to pull off.

I actually expected the Director to explain that all this was part of the show, that nowadays Old Ones don't care for the classic horror formula but expect the story to have shocking twist (this would've also been an effectice criticism of the post-6th Sense fad of adding a twist ending to every horror movie) and even more bloodshed. So the massacre ending would've been part of the Old Ones' entertainment (this would've explained the more corny bits in the finale, like the Big Red Button or the complex's lack of proper security); the corporate people would've been just the second level of the show instead of the ones who run it, and there would've been an even larger group of employees manipulating them.

I'm really glad they didn't make a particularly pointed ending, like saying "oh audiences really love a twist" or having there be no apocalypse because the audience doesn't REALLY give a shit about cliches, just the industry. They just had the world blow up cuz that's way more fun an ending than trying to make a critical point overt.

i didn't see it as a "critique" of anything, just as play with signs and symbols, meta referentiality

the new tagline should be "to keep from being butthurt, just keep telling yourself...it's only a comedy. it's only a comedy."

i didn't see it as a "critique" of anything, just as play with signs and symbols, meta referentiality

Regardless, I thought they could've taken that play further. Because now they were playing with rather old-fashioned concepts of horror, and once you figured out what the game was about, there weren't too many surprises left in the second half of the movie. (Except for the monster rush, which I didn't expect, and which was admittedly awesome.)

I mean, upthread someone said this was supposed to be an answer to torture porn or something, but I didn't see much of that reflected in the movie. The concepts it was playing with were pretty much the same ages-old slasher fic/Halloween/Friday the 13th tropes that were already deconstructed in Scream, except that TCitW did it with a more clever concept (though as a result of that concept, with less actual horror).

Whedon just referenced torture porn in an interview as an inspiration to make something more fun, less focused on the details of murder, and that got the more defensive horror fans worried Joss thinks ill of their art or something.

I have to say, while I enjoyed the film, I thought it's idea of the formula that the Old Ones (i.e. horror movie viewers) crave for felt out-of-date. Wasn't all this horror movie archetype stuff (final girl/virgin survives, lustful girl/whore dies first, the jock is punished for being a bully, etc) already effectively deconstructed 15 years ago in Scream? I'm not a big horror movie buff, but all the post-scream American horror movies I've seen have either twisted that formula in one way or another, or scrapped it altogether. So basically it felt like TCitW was criticizing horror movie fans for expecting a formula that no one actually expects these days.

yeah agreed. vern goes into that in his review too

Part of the meta commentary in the movie was that the rituals of horror change throughout time (and vary between cultures, hence the Japanese scenes that played with very different archetypes): that's why you had the pictures of human sacrifice in the beginning, one of the controllers saying that it was easier when all you needed was to throw a girl into a volcano, the later comment that even the virgin doesn't have to be genuine virgin these days, etc... So it was weird that the movie didn't take these changes into account, instead it seemed to assume they're still the same as 20 years ago, like Scream and Sixth Sense and movies like that had never happened.

(xx-post)

part of why i think the movie makes more sense if the Old Ones represents movie execs rather than "the audience" is that execs are pushing those Michael Bay remakes, not Martyrs

i'm not sure how scream did anything better, because scream was overtly referential to horror movie conventions in an entirely different manner, and to a different result. those characters lived in a world approximating ours; the killings are sadistic and inhuman, but they aren't supernatural in nature; the characters know and explicitly invoke the same movies and tropes we are familiar with. it 'played with' the idea of the serial killer more than anything else. in the end the killer(s) are two fanboys obsessed with horror films, which played off the 90s moral concern of violent entertainment in america or whatever.

it seems to me that CITW's characters explicitly don't share in our cultural knowledge, so it heavily relies on that dramatic irony for it's first half. the only character who suspects anything is the stoner, who ends up being surprised that he's right. it also draws on a wider tradition of supernatural horror, and conceives of a universe where these abominations all coexist with a specific purpose, and in a way that i think was pretty clever.

once you figured out what the game was about, there weren't too many surprises left in the second half of the movie. (Except for the monster rush, which I didn't expect, and which was admittedly awesome.)

do agree with this. made the same complaint upthread.

