Saturday, April 28, 2012

Entry 4: RE: "Cabin" - Chill Out.

Posted by: Chad Van Alstin


Settle down, Brad. There's no reason to be that upset over a film that doesn't present itself as anything more than mere entertainment. I don't see there being a buildup to anything beyond a promise that Cabin in the Woods will be a really strange movie -- and that promise was kept, even if I didn't always like it.

With a film like this, the fact that I laughed isn't enough to earn it a perfect rating, but it counts for something. This isn't on the same level as films like Scream or Drag Me To Hell, both of which are done with a sophisticated level of filmmaking not seen here.

This isn't to say that Cabin is poorly made -- that wouldn't be a fair statement. I just think that Cabin went for some cheap laughs, and other films in the genre take a much darker approach. Black comedy is present in Cabin in the Woods, but certainly not to the degree of the Evil Dead or Scream series.

I suppose your point about classifying this as "horror" is correct, but I don't think that's really important. I'm not a huge fan of genre classifications in general, and I use the 'horror-comedy' label only to set a point of reference. 

A film like Army of Darkness doesn't contain any scares, but most people will still classify it as a horror film. This is probably largely due to the supernatural subject matter. I follow suit only to give a point of reference, though I agree that most people won't find Cabin in the Woods to evoke any emotions normally associated with horror. Unless of course they are really made uneasy by gore, since Cabin has a ton of that.

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