Netquix: Cabin in the Woods (2012)

Netflix content reviewed in 150 words. Or thereabouts.

The Cabin in the Woods (2012)

Dir: Drew Goddard

95 minutes

In which horror films - or maybe slasher films (it’s a woolly target) - are deconstructed with such smart-arse smuggery, it’s a wonder the film doesn’t spend the last five minutes stroking itself in the mirror. Which is more or less does anyway.

The most annoying thing is that it singularly fails to replicate authentically the very genre it purports to parody. Unlike, say, Scream, which did the same with more style, wit and genuine menace nearly twenty years ago. Even Friday the 13^th Part VI was making witty self-referential gags back in the 1980's. But hey, it’s scripted by Joss Whedon, so everyone falls to their knees to fellate the living fuck out of it.

In short, horror films have tropes, yeah? Ha ha ha ha! Thanks Joss, but superficially entertaining though your film is, if I wanted to watch a scary-looking yet self-satisfied clown, I’d throw on some Jimmy Carr.

4/10