Cabin in the Woods is an American horror comedy with its basis on the horrible encounter of five college friends with backwoods zombies at a forest cabin.
In order to subvert any popular form, entertainment first has to work on its own terms. Goddard and Whedon are too busy geeking out to bother with those requirements.
Drew Goddard, with assistance from his cohort scenarist Joss Whedon, achieves an exemplary fusion of horror, humour and science-fiction while undermining genre conventions and audience expectations alike.
The Cabin in the Woods will get you thinking about what it means to watch a horror movie, but it's not just a mischievous exercise in post-modern cleverness, it's also a giddily funny, gulpingly scary, enormously entertaining thrill ride.
Certainly one of my favourite films of the year so far and a must-see for anyone wanting to be genuinely shocked by the places a walk in a dark, dark wood can take you.
By the time the ride is over, director Drew Goddard and co-writers Goddard and Joss Whedon will change course three or four times, nodding and winking but never losing momentum.
The target audience is clearly horror geeks with a clear knowledge of the genre and its cliches. But if you are one of those people, then you'll probably not enjoy a movie more this year.
