Republished from the show notes of my other site, Fuds on Film.
I suppose we get unavoidably into spoilers discussing anything substantial in this film, indeed, even contextualising it alongside The Truman Show could be considered a spoiler, but if you were interested you’ve had long enough to get to it. Otherwise I suppose you ought to stop listening. I like the film.
In what’s at least initially presented to us as a horror, five college students head off to a cabin in the woods, surprisingly enough, where things start to go bump in the night. So far, so wildly formulaic, but with the direction and co-writer credits going to Buffy the Vampire Slayer writer Drew Goddard and co-written by Buffy creator Joss Whedon, the tone changes quite rapidly.
Said wholesome youngsters are Kristen Connolly’s Dana, Chris Hemsworth’s Curt, Anna Hutchison’s Jules, Jesse Williams’ Holden, and Fran Kranz’s Marty. The weed-addled Marty seems to be about the only one that fits neatly into a stereotype box, but we’ll fix that later.
While our contingent of young adults are being warned by a creepy backwood petrol station attendant of their imminent peril, Gary Sitterson (Richard Jenkins) and Steve Hadley (Bradley Whitford) monitor their progress.
Before long, we piece together that they are in charge of the U.S.A’s end of ritual sacrifice to the unspeakable Old Gods, of whom we shall not speak. This ritual happens to look a lot like a stereotypical Yank slasher film, because, well, that’s part of the ritual. Other countries run similar rituals, including those smug Japanese with their creepy, long raven-haired childghoul based freakshow that always goes without a hitch.
Once the kiddos get to the cabin, a selection of mood and behaviour altering drugs are secreted into the air, bringing the characters a bit closer to type. Investigating the cabin, they find a basement full of curios, an unwitting menu of their doom! Ahem.
Unwittingly unleashing a family of murderous hillbilly zombies, the slaughter starts to plan, until, well, it doesn’t, causing increased tensions in the directorial bunker that are perhaps best left unspoken of.
While nominally a horror film, Cabin is much closer in tone to The Evil Dead 2 than, well, The Evil Dead, and your milage may vary, but I found Cabin very funny on initial release, and just about funny today. It is, as you’d hopefully expect, all rather Whedon-esque, with all the dialogue and post-modern fourth wall endangerment that goes along with it, but as someone not always entirely on-board with that, this affectionate parody of horror norms may be the perfect place for it.
Viewed as a comedy, and really that’s the only lens worth considering here, I think this lands pretty successfully, which mitigates my only really niggle rewatching it, the rather budget constricted CG of the final act. Played for laughs, I don’t think that matters. If you were hoping for this film to be scary, as well as funny, you may be less positively disposed to it. Sucks to be you. I like it.