Reviewed: Cabin In The Woods

AS FAR as slasher flicks go, The Cabin In The Woods is a game-changer. The idea of five teenagers heading to a remote part of the American outback for a sordid weekend, only to be tortured by a hillbilly with a grudge, has been done to death - no pun intended - so I wasn't expecting much. 

But this latest gore-slathered Lionsgate release is not your average horror film. With only their naivety and a thirst for adventure, Dana (Kristen Connolly), Curt (Chris Hemsworth), Jules (Anna Hutchison), Marty (Fran Kranz) and Holden (Jesse Williams) jump into a caravan and drive into the unknown, all set for a holiday at 'The Cabin In The Woods'. 

En route they come across an inbred-looking local at a ramshackle petrol station, who eerily directs them on their right path. True to the genre stereotype, they brush off the encounter and head on their merry way - oblivious that their every move is being surveyed. However, it is not an axe-wielding psychopath lurking in the shadows, but instead a pristine operations team watching them on CCTV. 

Blissfully unaware, the group descend on the cabin and make themselves at home. When darkness falls the basement door flies open of its own accord, enticing them into the room below where they find a whole host of ancient treasures. Dana discovers a macabre diary which catalogues the lives of a murderous family who inhabited in the cabin in the early 1900s. She reads out one of the entries in Latin and unknowingly awakens a group of ravenous zombies right outside their door. 

While the group of youngsters are suddenly fighting for their lives, deep beneath the cabin are puppeteers Sitterson (Richard Jenkins) and Hadley (Bradley Whitford) who have every finite detail of their demise pre-determined and have been meticulously orchestrating a series of tricks, traps and concealed cameras. The teens are plucked off one-by-one and Sitterson and Hadley watch on eagerly, mysteriously insinuating that the group are "humanity's last hope", that their fate is sealed and that a higher - much more sinister - power is afoot. 

Director, writer and producer Joss Whedon (Buffy, Angel, Firefly), alongside co-writer and Cloverfield genius Drew Goddard, tautly splices together a blood-thirsty horror with the subdued tones of the not-at-all-scary concealed control room, creating an elegant contrast. 

The scenes are drenched in gore but The Cabin In The Woods is more reliant on substance than a high kill count - although it certainly achieves both with bloody gusto. It lures you into a false sense of predictability and then turns the entire teen-horror genre on its head, giving birth to a concept that is simultaneously inventive, unexpected and disturbing. 

Verdict: Clever quips and witty one-liners, particularly from the unknown operatives below and visionary-cum-stoner Marty, make for a fantastic and quintessentially Whedon-esque dialogue, delivered by a shining cast. These dark comedic moments come in abundance and help to disperse the suspense, if only momentarily. Terrifyingly tense and razor sharp, The Cabin in the Woods packs one hell of a punch - and the odd bit of decapitation as well. 9/10.