Drew Goddard | 95 mins | Blu-ray | 2.40:1 | USA / English | 15 / R
Co-written by geek god Joss Whedon and former Buffy/Angel writer Drew Goddard, cabin-in-the-woods horror movie The Cabin in the Woods is as much a deconstruction, or even spoof, of the genre as an entry in it — just as you might expect from a pair with such a track record.
This means it’s one for the genre literate, proven by the reams of missed-the-point reviews on sites such as LOVEFiLM. Taken as intended, however, it’s actually very good. If you’re a fan of the horror genre, try to avoid spoilers (there are twists throughout) and just enjoy something made for you.
In the interests of completing my ever-growing backlog, I decided to post ‘drabble reviews’ of some films. One day I may update with a longer piece, but at least there’s something here for posterity.
For those unfamiliar with the concept, a drabble is a complete piece of writing exactly 100 words long.
Depending on your point of view, The Cabin in the Woods hails from either 2009 (the year it was shot), 2011 (the year of its copyright), or 2012 (the year it was released). Various sites side with different options; when I first started writing this IMDb listed it as 2011, but have since changed to 2012. Wasn’t it just easier when films were released and everyone agreed that’s when it was from? In the end I turned to Google, where “Cabin in the Woods 2011” produces about 8.9 million results, and “Cabin in the Woods 2012” about 11.6 million. (Incidentally, when I first ran those searches, the numbers were closer to 6m and 16m respectively.)
Classic spoof from the makers of 
US Air Force pilot Jon Travolta crashes a plane, steals a nuke, and former friend and colleague Christian Slater must stop his dastardly plan in this ever so ’90s actioner.
In this big screen live-action version of some old US cartoon, a dog gets superpowers and, naturally, becomes a superhero. That’s pretty much it.
Notorious (to me) for unjustly beating 
After 
Spoof of British ‘Heritage’ films and TV series, particularly the work of Merchant Ivory. It was probably a bit belated: released in 1998, you’ll note most targets are from the ’80s. It only even made it to TV recently (I watched on 
Kurt Russell gets embroiled in a fever dream of mystical Chinese tomfoolery in San Francisco’s Chinatown in this cult ’80s adventure from writer/director John Carpenter.
Time flies: this is 13 years old! Originally a Jim Carrey vehicle (feels obvious once you know), Ben Stiller is the prospective son-in-law meeting Teri Polo’s parents (Robert De Niro, Blythe Danner) for the first time. Disaster ensues in a riot of unfortunate events targeting our hapless hero.
Bill Murray presumably needed some money, otherwise why else voice the titular food-loving sort-of-fourth-wall-breaking moggy in this juvenile adaptation of the long-running newspaper strip? Offering little in the way of laughs, the film’s main success is the cute (real) dog who co-stars as Garfield’s competriot, Odie. The real wonder is how they got him to interact with the CGI cat. Elsewhere, animals are live-action with CG mouths, giving an unsettled presentation of the film’s four-legged characters. Meanwhile, humans Breckin Meyer and Jennifer Love Hewitt engage in a charmless romantic subplot. Oddly, one for dog lovers (with fast-forward to hand) only.
100Films.co.uk 