Tell me if you seen this before - A whore, an athlete, an intellectual, a fool, and a virgin adventure into a cabin and one by one they die by hillbilly zombies. Sound familiar? Maybe? Well The Cabin in the Woods takes this cookie-cutter formula and ‘slash it to death’ (pun intended) with its sharp and witty writing by Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly) and Drew Goddard (Cloverfield, LOST). The commercials and ads for this movie doesn’t ruin anything and it will surprise you how well crafted and intelligent this film presents itself. Each actor plays their part very well and you’ll care for their decisions and actions throughout the movie. I have to note that Fran Kranz, who also appeared in Whedon's short lived television series Dollhouse, steals all the scenes in the movie with his comic timing and his very loveable performance. It’s one of few slasher movies where I actually care for all the helpless characters but even though they are cookie-cutter cut outs.

Although this movie was filmed three years ago and now being released by a studio, The Cabin in the Woods still feels far more superior than recently released horror movies. It’s not fair to say that the movie is only a horror movie but more of a commentary on the genre. It has elements in the genre that are familiar to any movie goer that only watches it time to time, but it also pokes fun at the elements that needs to change. You’ll see how much fun both Whedon and Goddard had writing the script by using typical genre scenes and interjecting their brand of wild humor with its witty atmosphere that will entertain you till the very end. If you’re a huge horror fan, like myself, then you’ll appreciate the meta aspect of the movie.

The end result is that director Drew Goddard crafted a well executed and outrageous genre breaking movie that’s funny. The overall message of the movie is to break the mold of the genre that’s been used countless times in the past 40 years and try something new that still has the same heart but with different beats. Traditions are made to be broken, we need to break down the slasher genre and rebuild, and The Cabin in the Woods exceed in this with every way possible.