Okay, don't worry: there aren't going to be any spoilers here. And if you know what I'm talking about, that also means I don't have to go into much plot detail regarding The Cabin in the Woods, the fantastically smart new horror comedy from director/co-writer Drew Goddard (who wrote Cloverfield) and producer/co-writer Joss Whedon. Given Whedon's involvement, I was hoping for a Buffy-like jaunt with brash dialogue and a genre-busting mission...and I got what I wanted. Giddy while watching it unspool as the closing night offering for the 2012 Atlanta Film Festival (where I got to shake hands with its star, the extremely charming Kristen Connelly), I tried to remember midway through when I'd last had such a high time at a movie. Actually, I couldn't come up with a competitive title...surely, I'd had fun at other blockbusters recently. But, no, I can't really even think of one even now (many genre hits of the past decade have been rather dreary). Meanwhile, The Cabin in the Woods is an insanely exciting, resoundingly new kinda hoot all the way through.
I had a friend recently say he hated the movie because it was too cliched. Wondering what, exactly, this person was expecting, I quickly came to the film's defense: "Don't you realize that the movie's ambition is to tear down the cliches while giving them a hilariously gigantic reason d'atre?" The film isn't just about five kids who go off to party by the lake, and all the "horror" that premise entails. It's a full-on spoof of movies, audience expectations, the video-game culture, the reality TV boom, and the labeling of personalities (some viewers might look towards the Scream series as a reference point, but this movie is much cleverer than Scream ever was). Also, in the wry scenes that feature Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford as smart-assed scientists (and I'm not giving anything away there, because they're the first characters we see in the film), Cabin freely mocks conspiracy theorists and big-picture seers while admitting that they might indeed be on to something. With every turn of this outlandish riot of a plot--if you choose to read its deeper intentions--there is a new skewer or challenge directed at something occurring in the culture. Or, if you're not into picking your movies apart, you can just sit back and be amazed at where this labyrinth takes you.
The cast is almost uniformly terrific, with Fran Kranz taking the lovability award here with his meek, scratchy-voiced, conspiracy-minded stoner. I really took to a little throwaway moment with Kranz as he's sitting on a bed, anxiously reading a collection of Little Nemo comics and pleading with Nemo to wake up (I laughed hard at this, but almost no one else in the theater did, which shows I'm a real geek). The resourceful Kristin Connelly makes a pretty nifty virgin girl (who's resolutely not a virgin), and Anna Hutchison gets some hot points for her smoldering dance moves and ability to tongue-kiss a wolf's head. The other two guys, Chris Hemsworth and Jesse Williams, are ciphers as the jock and the brain, respectively, but that's okay because they do what's required of them: they make you sort of not care about how this story treats them. And the presence of the wired. scuzzy Whitford and the dutiful Jenkins ups the film's acting gravitas quite a bit. Any time Jenkins, in particular, shows up in a movie, you can feel that film getting better by the second.
The Cabin in the Woods isn't trying to be all that scary (though it has a few moments, particularly in its astounding final third) but it's unfailingly exciting throughout. But, primarily, it IS funny--all the way from its shocking, improbably-placed red-lettered title card (its appearance made me laugh so hard, I had to endure a headache afterwards) to one particular blood-spattered special effects shot unlike any on-screen massacre I've ever witnessed (sure to be talked about as the film's WTF apex). I could go on and on about the film's most hysterical moments, but you deserve to see them for yourselves. So it's not a frightening horror film, but it is an important genre entry nonetheless--and that's a real rarity. Most satisfyingly, The Cabin in the Woods is the sort of undemandingly intelligent, rollicking movie fun best experienced in the company of an unprepared audience. And it's not often I get to write THAT sentence.
Let me say two things about trailers that are making me sick when I see them:
(1) The incessant fades outs/fades ins or cut-to-blacks; Alfred Hitchcock used this technique to make scenes in Rear Window more sleepy and fuzzy. Why is this trick being used sometimes 50 times during trailers of supposedly exciting movies? It dizzies me in exactly the wrong way. Is this a marketing-born bait-and-switch being attempted by studios who're trying to make something look better than it is? Well, sometimes yes and sometimes no. I think this ridiculous meme has made its way into the best and the worst of film trailers (particularly of action blockbusters), simply because it's been "proven" to sell. It cries out "cliche" and, worse, it assumes all of us watching are gullible goofballs. Kill this trend now!
