Cabin in the Woods
Apr. 16th, 2013 10:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Seriously, why do you even have a button for "release all the imprisoned monsters into your secret hideout?" Why do you even have a door for that?
I thought it was very well done how the government cultists had grown jaded to the process of luring teenagers into a cabin in the woods and enacting horror movie scenarios on them, with all the government jargon and back up plans and so on. And the way they constantly expect Tokyo to be doing better.
I'm not much of a fan of horror movies, so I mostly glossed over the horror-y aspects.
I liked the character of the teens, what there was over it. It's still a shame that it stereotypes them as virgin, whore, etc, but it was very clear that that was imposed on them, wrongly. And that when they weren't directly manipulated, they did a very good job of sticking together, being sensible and trusting each other.
I was very interested that it went to town with "old gods wake up and destroy the earth", rather than having a heroic sacrifice at the last second.
I thought people describing it as having a "big twist" were rather exaggerating. I'd already heard the basic concept before seeing it, but lots of descriptions gave me the impression the first half was a standard slasher film, and then it turned out, surprise, it was orchestrated. But even though exactly what they were doing wasn't specified, the first scene was with the experimenters, and it constantly cut away to show what they were doing to the teens.
I was interested in the ending. It seemed optimistic for even Sigourney Weaver to ask the nerd to jump for the good of humanity, but there's little to lose at that point. But the question of, should he jump (or should she shoot him) was interesting. If the story the experimenters describe is true, it seems obvious but difficult. But in most horror movies, you have every reason to avoid human sacrifice:
- placating old gods always ends up badly
- doing evil things for good reasons always ends up badly
- you have only limited evidence of the supernatural at all at this point, plus the ground shaking -- the genre cues are somewhat convincing, but objectively it seems more likely the experimenters were evil or lying than that they ACTUALLY have a reason
I thought it was very well done how the government cultists had grown jaded to the process of luring teenagers into a cabin in the woods and enacting horror movie scenarios on them, with all the government jargon and back up plans and so on. And the way they constantly expect Tokyo to be doing better.
I'm not much of a fan of horror movies, so I mostly glossed over the horror-y aspects.
I liked the character of the teens, what there was over it. It's still a shame that it stereotypes them as virgin, whore, etc, but it was very clear that that was imposed on them, wrongly. And that when they weren't directly manipulated, they did a very good job of sticking together, being sensible and trusting each other.
I was very interested that it went to town with "old gods wake up and destroy the earth", rather than having a heroic sacrifice at the last second.
I thought people describing it as having a "big twist" were rather exaggerating. I'd already heard the basic concept before seeing it, but lots of descriptions gave me the impression the first half was a standard slasher film, and then it turned out, surprise, it was orchestrated. But even though exactly what they were doing wasn't specified, the first scene was with the experimenters, and it constantly cut away to show what they were doing to the teens.
I was interested in the ending. It seemed optimistic for even Sigourney Weaver to ask the nerd to jump for the good of humanity, but there's little to lose at that point. But the question of, should he jump (or should she shoot him) was interesting. If the story the experimenters describe is true, it seems obvious but difficult. But in most horror movies, you have every reason to avoid human sacrifice:
- placating old gods always ends up badly
- doing evil things for good reasons always ends up badly
- you have only limited evidence of the supernatural at all at this point, plus the ground shaking -- the genre cues are somewhat convincing, but objectively it seems more likely the experimenters were evil or lying than that they ACTUALLY have a reason