Spooky Season 2022: The Cabin in the Woods Review

Where to begin with this impeccable satire horror? 2012’s The Cabin in the Woods offers a genius premise which is executed much better than one ever could have imagined. The film can be described as a satire of horror movie clichés and questionable character decisions. It does a fantastic job in making them vital to the story and the genre as a whole. At the end of the day, it is a film that fans may not have known they wanted but proved to be one they needed.

The film follows a group of five college students named Dana (Connolly), Curt (Hemsworth), Jules (Hutchison), Marty (Kranz), and Holden (Williams) who pile into a van and head down to an old creepy cabin deep in the woods. However, this isn’t any ordinary cabin. In fact, it is above a facility conducting diabolical ancient rituals run by a pair of scientists named Sitterson (Richard Jenkins) and Hadley (Bradley Whitford). Their job was to make sure the five guinea pigs play their part in this ritual, with the victims choosing how they die and the scientists ensuring that it happens.

Meanwhile as a love letter to slasher films, The Cabin in the Woods features plenty of references and Easter eggs to unpack, from Pinhead, Pennywise, to the Sawyer Family just to name a few. There is nothing it won’t reference, even get a brilliant reference to the Necronomicon from The Evil Dead franchise.

On the surface, The Cabin in the Woods is a typical slasher affair. A group of teens travel to a cabin in the woods to drink and party before they all get brutally murdered. However, the film is exceptionally layered which makes it stand out unlike other similar films. With the ancient rituals and the enterprise behind it who gleefully put bets on what creature the teens choose, leading to a greater reveal that these controlled experiments happen all over the world which have all failed with the monsters either being killed or defeated. The film delivers many great twists and turns through from Marty’s survival to the terrifying release of all the creatures that wreak havoc all over the underground facility. There is something special about each twist that makes it so memorable.

Witnessing the jaw dropping collection of monsters and creatures is enough to make a fan giddy with excitement, but the moment when all the creatures are released is nothing short of a horror movie fan’s dream. This scene is easily one of the best, most exciting, and most memorable scenes in horror history. Seeing a giant snake tear through a hallway, a killer clown absorbs countless bullets, and a unicorn skewer a scientist is simply spectacular.

In the end, The Cabin in the Woods is one of the best horror satires since Scream, delivering a jaw dropping, exciting, and multi-layered experience like no other. The film is just a horror movie fan’s dream and among the best and most innovative films of all time.

*still courtesy of Lionsgate*

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Olly Dyche

Journalist, Writer, Film Critic and Professional Nerd. You will probably find Olly at the cinema chomping down on some popcorn and taking in the glorious visuals of the latest theatrical release.