(2) Can we leave Hans Zimmer's bass-toned Inception horn alone already? I don't think there's one genre trailer out there that does't reference this, along with a momentary reveal of an eye-popping shot. Might this be the astounding Inception's most lasting legacy? I'll admit, I loved Hans Zimmer's score for the Nolan film, horn included, but I DESPISE how this justifiably famous one-note vanguard is being ripped off now in trailers (I imagine it's being brazenly appropriated for the body of some pretty bad movies, too). By the way, I'm ashamed that one of these trailers I'm about to tubthump for commits both of these crimes. But I'll explain that later. Here are the five trailers that I, lately, most admire (and I try to judge them as just mini-films themselves).
1) Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2012)
There's no way I can avoid revisiting my favorite film I saw at 2011's New York Film Festival. Ceylan's moody rural-noir has now been released in theaters, and I have to come out here in saying that it deserves as many eyes as it can get, especially on the big screen where cinematographer Gokhan Tiryaki's gorgeous widescreen work can be appreciated in full. As a trailer, this one does everything right. Unlike many foreign film previews, it doesn't try and conceal that it's a movie with subtitles; there is dialogue here, and not just a bunch of shots of people turning around to face the camera while the background music swells It captures a snapshot of each of the movies most memorable sequences while withholding their connection to one another. Most importantly, it gets Anatolia's understanding yet hard-edged feel just right in an economical 97 seconds. Exhibitors: I implore you to program this masterpiece in your theaters.
2) Take This Waltz (Sarah Polley, 2012)
The trailer for Polley's much-awaited sophomore effort as writer/director following her Oscar-nominated turn with Away From Her, comes with a surprising cast reveal, a terrific backing song from Jenn Grant (the song is called "Parachutes"), and most importantly, a daring structure that fearlessly begins with the luminescent Michelle Williams giving us what we want: a moment, alone, with her. I think Take This Waltz is going to be a remarkable film about people--just the sort of movie I love.
3) The Cabin In The Woods (Drew Goddard, 2012)
I'm about to write my review of this much-awaited film, but I'm petrified of giving too much away about its plot. However, I like how the filmmakers (including, surely, co-writer/producer Joss Whedon) have packaged this movie. There are parts of it that recall 80s trailers (as much as the market will allow), and I like how the preview doesn't reveal two of its most recognizable actors. Still, the trailer at least gives away that these kids are up against something they couldn't possibly expect. The Cabin in the Woods is on point to be the best straight-up horror film since Spain's [rec], and I think this trailer hammers that home without resorting to many cliches.
4) Prometheus (Ridley Scott, 2012)
The trailer I'm highlighting here is the short one that was offered up way back in December of 2011. This is all I need to see. I like it in that it resembles the last half of the original Alien preview. I have to show you that before I go on...I think this is one of the greatest trailers in history, primarily because of its eggy, mystifying first half, shot specifically for this piece by the estimable R. Greenberg Associates, who did many an astounding credits sequence in the 80s and 90s.
The Prometheus trailer isn't brave enough to photograph an egg for 40 seconds, but it does have that "What? What? What is THAT?" thing with which the Alien trailer culminates. I don't WANT to know much about this movie. Surprise is of the most valuable coin here. I've watched subsequent, longer trailers, but they let me know too much. And let me say this: the original Alien trailer made me feel frenzied to see the film it advertised, and it did so before I even knew who Ridley Scott was. And , yeah, this has that damned Inception horn in it, but at least they tempered it with that high-pitched Alien scream. Anyway, this is the trailer I prefer to live with.
5) Girls (Lena Dunham, HBO, 2012)
This slightly-talky extended trailer for HBO's upcoming series has me so excited. I loved Dunham's debut feature Tiny Furniture, and though I know her voice is possibly not for everyone (much like Hal Hartley and Whit Stillman), it is resolutely for me. I almost went with Seth McFarland's trailer for Ted in this fifth spot, because I felt it convinced me to see something by someone I dislike (McFarland's TV animation makes wanna retch). But I reminded myself to think positively, and there is no newcomer out there I'm thinking more positively about these days than Lena Dunham. She a star in my book.
