The Cabin in the Woods (2012)

"That's not fair! I had zombies too!"

"Yes, you had "Zombies." But this is "Zombie Redneck Torture Family." Entirely separate thing. It's like the difference between an elephant and an elephant seal."

Oh dear, spoilers can be such an awkward issue, can't they? You see, usually I don't have to think about them too much. Most of the time I just review old telly or old films, or at least telly that's been officially broadcast, so the gloves are off, spoiler-wise. I mean, I'm usually kind enough to warn about spoilers if they're a particular issue, but that's rare. I suppose I've never really had to think about it much, and occasionally it's occurred to me that it's rather unclear whether I'm writing for people who haven't seen the thing in question, people who haven't, or both.

Thing is, this time it really does matter, and I'm going to have to come up with a spoiler policy for this review. This is a film on current release, it twists and turns like Lord Melchett's patented twisty-turny thing, and the whole point of it is to subvert all the tropes of the slasher movie. It's very, very Joss Whedon, and I'm not just saying that because Amy Acker is in it. So I think I'll have a go at a "no spoilers" policy just this one, at least up to a point, as it obviously depends on how strict a definition of spoilers you like to use. I do actually need something to talk about, after all. But I'll try and be no more spoilery that those film reviews in magazines and broadsheets. If you generally read those without fear of being spoiled, it's ok to read this. I mean, you might as well. You're three paragraphs in now.

Joss Whedon has said that this film is a "hate letter" to a genre which he loves but which has of late descended into the "torture porn" of Saw and its clones. Hence, this film has plenty of blood and gore, but it's old-fashioned, cheesy blood and gore, without the nasty sadism. It's also a bit of a deconstruction with the genre, playing with our expectations, which is particularly interesting. For one thing, as with all slasher movies, we, the audience, are forever trying to second guess who's going to get killed, which means we're deconstructing it as we watch. For another thing, the Scream saga already exists. But this is very different- much less self-consciously metatextual, deconstructing itself while leaving the fourth wall intact.

Without saying too much, let's say that this starts out as a typical slasher movie, with five potential victims staying at an isolated cabin being slowly picked off. We have the promiscuous and sexy Dana (male gaze alert, not that drew Goddard and Whedon are unaware of this), the sporty and muscular Curt (played by Chris "Thor" Hemsworth), "good girl" Jules, the bookish Holden, and the rather amusing stoner, Marty. There are certain expectations we have for these archetypes, and let's just say that these expectations do not go unaddressed.

I love this film. It's witty, it's playful, it plays with a much larger canvas than you expect, and when I say that it subverts your expectations I mean that in a far more wide-ranging way than you might expect. It is and isn't the kind of film you expect. It makes you think it's one thing, then pulls back to reveal it's something bigger, and then pulls back again to reveal it's even bigger, etc. And yet it remains firmly a slasher film throughout. Watch it. It's good.

A word of advice, though. I watched this at the splendid Phoenix Square Cinema in central Leicester, and had a couple of pints in the bar with a friend beforehand. I also took a pint of Boddingtons into the film with me for good measure, which you're allowed to do. Told you it was splendid. But the inevitable happened and my viewing of the film was interrupted by two embarrassed trips to the gents…