[Action Avenue]

I am excited to see it. It might have to go on my must see list for Halloween viewing this year. Heard a lot of good things about it. In fact, the local movie reviewer said on his broadcast radio spot that he rarely makes a special trip to a retail store to buy a movie, but in this case he made an exception because The Cabin in the Woods is that good.

[FadeFighter95]

Morbidfilm, on 30 September 2012 - 04:49 PM, said:

Sorry, but this movie was lame. This was far from original. Why? Simple. Joss Whedon is a one trick pony when it comes to writing. All those great and original themes and ideas were lifted straight from his own shows Buffy the vampire slayer and Angel. The facility and the entire ending was already done in season finales of both of those shows. Entire seasons of both shows revolved around facilities that did all these same things.
There was nothing original about this movie and is a joke of a horror movie.

What I meant by originality was the way the movie picks apart typical horror move cliches and stereotypes, and basically gives a reason as to why the majority of victims in horror movies are stupid. It's a breath of fresh air like Scream was back in the 90's (though Scream was, and is by far a better movie), and was an entertaining and original concept to me.

But to each his own, I guess.

And in response to the use of a facility or corporation already having been used in other Whedon works, the only two that come to my mind distinctly are the Initiative (Buffy) and Wolfram and Hart (Angel). I see similarities between the three (The Initiative, Wolfram and Hart, and the nameless corporation in Cabin), but I don't think the idea was directly stolen or copied from either of his past tv shows. Again, just my 2cents on the matter.

On a side note, I haven't been able to find a copy of The Cabin in the Woods on blu-ray, it's kind of disappointing as seeing I'd like to add this to my collection ASAP.

[Morbidfilm]

My wife is a big Whedon fan, but she didn't like it either.

[paultagonist]

Morbidfilm, on 30 September 2012 - 04:49 PM, said:

Sorry, but this movie was lame. This was far from original. Why? Simple. Joss Whedon is a one trick pony when it comes to writing. All those great and original themes and ideas were lifted straight from his own shows Buffy the vampire slayer and Angel. The facility and the entire ending was already done in season finales of both of those shows. Entire seasons of both shows revolved around facilities that did all these same things.
There was nothing original about this movie and is a joke of a horror movie.

Well I've never seen his other stuff really, besides Firefly and Serenity (which I love), and of course Avengers.. So it was new to me I guess? I'm not sure how accurate "one trick pony" is when considering how different those two things are. I too thought it was pretty original compared to other horror movies, which I'm assuming is what we're talking about when calling it "original." It had a great balanced tone of horror and tongue-in-cheek, almost meta humor. It was obvious both writers, Whedon and Goddard, have a love for horror and gave nods to nearly all the classic horror tropes. I couldn't disagree with your last sentence more, lol.

FadeFighter95, on 30 September 2012 - 11:43 PM, said:

On a side note, I haven't been able to find a copy of The Cabin in the Woods on blu-ray, it's kind of disappointing as seeing I'd like to add this to my collection ASAP.

Action Avenue, on 30 September 2012 - 06:30 PM, said:

In fact, the local movie reviewer said on his broadcast radio spot that he rarely makes a special trip to a retail store to buy a movie, but in this case he made an exception because The Cabin in the Woods is that good.

I just went to Wal-Mart a few days ago and got the Blu-ray :-) I too made a special trip just for it, which I never do. It was $20.
One of the best movies-with-zombies-in-it ever made, IMO. However I will say the rewatchability is kinda low, since you already know the whole story; it's just not quite as exciting, you don't have that "what the fuck is GOING ON?!" feeling. But it is cool to be able to pause it in things like the basement scene and see all the different artifacts of their impeding demise that was available to them, and correlate that with the monsters you end up eventually seeing.