So it was weird that the movie didn't take these changes into account, instead it seemed to assume they're still the same as 20 years ago, like Scream and Sixth Sense and movies like that had never happened.

like i said before, i saw the attempts to force the kids into archetypes as more of a joke than as a "serious critique of the current genre" or w/e. resonant enough to get a chuckle of recognition, but that's about it.

the idea is that these guys have to make a HIT horror movie that appeases the Gods, and that America is better at scoring a HIT than other countries (though Japan's been doing alright) since they stick to the formula. It's not suggesting that there hasn't been evolution or really interesting horror movies of late.

i'm not sure how scream did anything better, because scream was overtly referential to horror movie conventions in an entirely different manner, and to a different result.

I'm not saying Scream did the same thing, just that after Scream horror audiences haven't been taking those cliches quite as seriously (instead expecting them to be subverted in one way or another), and yet the movie seemed to think they still do.

the idea is that these guys have to make a HIT horror movie that appeases the Gods, and that America is better at scoring a HIT than other countries (though Japan's been doing alright) since they stick to the formula. It's not suggesting that there hasn't been evolution or really interesting horror movies of late.

^ this is a very good point. the "old ones" aren't hardcore horror fans, really, they're the way the american audience in general responds to horror films (and perhaps, as was suggested a couple times upthread, they're also the demands of studio execs).

there's even a call during the wrap party that they need to do a reshoot

like i said before, i saw the attempts to force the kids into archetypes as more of a joke than as a "serious critique of the current genre" or w/e. resonant enough to get a chuckle of recognition, but that's about it.

This I think was the movie's biggest flaw: the high concept ensured there weren't too many genuinely scary scenes in it, but on the other hand the concept wasn't clever or poignant to enough carry the movie all the way through. So it felt a bit half-assed as both a horror movie and as a deconstruction of horror movies.

they're the way the american audience in general responds to horror films

If you look at most successful horror movies of the last 15 years (i.e. the ones the general audience likes), have many of them followed the classic slasher formula? I'm not sure.

So it felt a bit half-assed as both a horror movie and as a deconstruction of horror movies.

it's a comedy

tuomas, the filmmakers have said that this was a direct response to the saw / hostel vein of torture porn in horror, which i think hews far closer to genre conventions & archetypes than you are admitting.

http://www.joeutichi.com/profile/joss-whedon-interview/

It was the 2009 remake of Friday the 13th that first set Whedon’s mind racing on what would become The Cabin in the Woods. “I did walk out, but I found it fascinating that the movie opens with a group of expendable teens, which Jason kills – not, by the way, very inventively – and then the movie starts, and an even more expendable group of teens shows up. It was as hateful as anything I’ve seen. There’s an element of this ‘torture porn’ promulgation that’s made me as angry as I can remember being.”

If torture porn is Whedon’s kryptonite, then Hollywood must be his super-villain, for the continued adventures of fictional serial killers like Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers and Jigsaw have kept studio balance sheets ticking over healthily. He can’t subscribe to such amoral filmmaking. “The disconnect between movie behaviour and normal human behaviour starts to strain,” he says. “It starts with, ‘I’ll drop the knife now, because it’s a really good time to be unarmed while I have my back to the thing,’ and goes further into, ‘I’m an unbelievable asshole and also I’m doing drugs and crime and sex all at the same time, so not only might I die but I deserve to.’ Punishment for youth-y behaviour is bizarre to me, and unsettling.”

He regrets having called it a “hate letter” to horror. In fact, he says, it’s a sonnet, to some of the genre’s best examples. “The joke of the whole thing is that this is the silliest movie I’ve ever made, and Drew and I just had an enormous amount of fun with it. The political message was very clear to both of us. It was just, ‘this is how we feel; this is a really fun way of expressing it; how can we figure in a unicorn?’”

also

Whedon remembers outlining his premise to Lionsgate by ranting about the ills of the Saw franchise. It was only as he glanced around the room, at a wall full of Saw movie posters, that he realised they had produced the movies. “But you know, they’re not precious about it. They love horror, and if they didn’t they wouldn’t know how to market this film.” In any case, he says, he hasn’t actually seen a Saw film all the way through.

it's a comedy

― congratulations (n/a), Friday, April 27, 2012 9:31 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this sounds like a cop-out in response to tuomas criticisms, but i think it's really otm. i agree that the movie wasn't particularly scary and that its deconstruction of the genre wasn't terribly compelling, but i saw it primarily as an absurdist comedy based in affectionate ribbing of genre conventions.

