The Cabin in the Woods

[Khaldun]

[Ironwood]

Saw this last night with the wife;  It was an excellent episode of Buffy.

[DraconianOne]

Saw this last night with the wife;  It was an excellent episode of Buffy.

Yes it was.

[Khaldun]

Speaking of references, the kids are much more a "Scooby Gang" than the Buffy characters--Shaggy, Fred, Daphne, Velma (ok, sans glasses). Which just leaves the last guy who is clearly not-Scooby.

[DraconianOne]

So I bought and have just read the Cabin In the Woods Visual Companion with screenplay and extensive interview with Goddard and Whedon:

[Furiously]

I just watched it.  And meh.

[schild]

Whedon shit is only watchable to me at this point because one or two actors in everything he does are simply better than the scripts deserve (Firefly peaked this number with four or five people making it more than tolerable). Whedon shouldn't be famous, whoever does his casting should be. And if it's him, he should stop writing and making shit and just do the casting for other movies.

This was like JJ Abrams and M. Night Shyamalan phoned in one of the Scream movies.

It was not good. It was watchable because of Fran Kranz, Richard Jenkins, and Bradley Whitford. In fact, it was entertaining because of them. But it was not a good movie by any measure. I'd liken it to Fired Up which was only enjoyable because of Eric Christian Olsen but was otherwise just trash.

I'm going to go watch Bunraku now because it has Ron Perlman in it.

[Furiously]

I watched the hunger games last night. And said to my wife, "that was like a good version of cabin in the woods."

[schild]

That's funny because when I watched The Hunger Games I was like "What the fuck is even happening? Can we swap this film reel with Battle Royale?"

Of course, I haven't read the books and everyone who had loved it.

[Evildrider]

Hunger Games is by no means a literary masterpiece, and it's 100% better than the movie.


And I liked Cabin in the Woods.  I wish it would have been a bit more comedic though. 

[Lakov_Sanite]

I get the comparisons between The Hunger Games and Battle Royale, I do but they aren't even close to the same movie.  Once you get past the whole kids killing each other for sport they are marketed to totally different sets of people with very different social and political messages, one was also far better than the other.  Comparing one to the other really diminishes both by association.

Having spoiled myself on the plot of the cabin in the woods, is it worth watching? (I personally hate half-revealed mythos in movies)

[schild]

Joss Whedon is like TV/Movies as a last resort for me, so I'm a terrible person to respond.

But no, it's absolutely not worth watching. It's a mediocre slasher flick and a mediocre thriller strung together by the barest of threads. The way it played out was absolutely incomprehensible and as I said, it was basically a Scream knockoff.

I don't see how you can't compare Hunger Games and Battle Royale. Battle Royale was about the government/adults imposing their authority on the reckless youth of Japan (ignoring the far deeper social commentary embedded through the whole thing). Hunger Games was about government control of the poor and a poorly constructed class war. In Battle Royale, parents were notified their kids were chosen but the adults of that world gave in to that being the best way to keep them functional as a society. In Hunger Games parents were PRESENT when their children were eh, chosen and they glorified that stupid shit like a bad Running Man. They're both very much cut from the same cloth, but the part Hunger Games was cut out of was just absolutely bogged down in genetic failure comparatively.

[sickrubik]

For me, Cabin in the Woods was fantastic, but I think I already said as much earlier in the thread. But, it does feel very Whedony, so those that don't like him, probably aren't going to like it.

As a reminder and clarification though, this isn't a "Whedon" movie. It was co-written and produced by Whedon, with Drew Goddard the actaul writer and director. Of course, Drew Goddard worked on a ton of Buffy.... so... it all comes out the same really.

A for Battle Royale/Hunger Games. I agree... they're very very similar. I had never read the book, but knew of it in a basic sense and then when we went to see the movie I thought, "well, shit, this IS BR."

[Khaldun]

Comparing Battle Royale and the Hunger Games makes perfect sense, though Lord of the Flies and a bunch of gladiator stuff for that matter ought to come into the frame too. The main difference that I can see from the books is that Battle Royale is thinking, "What if Japan had been or became a fascist society?" with the kind of fascism in question being pretty specific to Japan's history in the 20th C. Hunger Games in the books is thinking, "Is this where class division in American society is going/has gone already?" Related questions, related devices, but the feel is different enough that I think both books do ok on their own. Movies too.

Cabin in the Woods you like or not in a not-totally Whedon way. It comes down to whether you like metafiction of any kind. Some people don't. So they don't like this at all. Some people do, and they do. Not all Whedon is metafictional at this level, but all Whedon has some element of metafiction. Folks who don't like metafiction only like Whedon at his least metafictional.

