"The Cabin in the Woods" is Like Every Horror Movie Ever Made... But Like Nothing You've Ever Seen

The headline says it all.

Drew Goddard's meta-horror flick The Cabin in the Woods is about (you know...) a group of college kids who go on a weekend getaway to (you guessed it!) a cabin in the woods.  But what starts as an innocent, fun vacation becomes something more sinister, as the kids discover that nothing is what it seems.
Sounds like every other horror movie ever made, right?  But what sets The Cabin in the Woods apart from the rest of the pack is its sense of self-awareness and self-humility.  This is a horror film through and through, but The Cabin in the Woods thrives on the way it parodies horror genre cliches and presents them with a smart, darkly humorous edge.  It's demented fun watching the characters both dodge and succumb to the familiar tropes of horror lore.
If I had to really compare it to anything else, I'd say The Cabin in the Woods most closely resembles Sam Raimi's 1980s classic The Evil Dead.  Both films have strikingly similar plots driven by a very macabre sense of humor, although I actually found The Evil Dead to be scarier on the whole than The Cabin in the Woods.  No doubt that Cabin creators Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard were influenced by Raimi's classic.

WARNING! PARAGRAPH MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS: I mentioned before that The Cabin in the Woods is a film that's self-aware.  How else could you describe a movie that literally lets its lead characters pick their own undoings from a smorgasbord of terrifying Hollywood monsters? (Including one freaky option that's either a blatant rip-off or an homage to Clive Barker's Hellraiser.)
I know a lot of viewers will either love or hate this movie for what it is.  Those who hate it are probably expecting a by-the-numbers slasher flick, or don't grasp the narrative surrounding the film's events.  Those who love it, like myself, probably can follow the plot more closely than the haters.  You do have to pay attention to The Cabin in the Woods because it's very easy to miss clues that allude to twists later in the film.  But I think everything that's immediately relevant to what's going on is at some point or other revealed in the 95 minute run time.
And what isn't explained just adds to the mystery and allure for a filmgoer like me.  Maybe it's what we DON'T understand that's the real horror in this unique tale.  It takes a viewing or two, but if you let it, The Cabin in the Woods will capture your imagination in a way that very few movies can, and it might even remind you why we watch them in the first place.

3.5 OF 4 STARS