Just saw this last night and I think is wonderful. The way I read it is the characters (young victims) slowly become self-aware of themselves as characters (though that was only really true for the redhead girl and the stoner), realizing they circumstances are absurd; and finally subverting their fate, carefully planned by the "Puppeteers" on order to please the "Ancient Ones" (audience). A key thing about it, though is that the movie never abandons the perspective of the characters (the sets, cameras, crew, etc. is all hidden and even when they discover it, it doesn't resemble a conventional film productions, plus all the creatures are REAL!) only gives them a glimpse of perspective and understanding of their universe. In that sense, I saw the final scene as (perhaps) a reference to Plato's Cave. I think the 1998 glitch they refer to is Funny Games, where the characters (though in this case, the bad guys) subvert the rules and take control.

except that movie's not American

written by joss whedon and drew goddard

almost walked out of the theater when i saw this

gtk

that's the thing, the whole system purge bit is all about the pure joy of horror. All those scary creatures in the same place. It's just fun!

― Number None, Sunday, April 15, 2012 2:45 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i lol'd. it was pretty much the 2012 version of

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0thH3qnHTbI

This was definitely a hoot, but I think I'm getting kind of burnt out on the whole Hugo/The Artist/Cabin "movies about movies" thing.

Like Evil Dead IN ITSELF was kind of a winking parody of George Romero and Three Stooges, and now this runs THAT whole concept through a meta-mirror. And the whole "five archetypes" thing is basically a Wes-Craven-on-adderal concept for onion/tvtropers to lustily update their databases. Again, this movie was real fun and hilarious, but like all pop culture is slowly leaning towards towards a specific type of retromania that basically says "ayo-I-read-a-lot-of-wikipedia." Its kind of starting to bum me out, but I guess the alternative is mumblecore idk

also, like, quibbling over whether something is "horror" or "comedy" is the stupidest thing in the universe. Like gangsta rap, pretty much 90% of it is supposed to be fun/funny.

like making an argument over whether a movie is "actually scary" is as stupid as 14 year old white kids in Iowa feeling hard because Mobb Deep said they'll stab your brain with your nose bone.

hey guys i just watched this movie

i wonder if there is a film director out there that was getting ready to spend the next 2 years of his life on his new project, a revamp of the merman monster, that just saw the cabin in the woods and just felt burned ;_;

loll

Most fun I've had in the cinema in years. A poll of monsters from this would be cool.

Awesome. This & Avengers last night back to back.

Kinda disturbed by some of the shots from the monitors, like all the little dudes holding a guy down and one of them vomiting toxic whatever into his face.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/55082

Quint: I didn’t even notice… That was my second time watching the movie last night and I didn’t even notice the unicorn tapestry that you mentioned during the Q&A.

Drew Goddard: It’s down there! There’s a lot down there that requires some freeze-framing.

fun read

Need to see this again, and drag more people along

Sorta wish the Shaggy-ness of the shaggy-haired stoner werent quite telegraphed so loudly, but what are you gunna do?

aside from the haircut and the superbong, i didn't really thing the shaggy reference was too heavy handed -- he makes a pretty nihilistic shaggy! the only other point of comparison i can see is that shag & scoob are usually the ones who fall down the trapdoor directly into the monster's lair while the rest of the gang is still puzzling over clues

No joke, that is one of the worst, high school level interviews I've read in ages. Aside from your quoted unicorn bit there, there is virtually nothing in there.

Q: I liked your movie a lot.
A: Thanks!
Q: Were you worried you would make a movie no one would like?
A: Not really. We tried to make it as un-not likable as possible.
Q: Well, it worked!
A: Thanks!
Q: Do you like horror movies?
A: I do!
Q: What is your favorite horror movie?
A: I like all of them!
Q: Did you like your own horror movie a lot!
A: I did! And I hope others do, to.
Q: Well, judging by the packed audience at the screening I was probably in some way at least loosely affiliated with, packed with hardcore geeks, Whedon fans and horror movie buffs, all stoned, I think you've got a big hit on your hands!
A: Thanks!
Q: What's next for you?
A: Another movie!
Q: Sweet!
A: Awesome.
Q: Thanks.
A: No, thank you!
Q: Is there anything I should look out for when I see this for the fifth time?
A: Yeah, all sorts of stuff. Did you see the werewolf?
Q: Yeah! It was awesome!
A: Thanks!
Q: Was it real?
A: No.
Q: Awesome!
A: Thanks!

