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The Movie Itself: Our Reviewer’s Take

Coming five months after its theatrical release date, I’d typically pull out the stops and give you a huge spoiler-filled review describing what makes ’The Cabin in the Woods’ the best horror movie in over a decade – but I’m not going to do that. This is one of those films that you’ll wish you could watch for the first time again, so who am I to spoil this little slice of genius?

Keeping it spoiler-free makes ’The Cabin in the Woods’ the hardest movie to review. It’s impossible to talk plot without ruining something that is wildly fun to learn in the meticulously thought-out manner in which it’s revealed in the film by its geek writers – Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard of ’Buffy’ fame. Because of that, I’m going to emphasize how much you should just take the leap of faith and see it, all while glazing over the central storyline in a general manner.

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If you’ve seen the trailer for ’Cabin in the Woods,’ you’ve seen too much. It’s fine that you know about the group of college-age kids headed to an ’Evil Dead’-ish cabin in the woods for the weekend. It’s fine that you know that something in the woods is trying to kill them. What should not have been shown is everything else. If you haven’t seen the trailer, then these next three lines might need a SPOILER ALERT. The strange and unexplained science fictiony images that are shown – elevators, SWAT-esque teams, video monitors, invisible grids – should have been saved for the first-time viewing experience. The way that it’s shown in the trailer, this aspect of the film appears to be something that’s revealed in the final chapter of the film, but it’s actually woven throughout the film in a slow-rolling manner. In fact, the opening sequence of the movie leaves you wondering if you’re watching the right movie.END SPOILER.

What ’The Cabin in the Woods’ pulls off will forever change the way you look at horror movies – not only those to come, but those that you already know. It sets up a mold that you can apply to 90 percent of the horror movies out there, one that explains exactly why everything stupid happens - why the virgin is the central character, why the group always splits up, why people always trip while being chased, why there’s so much nudity in them, and so on. It takes the genre, playfully flips it on its head, and shows you horror like you’ve never seen it before.

The trailers didn’t hint to it at all, but ’The Cabin in the Woods’ is hilarious, definitely falling into the horror comedy sub-genre. I laughed more during ’The Cabin in the Woods’ than I did collectively through Adam Sandler’s last ten movies. But don’t mistake this as pure comedy, because it’s also full of terror and gore. It’s surprising to see what Whedon and Goddard were able to get away with – not as in R-rated content, but in story content. Just when it feels like the movie is coming to an end, a wild and unrestrained final act begins that is completely out of control. I don’t know which studio exec thought, ’Hey, this might be a good idea,’ and gave the film a green light, but I’m sure glad they had the courage to try something this amazing!

Made on an estimated budget of $30 million, the worldwide $65.9 million box office draw of ’The Cabin in the Woods’ wasn’t too great - but that doesn’t matter. For those who love horror, it’s an instant cult classic. And for those who don’t much care for the genre, it’s a very pleasant surprise. I brought a plus-one to the press screening back in April who despises all horror movies – and he loved ’The Cabin in the Woods.’ In fact, he found it so intelligent and entertaining that he rounded up a group of friends and took them to a showing on opening weekend. Don’t believe in general audience opinion? Then look at the critics. With 197 reviews, ’The Cabin in the Woods’ is currently sitting pretty at 90 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Those who heed the acclaim of general audiences or critics will be very, very glad they did.

Being a fan of the film, the packaging of ’The Cabin in the Woods’ is absolutely brilliant, but it might not seem so cool if you haven’t yet seen the film. The slipcase features a lenticular cover that shows the standard poster artwork of the "Rubik’s Cabin" at one angle and a spoilery image at another angle. Click here at your own risk to see the spoilery artwork.

The Region A-locked BD-50 comes in a single-disc Elite blue keepcase. Included is a code that unlocks either a Digital Copy or an Ultraviolet copy. My PS3’s software was up-to-date when I popped in the disc, but it recommended that I install an update from the disc. It took less than 20 seconds to complete, after which the slew of skippable videos played – a Lionsgate vanity reel; a commentary disclaimer; trailers for ’The Possession,’ ’The Last Exorcism,’ ’Cabin Fever’ and ’My Bloody Valentine 3D;’ and commercials for EPIX and Fear Net TV.

How much training did you undertake for the role?

“I started training about two months ahead of the film shoot, but that continued while we were filming, too. I couldn’t bulk up, but it was important to me that Loki had a lean flexibility, so I ran and I ran. I’m a runner anyway and I’m used to getting up in the morning. I would be called for hair and makeup at 5am, so I’d get up at 3.30am, run for 45 minutes, do circuit training and then do a whole day shooting before going to bed, getting up, and doing it all again.”

What time did you have to go to bed?

“Hopefully by 8pm, but sometimes it was later than that. It was fine. To be honest, it was great to be part of the project.”

Did you find yourself taking Loki home with you at night?

“Thankfully, I wasn’t taking him home at the end of the day. I could leave Loki behind, which was great because I could relax and unwind away from the set. We had a really amazing atmosphere during the film shoot.”

What was the makeup process like for Loki?

“I had to go through two hours of hair and make-up every morning, which was a little testing at times. I had dyed my hair black and it was a certain length, but it wasn’t as long as it needed to be. It took an hour to put on the wig and add in the extensions, and then the costume itself took about 45 minutes to get on. I needed assistance with it because there were so many belts, buckles and bootstraps.”

How did you feel when the process was completed each day?

“I thought it looked amazing. It’s one of those things where the external silhouette of the character does so much of the job for me. The costume that Loki wears, the way he looks, the fact that he’s pale and has these sunken eyes and long black hair… He looks menacing. My eyes are naturally green and blue because I’m fair skinned and blond – but when I’ve got black hair and pale skin, suddenly my eyes look really creepy. When you’re breathing life into a very different kind of character it’s helpful to know that you look very different. But the costume was also great, especially when you’re fighting in it. It was so heavy and hot that it felt like I was fighting in a diving bell! It was intense, but great and it looked amazing, so it was all worth it.”

Do you think you came off worst when it comes to your costume?

“Everyone in the cast had their own challenges with the costumes, but if you sign up to play a superhero, you know you’re going to have a specific outfit and you know it’s going to be a challenge at some point. Alex Byrne is a brilliant costume designer. Everyone looks iconic in the movie, and Alex was so open to making the costumes work for the actors. She wanted to ensure that you could fight in it, breathe in it and also take it off at lunchtime. There’s a high risk that superheroes can look ridiculous, but Alex made us all look amazing.”

Were you into superheroes when you were growing up?

“As a kid, I loved Superman. For me, Christopher Reeve as Superman was the first superhero. I sat smack-bang in the middle of the audience for that movie. I was the right age at the right time, and I spent a lot of my childhood playing Superman games in the playground.”

So what superhero power would you most like to have in real life?

“I would love to have invisibility. Wouldn’t it be fascinating to be able to walk around and not be seen? You could listen into everything and look around. It would be a huge freedom to not be seen.”

Where would you go with your invisibility?

“I would go and find out the truth about things I don’t know about. I would want to go and sit in 10 Downing Street and the White House to listen to what they really say and what they really know. And then I would want to go around and play jokes on people that I know. That would be fantastic!”