Scream made fun of them as a suspense movie, not a regular horror one. I smile all the way through a Scream film. I never smile while watching a regular horror movie. Cabin in the Test Chamber is a horror/comedy that has some laughs, but I don't recommend anyone see it. The hype is as tangible as a ghost.
[spoiler]The scientists aren't represenations of the horror movie audience, it is the eldar gods. The scientists, military personnel and beaurocrats are the film crew. THe people upstaris are the studio execs. That said, are the horror fans actually right as you claim? This is the question the movie asks you at the end and you assume the answer is yes because of the context of how they represented the answer (destruction of the world). You need to reanalyze what the destruction of the world is supposed to represent.[/spoiler]
For the record, that list is mainly based on the dry erase board, and isn't thorough; I think the board only covered stuff that was being voted for, not that was available. Plus, there's a bunch of stuff on the board we don't see in the film. As far as I can tell what we do see is: [spoiler]Those knockoffs of The Strangers, who I think are separate from the "dolls" because there's both a box of porcelain masks in the cellar, as well as a box full of old doll heads. The dolls were probably literal killer dolls, ala Chucky. The Buckners (Zombie Redneck Torture Family) Hell Lord/Fornicus, Lord of Bondage and Pain Normal zombies Molesting tree Giant snake Dragonbat Wraith Witch (non-sexy) Werewolf Unicorn The Sugarplum Fairy/Ballerina Dentata The Merman The Clown The Scarecrow Folk The Japanese yurei ghost What looks like a dead King Kong with devil horns (on one of the "failed sacrifice" feeds) The Twins (they look like the two little girls from The Shining) A robot A giant spider Dismemberment Goblins (they look like the goblins from "Troll 2") The Doctors A boomer from L4D The Reavers from Firefly[/spoiler]
Wasn't the [spoiler]Hellraiser guy that one who they saw while in the elevator? (he was holding the Rubik's cube thingy). I don't see any mention of that giant bat thing that smashed into the control room (or was that a vampire?) [/spoiler] In a way, this movie was a lot like the Hunger Games, just with a different ultimate viewing audience
[spoiler]The Hellraiser guy was the Hell Lord, AKA Fornicus, Lord of Bondage and Pain. He's listed in the credits. The giant bat monster was probably the dragonbat listed on the whiteboard.[/spoiler]
ON a side note, I was at barnes and Noble yesterday and saw they did a novelization of the film. Anyone read it yet to decide if it is a good novelization, meh, or some eldritch abomination that just doesn't exist?
Since this movie looks almost like something Stephen King would do (maybe Stephen King meets Stephen Leacock), I'd imagine that it would be well-suited for novelization.
Scream made some light of the genre, but it was still an homage. The opening sequence of that film was funny and cleverly referential to the genre. It broke with convention and expectation in casting Drew Barrymore, at the time the biggest name in the movie by far, as the proverbial good girl whom you expect to survive. It was also good and scary. By comparison, Cabin's opening was clever in its juxtaposition of mundane office workers set against the "props" of a horror film, but that cleverness only goes so far when it's simultaneously a spoiler for your feature-length movie in the first few minutes of the film. I think this would have been an amazing YouTube short, or even a 30-minute TV episode. The joke doesn't carry for 90 minutes, and the payoff at the end...isn't. Yes, you're right. I meant that the scientists are [spoiler]carrying out the will out the gods, and by extension, [/spoiler]presumably carrying out the desires of the audience (at least as defined by the writers of the movie in their summary of the genre's conventions). They're all pulling in the same direction. The ending, no matter how you decide to phrase it in a larger metacontext, is [spoiler]still literally the end of humanity,[/spoiler] so I think it's difficult to assign much positive value to it in any sense. Even at the highest level, it's dissatisfying because the authors are refusing to give any sort of positive answer or example. Suggesting that you fix a problem by burning everything to the ground isn't really a solution, it's a tantrum. I also only recently saw the review for Cabin in the Woods from my favorite critics. Mike's got some good insights.
According to a reference or two on TV Tropes, it shows some light on events like [spoiler]what 'Kevin' is or that the big red purge button was meant to be activated in combination with a gas, presumbably to knock the monsters out for easy transportation to another facility.[/spoiler]
There's one for me fairly major plot hole, but that movie was genuinely frightening. The whole situation and the character design is just... oh god. I'm still kind of disturbed by it even 4 hours after I finished watching it. Which means it succeeded as a horror.
just got back from watching it. I enjoyed it. Especially the speaker phone gag in the beginning had me snickering. And the climax was insane and awesome. I wonder if there was a alternate ending with the [spoiler] elder gods popping up and thanking the two survivors for FINALLY changing the channel in a sort of anti-climax. [/spoiler] Also I disagree there isn't room for a sequel. Afterall you could cover what went wrong at the other ritual sites. Probably wouldn't be any good, but when has that stopped hollywood? Edit: what was the INtern writing ont he security monitor during the climax? I didn't get a good enough look to read it. to much other things going on. Also do you think the zombie hand might have been a shout out to Evil Dead?