It's Ain't It Cool News. I don't think anyone there's gotten any smarter despite it being 2012, you know?

It's part of their stupid charm, tbh

lol @ "fun read"

Even if someone sucked 15 years ago, you'd think there'd be some learning curve. Then again, maybe the guys with half a brain at that site all jumped ship eons ago.

Drew Goddard: Right.

Quint: And the shit gets real.

Drew Goddard: Shit definitely gets real! (laughs)

http://media.filmschoolrejects.com/images/harryknowles01.jpg

that said theres some good interviews on there sometimes. like this soderbergh one http://www.aintitcool.com/node/51119

I interviewed DG and ... dude's just not easy to get much out of. By the end of the interview, I was asking him questions like, "What do you think Joss Whedon would say about this?"

This is fun and really dumb:

http://thefineartdiner.blogspot.com/2012/04/cabin-in-woods-free-will-husband-bulges.html?m=1

it is the latter

^^^

that article was fun to read, this is exactly what the internet is for!

i love how paragraphs like this mix in both accurate observations and glaring errors:

How do the items in the cellar reflect each of the characters? The necklace on the bridal gown is feminine and that’s what Jules tries to be, hence, dying her hair blond, but she's also hoping that Curt will marry her; Dana was going to take books to the cabin, so she goes for the book, the diary; Curt was playing football, so he goes for the round object that looks like a ball; Holden is there to get hooked up with Dana so that’s why he opens the jewelry box (a reference to the sexual act with her) and the ballerina refers to the awkward “mating dance” Holden and Dana are doing; Marty goes for the reels of film (he also reads the book about Nemo, after the Pixar film) so he’s always trying to get a “frame of reference” for something and that’s why he went for the movies (possibly also because of the drug culture depicted in the films, but more likely, because Marty has been feeling like something’s strange, as if they are in a horror film and that’s why he’s mentally referencing movies).

lol Nemo

Yeah, there's a vibe in there like a Senior AP English student or some freshman lit.crit major trying to do some major contextual analysis and failing magnificently.

It's akin to the speech and subequent bike jump scene in the film.

Also, did any anybody else notice that this flick not only makes you laugh, but also full-on _cackle_?

both times when i saw this in the theater people seemed too afraid to really bust a gut, making me and my friends look like total maniacs. but the movie IS that funny! i mean c'mon, the Ring parody thing alone

Exactly. And there are parts where I was just cackling evilly at how far the flick was willing to go and what was about to happen.

Holden is there to get hooked up with Dana so that’s why he opens the jewelry box (a reference to the sexual act with her) and the ballerina refers to the awkward “mating dance” Holden and Dana are doing; Marty goes for the reels of film (he also reads the book about Nemo, after the Pixar film) so he’s always trying to get a “frame of reference” for something and that’s why he went for the movies (possibly also because of the drug culture depicted in the films, but more likely, because Marty has been feeling like something’s strange, as if they are in a horror film and that’s why he’s mentally referencing movies).

every aspect of this is so fucking stupid and nonsensical that it actually makes me angry. i couldn't finish reading the article, though i did plow through the bulk of it.

this is worse:

So if Curt has some good in him, why doesn't he survive the jump with his bike? There's an invisible boundary between dating and being married to someone, and the grid symbolizes that invisible boundary. Curt "made the jump" with Jules from boyfriend to husband without them being married, so even though, as Curt tells Holden, he's jumped a lot further with his bike in the past, he doesn't have the moral strength to overcome the power of the grid that is holding him back morally. In the sacrificial pictures, the athlete that Curt fulfills is shown with a spear, and that spear is the phallic symbol: athletes have to have good bodies to compete, the problem is, the body becomes their whole being (in art and stereotypes of them) and they then look at others as being only bodies as well, including Jules.

