The Cabin In The Woods: A Study in Horror and the Supernatural

When The Cabin In The Woods came out in theaters last year, my intolerance for (by which inability to watch) horror led to completely ignore it. Thus, I rolled my eyes at the mere mention of the movie or the sight of the poster. Perhaps, however, I should have paid attention to it. The trailer and description fools one into thinking that this is a typical scary movie but, if one pays more attention to the poster it's housing floating because of it's puppet strings. If this realization in itself isn't indication of its purpose, then the beginning minutes of the film itself should. Essentially, The Cabin In The Woods is a study of humanity response to horror in relation with relation to the supernatural. This company of sorts takes a baseline plot of horror story in a computer-operated "woods" and purposely makes it so that unsuspecting kids (well, comparatively to the adults in the company) fall into play with. From what we know, none of those characters play into the stereotypes in their ordinary lives. But one has to note that people are watching these occurrences as they unfold and enjoying it. This fact in itself is nearly the writer's way of showing what illness goes into watching horror films. But the writer goes far deeper than that. He (as in the writer is human, not assuming gender) then shows the hilarity of the stereotypes, the way the character's choices are futile no matter the intellect behind, and the habit of humanity's naivety around the supernatural. In this film I like to think the company is the supernatural force for there not yet an explanation why they are doing all of it, who is making them do it, and how it all began. On the opposing side, the young adult who voluntary sauntered into the woods are stuck teetering between a fantastic and uncanny mentality because unsure (as any human, manipulated or not) what to make of all that is occurring around them. The most interesting part to me is that classic stoner character in this film is not the dim-witted first character to get killed off. To the contrary, he is actually the only one who catches onto the unidentified company's motive and manages to escape even after it seems his plot line is over. He is the only one who goes from fantastic mentality to supernatural and I hope that he can catch onto the entire truth and survive, as unlikely as those chances are at this point in the film.