Formula. Every film has one. Watch enough films and you learn the formulas, perhaps even subconciously; and it can ruin the film for you. It drains a film of tension, it makes a film predictable. And in no other genre is the formula more apparent than in horror.

The Cabin In The Woods (TCITW)has a formula too. It is no different to any other film in that respect. But while your Texas Chainsaw Massacres and your Excorcists and your Last Houses On The Lefts say 2 + 2 = 4, TCITW says, "Yes, it does equal 4 but did you know that this 2 is actually 0.5 plus 2.5 minus 1 and the second 2 is really a shit ton…

A little warm-up before I kick off my contribution to Cine's Hoop-Tober Challenge in a couple of days!

Surfacing as a fresh breathe of life in what is slowly becoming a dying genre with every passing year, The Cabin in the Woods is a smartly crafted satirical horror film that dares to do something different with its genre, is cleverly structured like a jigsaw puzzle that keeps dropping hints every now n then, and succeeds as a quality example of horror, comedy & mystery.

The story concerns five teenagers who head off for a weekend at a remote cabin in the woods where they seem to be having a really good time until they discover a cellar door & decide to investigate.…

Everyone said it just gets better with repeat viewings and this is where I give all of those people an enthusiastic fanboy high five because it's so, so true. I am almost certain I enjoyed The Cabin in the Woods more last night than when I originally watched it back in 2012.

Others have said that dissecting horror films has been done before and while I'm inclined to agree with that, I'm not sure it has ever been done as well as it has here. In taking the perspective of the "ancient ones" and those trying to please them, you can't help but see the parallels to genre fans. We know all about the tropes in horror films; the athlete,…

Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon, show runner and creator of hit television shows Angel and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, return to the horror genre for Goddard’s debut feature, a new spin on the perennially popular slasher movie that both celebrates and subverts the clichés whilst expanding the universe to include a hitherto unsuspected wider mythology. The film opens with five archetypal teenagers, (carbon copies of every character from the last hundred slasher films) setting off for the titular cabin in the woods but Goddard regularly cuts away from them to Bradley Whitford and Richard Jenkins, workers in a bland looking facility who seem suspiciously interested in the teenagers’ adventures. It seems to become obvious fairly quickly how the two worlds…

On my first date with my wife, we had a pretty typical first date for the first 40 minutes or so. Question, answer, parry, etc. I think we were starting to wrap up the date and she asked me if I had anything I was looking forward to next week - I told her, as stupid as it sounded, this movie came out earlier in the summer and was gonna be on blu-ray, and I wanted to see all the special features. That movie was called The Cabin In The Woods.

She was similarly enthralled with the movie, having seen it twice in theaters like me and loved Joss Whedon. This opened up a new line of conversation that kept…