[Picture of the survivors outside the RV, looking across the gulf to freedom, just prior to Curt's failed motorcycle jump]

At this point pictured above, they have lost Jules and they think they have lost Marty. They were trying to make it out of the grid and almost succeeded when a "tunnel avalanche" caused by the control room makes it impossible to pass, and Curt, driving the mobile home rambler, quickly thinks and steps on the gas, backing out all the way out of the tunnel in reverse; pretty impressive driving. It symbolizes the unconscious thinking Curt has been doing because going into the tunnel (since Curt is driving) easily symbolizes the sexual act, and going in reverse means that he's wishing to undo what he and Jules had been doing because he realizes now that's why she died. The sheer rocks they are surrounded by? The "hardness of heart" that sin causes and is caused by sin.

It kind of makes you want to hit them over the head with a box of scare quotes.

fyi: found this review whilst googling "husband bulge"

gah! stop thinking!

― spextor vs bextor (contenderizer)

just too perfect

it was a gift

happy b-day to me!

http://images.jupiterimages.com/common/detail/45/47/23264745.jpg

got you a gift!

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m341i4MFmx1rs9lamo1_1280.jpg

Note: it took me way, WAAAAY to damn long to find a shot of that

and it's a deauxzy

Flipped thru the Visual Companion book to the movie tonight at the bookstore. Most disturbing shot of the flick for me were the mutants just holding down a dude and puking into his face and yep, good color photo of just that shot in the book. They're explicitly called out in the novelization and the screenplay, and as listed as the "mutants" on the betting board.

I finally saw this on the weekend (TWICE) and loved it. System purge/elevator scene was the horror movie equivalent of a water-park ride, soooo much fun.

Ploughed through this whole thread and can I just say: pairing 'Roll with The Changes' for the office party was such an awesome juxtaposition with the tv monitor dock scene.

Mr Veg and I were talking after about how it felt like Joss was emptying out all of his leftover ideas from Buffy & Dollhouse, to really good effect.

speakerphone gag was GOLD

Saw this the second time a week ago. Still awesome.

I finally saw it last night, and "horror movie equivalent of a water-park rid" is exactly the comparison I was thinking of! Also, a little bit of this from way upthread (Whiney):

Evil Dead IN ITSELF was kind of a winking parody of George Romero and Three Stooges, and now this runs THAT whole concept through a meta-mirror.

But yeah, really fun.

say this last night, total riot

one of my favorite gags was the elevator bell -- like, it'd be a while without hearing it or something and then "ding" just wave after wave of horrible things

That same noise accompanied this movie's appearance on the ILX horror movie poll, for the record.

I kinda want to have a bunch of friends over and watch it again, p sure most them have not seen it

i watched this the other night. pretty fun, probably having already read about every plot twist was a bad idea, still i think spending the whole middle third with the ... lartners? laughners? seemed a bit off in terms of emphasis

bradley whitford should be in more things

I don't know, playing guitar in Aerosmith keeps him pretty busy.

Effing rad movie. Not much to add that hasn't already been said except that I was waiting and waiting for Sigourney Weaver to tell the main character that there is no Dana.

Also, assuming the havoc at the end didn't take down the forcefields, I can totally imagine a sequel (in plot if not in spirit).

this rocked

way better than anything else going for thrills this year.

way better than the avengers imho. (though it shared a love of bureaucrats driving golf karts through tunnels in underground bases.)

annihilated prometheus and batman.

yeah this was dope i agree 100%

loved that it was basically an hp lovecraft movie at heart

and that it basically was an excuse to throw every horror movie archetype together in one room... loved the hellraiser dude

the cutaways to the j-horror plot unfolding across the world were so dope

Was really hoping for a specific Lovecraft image in that last shot.

dude me too! only letdown was that it was just a big ol' hand.

aw i liked that, it was like a classic zombie thing

the hand emerging from the grave

would have preferred tentacle but NBD

Yeah, I wanted spaghetti strands the size of asteroid belts.

want to see this again

i could almost watch it again

i should probably see this this weekend.

want to see this again

Same here. Love the whole EC Comics vibe it had.

it did the deconstructing-the-horror-genre thing, which has gotten pretty old, in such a new and fresh and entertaining way

Amy Acker should be in all the movies btw

aaaand Vigilant Citizen finally finishes the essay: http://vigilantcitizen.com/moviesandtv/the-cabin-in-the-woods-a-movie-celebrating-the-elites-ritual-sacrifices/

This and Tucker And Dale Vs. Evil are the best horror movies I've seen in a long time. Making me rethink my general bias towards jokey, arch horror films (except the bias only exists because jokey, arch horror films generally are pretty awful).

