Bigger Nightmares

The Cabin in the Woods makes it clear from the start that it isnt just another horror movie. It takes the modern formula of the young people heading to some remote location and turns it on its head, revealing a far more interesting conceit that opens up the story to bigger and stranger nightmares. Its a great movie, and is largely a blast. Its only marred by the fact that we are only getting a sanitized version of it. Though its still pretty fun, its clear that were being cheated out of some of the experience.

College friends Dana (Kristen Connolly), Jules (Anna Hutchison), Curt (Chris Hemsworth), Marty (Fran Kranz) and Holden (Jesse Williams) are spending the weekend in a remote cabin recently bought by Curts cousin. Once there, they discover a cellar filled with strange and mysterious objects. Dana unwittingly unleashes a horror upon them, and soon enough, the five are fighting for their lives. Unbeknownst to them, theres something much bigger going on beneath the cabin, and their survival depends on discovering these secrets.

That might sound like the premise for the most generic of teen horror movies. And it is. But thats not all there is to the movie. The film uses the premise as a launching point for a thorough exploration of the genre as a whole. Its one of those things that are hard to talk about without giving too much away; so much of the enjoyment of the film is predicated on the surprise that the first few strange moments bring. But suffice it to say that the movie is far cleverer than the premise might suggest. It plays with all the horror movie conventions, and digs into the reasons for their very existence.

The film clearly understands the language of horror movies. It gets all the details of the genre right, and does well to build up a looming sense of doom even as it gets to the business of subverting tropes. The film then puts everything in a new perspective, and delivers the same horror movie moments with an extra layer of cleverness. Maybe its even a little too clever at times, but it takes nothing away from the bigger picture. Sadly, the cuts do. The film has been butchered pretty badly, and though one can easily still grasp whats going on in the movie, the cuts excise a couple of punchlines and take away from some of what the movie is trying to do.

A good cast backs up all the cleverness. The actors are made to play types, but with another level to their characters just lurking underneath. The cast pulls this off rather well. Kristen Connolly has a strange, resigned toughness that belies her timid appearance. Chris Hemsworth plays the jock with a level of self-awareness thats rather endearing. Fran Kranz puts up some really strong work as well. The kids get ample backup from veterans Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford. Jenkins in particular is fantastic, the actor clearly enjoying the alternate strangeness and mundaneness of his dialogue.

The less you know about The Cabin in the Woods, the better. It is one of the rare movies that have the ability to surprise, drawing audiences in as it reveals more and more of the strange world it builds. Its also just really clever. The only real question is whether or not one should see it in the cinema. The experience still remains enjoyable in spite of the cuts, though it definitely hurts it. Its hard to recommend a version of a film that has dialogue interrupted and big punchlines undermined by censorship. Its a great film, but the current environment of our theaters wont allow for the full experience.

My Rating:

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Bigger Nightmares