[sickrubik]

Can you put the word "metafiction" in there a few more times? 

[Khaldun]

Not without getting metafictional about metafiction.

[Mrbloodworth]

It's a mediocre slasher flick and a mediocre thriller strung together by the barest of threads. The way it played out was absolutely incomprehensible and as I said, it was basically a Scream knockoff.

wut.

[Ironwood]

Leave it, it's Schild.

[MahrinSkel]

--Dave

[Ratman_tf]

Joss Whedon is like TV/Movies as a last resort for me, so I'm a terrible person to respond.

But no, it's absolutely not worth watching. It's a mediocre slasher flick and a mediocre thriller strung together by the barest of threads. The way it played out was absolutely incomprehensible and as I said, it was basically a Scream knockoff.

I don't see how you can't compare Hunger Games and Battle Royale. Battle Royale was about the government/adults imposing their authority on the reckless youth of Japan (ignoring the far deeper social commentary embedded through the whole thing). Hunger Games was about government control of the poor and a poorly constructed class war. In Battle Royale, parents were notified their kids were chosen but the adults of that world gave in to that being the best way to keep them functional as a society. In Hunger Games parents were PRESENT when their children were eh, chosen and they glorified that stupid shit like a bad Running Man. They're both very much cut from the same cloth, but the part Hunger Games was cut out of was just absolutely bogged down in genetic failure comparatively.

Huh. I just saw HG about a week or so ago, and really liked it. (haven't read the book) I hear all the comparisons to Battle Royale, and need to see BR to make a good comparison, but man I'm kinda burned on japanese media. Like... most of it's people yakking their heads off about pop psychology or philosophy issues and cloaking that as some kind of character drama. I can't imagine that BR will relate to me like HG did. The whole nature of society and power and the media from an American perspective compared to a Japanese one.

[Riggswolfe]

I just watched this last night on On-Demand and quite liked it as it seems most people who are not-Schild did. (and like most of you I'm not at all shocked he hated it. )

[TheWalrus]

Just watched this last night. Loved every second of it. And hey, guy finally gets his merman.

[Draegan]

I enjoyed the movie, but I didn't think it was crazy good like people are saying.  I enjoyed watching it, then forgot about it.

[angry.bob]

I enjoyed it, but I also really liked Buffy and Angel while they were on the air too. A buffy episode was a really good way of describing it. Honestly, it wouldn't suprise me if the thing had started out as a premise for a season of Buffy that never got used so he shmushed it into two hours and made a movie.

[TheWalrus]

Oh yeah, and who the fuck puts a "Release all monsters" button in there? The fuck?

[pxib]

As I said earlier, it fits perfectly if Whedon didn't have to have his ending.

[HaemishM]

I watched this last night and LOVED IT. I knew there was a twist in the tail, but really didn't think it would be


Yes, it went very meta but it also just worked on the level of being a fun send up of horror movies. To me, it was as refreshing to the genre as Scream was when it first came out (before it became a parody of itself). So many good moments, so much good dialogue, good effects, especially the

[Evildrider]

The best thing that can come out of this movie is that coffee cup/bong/baseball bat the stoner used is turned into a real product.

[Venkman]

Oh yeah, and who the fuck puts a "Release all monsters" button in there? The fuck?

So? Doofenshmirtz keeps making inators with self destruct buttons. 

[Riggswolfe]

I watched this last night and LOVED IT. I knew there was a twist in the tail, but really didn't think it would be


Yes, it went very meta but it also just worked on the level of being a fun send up of horror movies. To me, it was as refreshing to the genre as Scream was when it first came out (before it became a parody of itself). So many good moments, so much good dialogue, good effects, especially the

Honestly, I thought you would hate the movie. You're so cynical I figured you'd fall on the Schild side of hating it on principle. I loved it also and especially liked how it all ended and how they played with my expectations right up until the very end.

[HaemishM]

Honestly, I thought you would hate the movie. You're so cynical I figured you'd fall on the Schild side of hating it on principle.

Even though I'm not a Buffy fan, I do tend to like Whedon's dialogue. I thought the picture was very well thought out, well-acted and well-executed.

[Ragnoros]

Been watching a lot of lame movies lately it seems; MIB 3, New Conan, other even more forgettable ones. Cabin was a refreshing change of pace. I loved solving the mystery with this Scooby Gang of sorts.

Oh and between this and The West Wing I am officially a Bradley Whitford fan.

[shiznitz]

I liked how you thought they were sharing the "mystery" with you up front and then then the "Whoa" comes.