Repetitive Monsters on the Loose

 THE CABIN IN THE WOODS (2011)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

I firmly believe that "The Evil Dead" has been one of the most influential horror films of the last 40 years. Ash himself is an icon but it seems his character has been less influential. Case in point would be "The Cabin in the Woods" which has an intriguing premise and not one character that carries a smidgeon of Ash's personality. Not one, but the filmmakers sure try in replicating the horror with a tongue in cheek attitude.

Five friends take off on a road trip through the mountains to a fairly small log cabin. Okay, so it is the same size as the one from "Evil Dead" - in fact, it is a replica. Naturally not one of these younglings ever heard of "The Evil Dead" or else they would not have come to this remote area. The gas station owner is odd and sees young women, such as Jules (Anna Hutchison), as nothing but whores. Nice guy. He gives directions to this cabin, as they often do in these movies, yet I am shocked how the gas stations are always in decrepit condition and, in this particular case, he is not even selling gas! We still get the obligatory shot of the gas station owner looking rather ominously at the group as they take off in their RV. Gee, whatever could be wrong with that cabin.

A lot is wrong. There is a two-sided mirror through two adjoining rooms, though only one is see-through. Jules is dared during their Truth or Dare game to lick and kiss a wolf's head on the wall! Chris Hemsworth, by the way, plays her boyfriend though I'd feel uncomfortable with my girlfriend lustfully licking anything in front of other guys. One guy is a weed addict (Fran Kranz) and conspiracy theorist. Perfect because it turns out that their cabin is being surveilled by some underground lab that monitors their every move. Monsters and zombies start to emerge from the ground and attack and kill these kids, much to the delight of lab technicians and engineers, two of them memorably played by Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford. Apparently this vast network of a lab controls similar scenarios in other countries and if the victims win against their monstrous threat, the word FAIL appears in red letters on their innumerable monitors. Why this is encouraged when the participants are unaware they are being tested or how this is some sort of sick variation on "The Hunger Games" is beyond me.

Great premise with no real logic but who cares. We came for the scares, the monsters and hopefully these kids have a personality. Only the weed kid really does, and he has one hell of a bong that comes equipped with a coffee mug. The monsters bored me - they were just stock monsters. The zombie was stock, the thrills are very few and I hardly cared. During the climax that involves several monsters, they are all CGI created and appear so fleetingly during the frantic cutting of one image to another that it all becomes a blur. There is a fantastic cameo at the end, and I did like the lab employees and their camaraderie and gallows humor. "The Cabin in the Woods" is just not much of a movie - it is an insipid test reel that never gets its motor running. Watch "The Evil Dead" again.