[Warning: Contains mild first-act spoilers after the jump]
Drew Goddard made his feature debut with 2008's
Cloverfield, penning the film's ambitious but misguided script that sought to comment on modern mindsets regarding the documentation of our lives via the kaiju film genre. His idea, clever on paper, was that a group of privileged New York yuppies contending with 9/11-esque frenzy would nevertheless ensure that their bewilderment and horror was caught on video for posterity, or at least for YouTube hits. Unfortunately for Goddard, director Matt Reeves' muddled direction and some dire acting performances sapped whatever potential the script contained, resulting in a lifeless film that only occasionally hinted at just how far it wanted to go with its metaphor.
By teaming up with his old
Buffy and
Angel boss Joss Whedon, however, Goddard got a second chance to say something with horror, and
The Cabin in the Woods truly delivers on his promise. At times recalling Sam Raimi's 2009 return-to-form
Drag Me to Hell,
The Cabin in the Woods differs from that film, and other self-aware horror movies, by not merely calling attention to horror tropes but breaking them down, working out how they apply to the genre, as well as how filmmakers (and participatory audiences) apply them to it. To oversimplify it into a pitch, where movies such as
Drag Me to Hell or the
Scream series are about horror films,
The Cabin in the Woods is about horror itself.
