This is a horror (if genre-mashupy horror) movie with twist and turns and surprises making it necessary to put out a disclaimer for this review's plot vaguness in order to prevent spoilage. (I actually don't mind spoilers...and apparently most people don't either http://io9.com/5829720/new-study-shows-that-knowing-spoilers-doesnt-ruin-a-story my diatribe on spoiler paranoia will have to wait, though).
Cabin in the Woods sets up two parallel stories. After a title sequence with blood pouring over ancient depictions of human sacrifice, the film opens on two office schmucks (Bradley Whitford and Richard Jenkins) drinking vending machine coffee, putzing around the office in a golf cart. They seem to work in a fairly mundane office/lab that has a lot of surveillance equipment. Out of nowhere, huge red block letters flash the title, as if to remind us to expect the unexpected, that this movie will get its kicks out of odd juxtapositions and mutating and merging genres all with a knowing, self-aware grin. Ah, to live in the pop-culture addled brain of Joss Whedon.
In tandem, we are introduced to our usual cast of horror film tropes: the blond, promiscuous girl Jules (Anna Hutchison) and her dreamy, athletic boyfriend Curt (Chris Hemsworth); the female moral center, Dana (Kristen Connolly), in the vein of a Neve Campbell or a Jamie Lee Curtis, her superlative being Most Likely to Survive; her brainy and ethnically ambiguous love interest Holden (Jesse Williams); and the stoner Marty (Fran Kranz, who went to my high school [Go Wolverines!] and rocked some blue hair his senior year playing Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar...with some people it's just pre-ordained isn't it?).
These 5 "types" pile into an RV with all the necessities (not to fear, Marty's brought his retractible thermos-bong!), and we're off to the titular cabin, where of course the GPS doesn't work and the only gas station for miles is operated by a crotchety redneck veteran of indeterminate wars that warns them of what's to come (another well worn horror motif). As our group arrives at their destination and the blood eventually does start flowing, the ways in which the two story lines overlap gradually clarifies.
From the get-go, Whedon gives a nod to Scream, riffing on the "rules" of the genre. These characters might not be as easily pigeon-holed as you'd expect. The blonde just dyed her hair! The jock can read! The virgin is well...not one. If not really parodying the genre a la Scary Movie, Whedon's satirizing the horror filmmakers' dilemma, the quest for originality in a formulaic genre. Ironically, I don't know if original is the word to describe Cabin in the Woods. It feels like a patchwork of obsessive pop culture references ranging from the Truman Show, reality television, to Scream, to the Shining, well...to virtually every horror film ever made. But the sutures are always visible and the sum of those parts doesn't quite equal groundbreaking.
As for the cast, Whedon loves casting relative unknowns (in fact Chris Hemsworth was more of an "unknown" as this filmed prior to Thor). This results in solid, ensemble casts of talented, if not particularly showy actors. And that's his point, right? The performances shouldn't distract from the story, they should be in service of it. If there is a standout, it would be Kranz, and that's partially because he gets the most room to play as the surprisingly capable and insightful drug addict. Even though subsuming actor identity in service of the work is de rigeur for Whedon, he does drop an eleventh hour celebrity cameo bomb.
Perhaps what impressed me the most about Cabin in the Woods was the humor, derived not from laugh out loud lines, but more situational, relying on hyperbolic sight gags and the campy premise. The climax can only be described as orgiastic, and boy, is it fun to watch. Never has carnage put such a creepy smile on my face. In Cabin in the Woods, the horror elements never really incite many feelings of horror; they're never quite serious or laughable and walk an odd middle ground that strangely never fails to entertain. If in the end, the movie betrays some of the strain of its post-modern ambitions, Whedon and co. get points for bravery and laughs.
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