The Cottage in the Forest

A tongue-in-cheek smörgåsbord of horror film archetypes and tropes, "The Cabin in the Woods" takes everything the viewer expects from a scary movie and shoves it down their throat. While this initially sounds terrible, the obviously intentional heavy-handedness of the film's direction serves as perfect commentary on the genre as a whole. The movie comically highlights the genre's formulaic approach to storytelling, drawing attention to both stereotypical circumstances (no escape, increased libido) and characters (athlete, whore, scholar, fool, and virgin). The clichés of horror movies are all present, which makes the genuine anxiety induced all the more impressive. Despite the constant hokiness, "The Cabin in the Woods" delivers scares and hopefully a reality check to the film industry.