[spoiler]Trapped in a closet Dragonbat has my scent Send help![/spoiler] It sounds familair, a reference to something?
Anyone else catch the stoner guy at the beginning locking his car door and leaving the window rolled down?
Oh yeah. That was a good one. I liked stoner guy. He was a pothead, but not a stupid one. There was a real brain in there.
Yeah I had a similar experience. Saw the movie last Wednesday with two of my girlfriends. One just loves horror movies and the entire genre and the other usually gets super scared by horror movies and is more of a casual fan of the genre. The one who loved horror movies just absolutely loved this film, and thought it was amazing. In the beginning part of the film she was like... I don't know who those people in the labcoats were but I want their job! And towards the end of the film she was like... this is just amazing and apparently completely forgot her previous comments. She seemed to love the deconstruction of the modern horror film and how stale the genre was. My other friend thought the film was corny and stupid. So clearly, it gravitates more to a film you love or hate. I personally loved the film, and was giggling throughout the entire show at how the film was totally throwing the conventional horror film upside down. And the last half hour or so was just simply amazing, like some super mega epic horror crossover. I understand why the monsters weren't fighting each other, but it'd of been cool if they would.
I assume they eventually did, but they've been conditioned to hunt down humans, and predatory instincts made them go for the easyier targets first.
[spoiler]Just saw it. Great movie, really fun and interesting. Best single moment was the friendship circle defeating the Japanese scenario. One had to assume that Japan's scenario would fail as soon as they mentioned the 100% success rate, but the way that played out was hilarious. Also loved the play on "They may be torturing redneck zombies but they're *our* torturing redneck zombies." Plus the concept that Maintenance had been betting on them to emerge year after year. And most of all the notion, delivered by characters without a trace of irony, that '80s slasher movie conventions are part of Lovecraftian archetypes that predate recorded history. Didn't occur to me in watching, but in retrospect were the control people fooling themselves that they could just shoot Marty and save the scenario? If just putting in death was the problem they could have thrown a bomb into the Japanese site once the monster failed, it would seem that the logic of the scenario would demand that everyone who died do so as a result of redneck zombies once they were selected, or resultant fallout. I could see that covering attempt to escape the area, since that's part of the usual horror scenario, but shooting him by the security goons seems a stretch. Probably overthinking it, and it doesn't really matter--since by the time they escaped the controlled area the puppetmasters were operating rashly and outside their usual pattern of experience. Has there been a recent American horror film that earned the R rating as much? Especially liked how the blood just smeared everywhere postslaughter. IMO it was much better than Scream, which presented itself as a bad slasher movie--but also had the characters stop occasionally and mock dumb slasher movie behavior, right before doing the same things. As if the film thought being self-referential somehow made it smarter or better than the typical horror film. Here, the behavior of people on both sides of the manipulation made sense, except when it was being specifically controlled to conform to cliches, and even then temporarily enough that I still liked the characters. It probably says something about our cultural moment that this year saw The Hunger Games and now Cabin in the Woods, as heavily invested with the Truman Show motif. Although this movie could have come out years ago, apparently. None of the different monsters attacked each other when they were rampaging. I suppose they were programmed (probably by the Ancient Ones, rather then the humans) to focus on humans, theoretically it might be possible for the victims to hit multiple triggers at once and they wouldn't want them clashing and letting the victims make it. [/spoiler]
Very much liked this film. And oddly, I actually wanted the ritual to fail. Sure, humanity is boned now, but the idea that every one of a dozen sites hellbent on making people degrade themselves and die failed just seemed such a flattering testament to humanity gaining some sort of... I dunno... dignity or self worth, that it seemed worth it. That said, my money is on the Japanese schoolgirls summoning a good Mothra/Godzilla knockoff to beat those old gods back underground. Hey, those tykes did change it from a horror genre to an after school special.
Topher from Dollhouse was pretty doped up All the stabbings and bear traps don't seem to hinder everyone very much. I thought the circular saw blades guy with the puzzle, cenobite light?, would play a further role. Also the good guy Bradley Whitford, no surviving for you without the power of the 'stache.
