The Cabin in the Woods!

I came of age in the last gasps of the classic exploitation age. I was lucky enough to see some holdovers from the gritty days of down-and-dirty horror and exploitation. I greatly enjoyed watching things like The Beast Within and Ulli Lommel's The Boogeyman at drive-in theaters. But the times were changing and a new era was ushering in.

By the mid-1980's, it was becoming hard to find a serious horror picture. The genre had become self-aware and jokey. Horror comedies ruled the day, and a lot of so-called serious horror fans decried the trend. Me, I liked it a lot. But then I liked the harder-edged horror movies too.

Trends in the genre come and go. In recent years things got pretty brutal again. Torture Porn became prominent, and filmmakers tried to take things as far as they could. Movies like The Human Centipede and A Serbian Movie shocked and polarized fans and audiences. In a way this was a good thing. Controversy is healthy. Yet something had to give.

Maybe it's time for a shift in tone again. I recently stated on the Horror Drive-In Message Board that, despite many fine novels coming out in the genre in this new Millennium, there haven't been any true game-changers. Well, maybe a game-changer has come in the world of the horror movie.

A true game-changer can't be some obscure, underground thing. It must by definition attract audiences outside the rather small pool of the horror community. I truly hope that The Cabin in the Woods will be the movie that brings in a new era of fun horror.

God, did we need this movie. It's fresh, yet drenched in horror/gore movie tradition. Who can keep track of all the references to horror films in it? There are dozens. Perhaps hundreds.

I didn't really know who the smuck Joss Weldon is. I know he was responsible for Buffy. I never saw the show, but I heard it was good. Yeah, right. He did Toy Story, which I sat through. I suppose it is a decent movie, but it most certainly is not my cup of tea. What else? Alien Resurrection? A truly horrible motion picture. Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog? Let's just say that the name, Joss Weldon, did not exactly inspire me with hope for a good horror movie.

I certainly didn't expect something so hip and savvy as The Cabin in the Woods to come from him. Or anyone, really. This movie feels fresh and familiar at the same time. It's a beautiful gift for horror fans. Bu the audience I saw it with were not all horror fans, but they all loved it. They shrieked and howled all through the movie.

The Cabin in the Woods is one to see with an audience. A lot of people have gotten away from watching movies in theaters, but with something like this there is an energy, almost electricity, in the auditorium.

And if you give the slightest shit about horror movies, you'd better get your ass out there and see it. At least once. I plan to see it again.

If you have or are considering downloading The Cabin in the Woods illegally, a plague upon you and your offspring. Go out, get your ticket torn and support the damn thing. Every horror fan should do so.

Surely it won't please all fans. I've come to realize that no movie, no matter how good, will be embraced by everyone. Nor, astonishingly, is anything so bad that a few won't like it. The thing is, every fan should see it for themselves.

And there is so much to see in it. There are some computer effects, yes, but there are so many traditional ones in it. It's nice to see model-makers in the credits. Puppeteers. Hands-on makeup work.

Like I said before, a gift to the true horror fans.

I unabashedly adored The Cabin in the Woods. It's easily my favorite horror movie of this decade so far. Let's hope for an extras-packed, unrated DVD.