What is normal for some is not normal for others. Some live in a manufactured world, while others watch over it. What may be a seemingly boring, 9-to-5 white-collar job could be something else entirely different behind closed doors. That is where The Cabin In The Woods begins, by showing us office drones doing exactly what you’d expect them to do, coworkers chatting about family life while getting coffee from a vending machine.
This flick holds at its center the question what is real? We are presented with a thoroughly innocuous group of employees, but the system they oversee is a twisted, demented one that only makes sense to them.
Is reality what we can see, our perceptions, or is it something more tactile, a thing you can touch? The Cabin In The Woods shows us both in the form of common movie monsters and old tropes. Young college kids off for a raucous and debauched vacation in the backwoods.
They give us all the characters we have come to expect for a movie of this genre, described in the film by Sigourney Weaver’s character with these titles:
The Whore or dumb blonde, a wannabe actress and girlfriend of The Athlete of course.
The Athlete or cool guy, a sexy but smart wisecracking hero type who might need saving himself.
The Scholar, shy and focused on academic pursuits. Will he be tempted into sexy times with The Virgin?
The Fool or stoner, with his constant flow of THC, could be the wisest of the group.
The Virgin or cute nerdy girl, roommate of The Whore and the person who movie lore would insist is always the survivor.
But of course people tend to break out of the molds society has constructed for them, even in scary movies.
If you have ever felt that there was some organized group of others controlling everything, you may be a Trump supporter. Or you may be in a horror movie.
But the movie version has cool people in it. Starring Chris Hemsworth, Bradley Whitford, Kristin Connolly, Anna Hutchison, Jesse Williams, Fran Kranz, and Sigourney Weaver. Directed by Drew Goddard.
With this movie Sigourney reclaims her title as starring in the most Wonkette Movie Night selections with seven. Nick Frost is in second with six.
The Cabin In The Woods is available with subscription on Peacock. $3.99 in the usual places.
To make requests and see the movie lists and schedules, go to WonkMovie.
Tonight’s animated short is La Noria from Alter. It starts quite darkly but there is an “Oh, wow!” moment near the end.
