Film File - The Cabin In The Woods

When it comes to popular horror, producer-directors Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard have a back catalogue that speaks volumes for their finger-on-the-pulse ability to mine the most for audiences. 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer', 'Dollhouse' and 'Cloverfield' are just a few of the mega-hits from this fertile source. So it could be reasonably expected that the pair's latest foray into the chiller genre would be something out of the ordinary. 'Cabin In The Woods' begins like many a generic horror film when an attractive group of college students head away for a weekend of planned debauchery in an isolated country cabin, only to be attacked by horrific creatures in a night of endless terror and gore. Sounds like many a date night outing you've been on before - but it isn't. "I love horror," says Whedon. "But the plots are becoming more and more predictable, the killings are more and more disgusting and the kids more and more expendable. More love is put into the instruments of torture and the ritual of it is getting cheapened." One of the head-spinning devices in 'Cabin' is the fact that much of the action is controlled from a faraway control room where Hadley and Sitterson (Bradley Whitford and Richard Jenkins), two technicians using a range of cutting-edge technology to control the cabin's environment, and thus force the hapless kids into situation after situation they apparently have no control over. Whedon explains that the control room pair are 'stand-ins for us' - unseen hands guiding human lab rats into different horrific situations to record their reactions and behaviour. Nasty stuff, indeed. From the very opening sequence with its occult carvings and a dread-laden score of monkish prayer cutting to a discarded coffee cup in an office, this 'Cabin' swings to a different beat. The only thing that's similar to all those other flicks you've seen before are the teenagers - all good dental work, toned limbs and that vacant 'I'm only here for the beer' facial expressions common to most college teens. Curt, Jules, Dana, Marty and Holden (played by Chris Hemsworth, Kristen Connolly, Anna Hutchinson, Franz Kranz and Jesse Williams) are the mixed bag of monster meat who arrive at the cabin with nothing but good, dirty fun on their minds. Immediately, the two veterans in the control booth start to instigate the action and making the players jump through various hoops just for the fun of it. But, of course, this comes with deadly results. The fact that this is one of the most intelligent and ground-breaking horror films in many a year owes much to Goddard's desire to extract as much thrill fare as possible for his audience, and even when he knocks off the cast in a one-by-one sequence, he magnifies the emotional experience for the viewer with some innovative devices - including mirrors employed in a manner unusual to anything seen before. Goddard keeps a tight rein on the forward momentum at all times - sometimes teasing us with a blind alley, others times with a resounding slap to the senses that's completely unexpected. Slasher film it may well be in the loose definition of the genre, but this is quality slasher film with a capital Q. The dialogue is snappy, believable and hyper-funny at times, then falling deeply into utter dread as a fate worse than the last rises to confront the latest victim. This is a bad weekend for those pretty college folk - and just as you wonder how it could possibly get any worse for the victims, then it does, again. Wicked.