"The Cabin in the Woods" is Smarter, Funner and More Rewarding Than the Average Horror Movie

If The Cabin in the Woods were merely its elements of horror, it would be a better-than-average but disposable addition to the genre. But you add in the other half of this film to the equation and the film almost ceases to be a horror film. It becomes, in part, a comedy, yes. But it also becomes a well-honed piece of postmodernism, deconstructing and playing off of our knowledge about how horror movies tell their narratives. To tell you how it does this though is to give away a great deal of the pleasure of watching the film. Like all good horror, it is built on surprises and expectations. It gives us the scares and the post-Saw bloody excesses we've come to expect, but it also wants to be so much more. It's smarter than the average horror movie and far more rewarding as well. It is about horror and why we watch it -- making it intellectually more satisfying than the typical studio fare -- but this also ignores the fact that it's a damn fun film, always trying out new things, affectionately riffing on and embracing the genre, and slipping in a Whedon-ism or two or twelve.

Grade: A-