{"id":2317,"date":"2012-04-08T16:00:26","date_gmt":"2012-04-08T22:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=2317"},"modified":"2012-04-08T16:00:26","modified_gmt":"2012-04-08T22:00:26","slug":"a-cabin-in-the-woods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=2317","title":{"rendered":"A Cabin In The Woods"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nAt first glimpse, this meta-horror project straight from the belly of Joss Whedon and his prot\u00e9g\u00e9e Drew Goddard reads like any contemporary babes-in-the-woods scenario. Five college kids are picked off, one-by-one, by creatures that go slash in the night.<\/p>\n

But the filmmakers have concocted something else, it seems \u2014 a multi-species hybrid inhabiting the sweet spot of engagement, entertainment, and social commentary. The recipe: one part giddy fright-flick, one part gut-buster, one part subterfuge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so interested in multiple genres and not being any one thing,\u201d said Goddard, the director, in a telephone interview from Minneapolis. \u201cWith \u2018Cabin,\u2019 it\u2019s a very thin needle we are trying to thread.\u201d Goddard, a first-time director who began his career in a \u201cdream come true job\u201d writing for Whedon\u2019s TV series \u201cBuffy the Vampire Slayer,\u201d co-wrote the film with his former mentor and boss (who also produced).<\/p>\n

\u201cI started as the world\u2019s biggest Joss Whedon fan,\u201d remembered Goddard, 37. \u201cWhen I first saw \u2018Buffy the Vampire Slayer,\u2019 in college, it was like a bomb went off.\u201d He went on to write and produce shows such as \u201cAngel,\u201d \u201cAlias,\u201d and \u201cLost,\u201d and wrote the screenplay for \u201cCloverfield.\u201d<\/p>\n

With \u201cCabin,\u201d Goddard now fully melds with the \u201cWhedonverse,\u201d a world of fandom driven by devotion, that includes \u201cBuffy,\u201d \u201cFirefly,\u201d \u201cDollhouse\u201d and \u201cDr. Horrible\u2019s Sing-Along Blog.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2002\u2018Cabin\u2019 was just the two of us trying to entertain each other,\u201d Goddard said. \u201cWe were just two guys talking about how much they loved horror films and wanting to make one of their own.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clearly, the writing team wanted to poke fun at the horror premise that youth are pigeonholed and punished for their bad behavior. In \u201cCabin,\u201d the archetypes under the microscope include the sexpot (Anna Hutchison), the jock (Chris Hemsworth), the brainy nerd (Jesse Williams), the virgin (Kristen Connolly), and the goofy, pot-smoking freak (Fran Kranz). As the quintet makes itself at home in an isolated love and party shack, bad stuff happens.<\/p>\n

Shot in early 2009, \u201cCabin\u201d languished for two years on the shelf as MGM went bankrupt; last year, Lionsgate, the company behind \u201cThe Hunger Games,\u201dacquired the film. Since then, Hemsworth has starred in \u201cThor\u201d and next month will be in \u201cThe Avengers\u201d (Whedon\u2019s adaptation of the Marvel Comics superhero team