In one of the cabin’s rooms is a painting depicting a lamb being torn to pieces by all kinds of vicious creatures. This is yet another way the victims are subtly “warned” of what is bound to happen. However, since the kids have no idea of what’s happening, they simply ignore it. This can be compared the elite hiding in plain sight warnings and predictions about the NWO in public places (see the murals at the Denver International Airport).

I'm checking thru and it doesn't seem like these guys ever once twig to the notion expressly stated by the filmmakers that the flick is about 21st-C horror movies itself.

I mean, seriously, they really do write like freshman-year bong-hit dorm conspiracy spinning.

oh wait, nvm, i actually glanced at the comments.

Self-awareness is a curse not visited upon all peoples online, as we're proven time and time again.

I have somehow been unaware of Vigilant Citizen before now. That is some truly amazing Conservapedia-level "do you SEE?!" stuff going on there. It was good for a new display name anyway.

vigilant citizen is the best blog on the internet

When urls speak for themselves:

http://vigilantcitizen.com/moviesandtv/labyrinth-starring-david-bowie-a-blueprint-to-mind-control/

http://vigilantcitizen.com/moviesandtv/how-the-animated-series-g-i-joe-predicted-todays-illuminati-agenda/

http://vigilantcitizen.com/moviesandtv/the-esoteric-interpretation-of-pinocchio/

http://vigilantcitizen.com/moviesandtv/how-hollywood-spreads-disinformation-about-secret-societies/

And this is only in the "Movies & TV" section

http://vigilantcitizen.com/vigilantreport/the-occult-symbolism-of-the-2012-olympics-opening-and-closing-ceremonies/

http://vigilantcitizen.com/vigilantreport/was-the-batman-shooting-a-ritualistic-murder-carried-out-by-mind-controlled-patsy/

http://vigilantcitizen.com/musicbusiness/katy-perrys-wide-awake-a-video-about-monarch-mind-control/

Like in everything else relating to her, Lady Gaga’s fragrance Fame contains underlying occult elements that are only recognizable to those who have some knowledge of it.

holy crap that site is amazing

It's this fascinating mix of Glenn Beck / Michelle Bachmann / David Icke / paranoid schizophrenia / freshman year cultural studies / the after-effects of undergraduate pot & acid consumption, and even more notable b/c the dude is Canadian

In the context of the Olympics, where people come from all countries and all religions, this verse was a little out of place. More importantly, no countries, no religions, no possessions and “a world as one” is a good way to describe the global socialist system the elite is trying to create with the New World Order. Was Lennon envisioning a secretive group of politicians and bankers creating his perfect world? Probably not. But when you get killed by a MK-Ultra patsy, the elite can pretty do what it wants with your work and image.

The elite reptilian overlord mind control rock star assassinating new world order is socialist now? *confused*

It's this fascinating mix of Glenn Beck / Michelle Bachmann / David Icke / paranoid schizophrenia / freshman year cultural studies / the after-effects of undergraduate pot & acid consumption, and even more notable b/c the dude is Canadian

Ah of course: it's Neil Peart having time travelled from 1974.

Love the idea that the illuminati is all powerful and super secretive but yet can't stop accidentally making music videos about itself

Sure, if Neil was as single-issue focused

Love the idea that the illuminati is all powerful and super secretive but yet can't stop accidentally making music videos about itself

hahaha

this was fun, but i was expecting another layer, like maybe there are no elder gods and the corporate dudes are being manipulated by an evil CEO to make real horror films for his/her (i guess it would be her) personal entertainment, so their thin layer of moral justification goes out the window. would not have been as fun as the end of the world though.

would have preferred tentacle but NBD

― Author ~ Coach ~ Goddess (s1ocki), Friday, October 12, 2012 10:46 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

totally, can't believe they didn't go with something cthulu-y.

i enjoyed this, dont know why it had german subtitles tho

realism

would not have been as fun as the end of the world though.

that's the thing. some preachy "see, the world won't collapse if we break free of cliches!" ending would have totally justified the handful of "joss whedon thinks he's so great" grumbles this got.

