Movie Recommendation: The Cabin in the Woods

Just happened to see that Cabin in the Woods is now available on Netflix Streaming. I’m really not a fan of horror movies in general, but I can’t recommend this one enough. Great writing, a quirky premise, and a really entertaining film.

Here’s the trailer:

And here’s a little bit of the opening few minutes:

Ok, before you start thinking that this is another generic horror movie: it’s totally not. It pays homage to the elements of a classic horror movie, but definitely has its own take/twist on the genre. I’m intentionally being vague about all this, because it’s not something I want to spoil. If you can, try to avoid reading too much about this movie, before seeing it.

It’s written by Joss Whedon (who’s done great stuff like Serenity and The Avengers) and Drew Goddard (who’s worked with JJ Abrams on Lost, Alias, and Cloverfield). The writing and dialog throughout is fantastic.

To me, the scary/horror parts were lessened a bit by some truly quirky and comedic moments. I don’t know that I’d go so far as to call this movie a comedy, but there’s a lot of really funny moments throughout. At its core though, it’s still a scary horror movie… but there’s this extra layer that’s just a lot of fun to watch.

I wish I could find the first 5-6 minutes of the film, to show you. When I first saw it, I had this What the hell is going on moment, and found myself really interested in seeing the mystery unfold.

Highly recommended. Even if you’re not that into horror movies, give it a whirl.

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