the cutaways to the j-horror plot unfolding across the world were so dope

― Author ~ Coach ~ Goddess (s1ocki), Friday, October 12, 2012 11:28 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lil girls joyfully singing samara into a frog was the best moment imho

ya

A giant tentacle dispatched Amy Acker I think

part where dude was like "are you kidding me" before getting killed by a crawling mer-man

oh hey I'm rewatching ALIAS and in the last season Amy Acker shows up as a villain!

no spoilers

she is a secret agent (omg spoilers)

her mis-usage was one of the worst things... in that already poor season

Has Joss' penchant for redheads ever been spelt-out anywhere? I mean, yeah, I quite support it

he definitely had a lot of weird types... some actors I can't really picture in anything but whedon stuff

xp: did you see the crew of the helicarrier in Avengers?

man, wasn't really feeling this at all. had avoided spoilers, have enjoyed a lot of jokey/satirical horror flicks in the past and appreciated the spirit it was done, but it fell totally flat for me outside of maybe some of the whitford/jenkins stuff. also obviously scares/fx were not really the point but it just looked terrible, was so dim and hard to tell what was going on i started to wonder if it had been released in 3d.

I didn't like this much either other than thinking it was a neat idea. I avoided this thread and spoilers, but maybe I should have read something about it. I was hoping the movie wanted to scare me, not make me laugh.

contendo otm throughout this thread

Finally saw this. Loved it, for every reason already stated thruout the thread, really. The elevator dings, the "you're kidding me" merman death payoff, the telescoping coffee bong, all the meta meta meta. I went in expecting Whedonesque comic timing so I wasn't disappointed. Must watch it again.

Finally Watched this over the weekend, loved it. Most entertaining movie I've seen in a long time. I definitely second a monsters poll from way upthread.

Spoilercorns in a walk.

Finally saw this last night and, yes, amazing.

Bradley Whitford's delivery of the line "teQUILA is my LADY!" is masterful.

Just watched it, finally. SO FUN.

:D

http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130714203334/thecabininthewoods/images/9/9b/Cabin-in-the-woods.gif

Did we ever get round to doing a Cabin in the Woods monster poll?

Wow, do I wish there were more movies like this. Totally holds up on third viewing, years (right?) later. Still say the only misstep in the entire thing is revealing the electrified grid dome thing too early for the sake of a lame CGI eagle gag, but the rest is pretty flawless and really smart.

I need to watch this again

Still say the only misstep in the entire thing is revealing the electrified grid dome thing too early for the sake of a lame CGI eagle gag

Nah thought that was good! It added to the sense of "ok what the fuck is going here" that permeated the first act.

going ON here

Yeah, but you already know there's something weird going on, from minute-one, and by the time, way down the road, they do bring in the electrified fence as a plot point, I doubt anyone would still be wondering what's going on, let alone be surprised something strange is going on. Revealing the fence early on ruins the gag later. I mean, no biggie, it's just an unforced error.

Did catch something I somehow missed the first two times, that after she kills the zombie in the basement with a knife, they send her a little electric shock that makes her drop the knife.

it's not a gag later. you're meant to be that far ahead of the characters by now, and filled with dread at how they're going to fuck up, not startled.

that's true, but the existence of the sky-fence would have come as a nice surprise during the escape attempt, had not the useless eagle gag spoiled it

189 posts later...

SPOILERS DISCUSSION

I thought it was more effective foreshadowing than ruining surprise. If you wern't told about the shield beforehand then it'd be dumb having it pop up during tha scene for the first time, it would be as if they'd just written ANOTHER thing that can go wrong, as opposed to the lead forgetting that no, running's not gonna work. action vs horror or something

stalemate. we need to have somebody not read this thread is what we need to do, and then they go and watch the version of the movie without the eagle and report back, compare notes is the idea.

I want a print of this:

http://www.nerdist.com/2014/09/hey-l-a-celebrate-joss-whedon-with-this-weekends-gallery1988-show/

http://www.nerdist.com/wp-content/uploads/photo-gallery/Gallery-1988-Whedon_08.png

rewatched this again, just as fun the second time around. kinda agree the thing with the bird is unnecessary.

Just watched it, finally. SO FUN.

― emil.y, Tuesday, June 3, 2014