Netflix Flick Pick: ‘Cabin in the Woods’

Well Halloween is here, which means the week long Halloween edition of Netflix Flick Pick is coming to an end. While my picks haven’t been done in any particular order I did put some thought into what film should end this list.  What I came up with is a film that has also been a Netflix Flick Pick previously but deserves to be revisited here on this list, Cabin in the Woods. On my previous post I was purposefully vague, in order to not give away anything important but now on Halloween night I think I can describe it in more detail.

Cabin in the Woods is not just a horror movie, it’s every horror movie. Both a love note to the legendary horror films that define the genre and a shot across the bow at its inability to do anything but remake the same movies (both actual remakes and films that just use the same plot). The film is an allegory that brilliantly makes the audience question why it continues to crave the same movie with the same rituals and even offering up characters who stand in for the audiences and the films producers who make sure we get the same movie.

As the title suggests Cabin in the Woods uses the genre’s most cliched plot but somehow uses it to tell a frighteningly original story. This becomes less surprising when you realize that Joss Whedon cowrote the script, he has literally made a career of subverting genre conventions. This is the guy who made Buffy, Firefly, and Dr. Horrible after all. There is so much going on here that you might just glance over the horror as you try to figure out what the hell is going on but horror is there in all its cliched original glory. Best enjoyed if you’ve seen every horror movie ever made, even the god awful remakes that include unicorns for reasons beyond my comprehension skills. I mean c’mon, UNICORNS, in a freaking horror movie! If you don’t know what I’m talking about then you won’t get the funniest shot fired at horror remakes but that’s okay, if you’re a fan of the genre there will be more than enough for you to enjoy.

Happy streaming and Happy Halloween!

Netflix Flick Pick: ‘Scream’

Day 3 of the special Halloween edition of Netflix Flick Pick brings us a major turning point in horror history. The film that made meta cool, tonight’s Netflix Flick Pick, Scream. Directed by horror legend Wes Craven and written by the sometimes brilliant Kevin Williamson, Scream changed the rules of horror in the 90s. It was no longer enough to be scary or gory, you had to be funny and self referential.

What makes Scream so endearing is the fact that it was clearly written by someone who loved and grew up with horror movies. It’s not just the film nerd in the movie who knows the rules of the horror genre but all the characters have passable knowledge. Even the characters who hate the genre know enough to point out its cliched flaws. This referencing of horror films also serves as the main, though not the only source of humor in the film and the fact that everyone knows so much about horror films leads to some interesting developments.

Scream is still technically a slasher film but it adds the extra layers of meta and whodunit mystery to it. The film offers several feints, unsuspected twists and turns and famously unsuspected deaths. (Spoiler Alert) For those who don’t know Drew Barrymore was originally billed as the film’s star but was immediately killed off, leaving audiences anxious and in great suspense as it was made clear that no one was safe. While Scream is no longer marketed in this way it was quite an impressive bit of dedication on the parts of everyone involved to keep this lie up through the film’s initial run.

Drew Barrymore describes it best, “I loved that it actually got tongue and cheeky but it was still scary and it was this great game that sort of described genres and revived them at the same time and redefined them all in one script.” This continued with Scream 2 and 3 (also available on Netflix) and countless other copycats but it’s the original that still shines brightest.

 

Netflix Flick Pick: ‘Cabin in the Woods’

A lot has been made about the recent purge of almost 2000 movies by Netflix but to be honest most of these movies are of no consequence whatsoever. Sure there will be a loss of some good films but for the most part Netflix is just taking out the trash with this move. Like it or not turnover is just part of the streaming movie business process and it seems that what isn’t getting enough attention are the some 500 movies Netflix has added to its roster. One of these new additions is tonight’s Netflix Flick Pick, Cabin in the Woods.

It is difficult to talk about Cabin in the Woods without giving away anything but the way I like to describe it is as not just a horror movie but every horror movie. Yes the more you know about horror movies the more you will enjoy this movie as it basically deconstructs the genre and does it with a comedic playfulness that has become a trademark of one of the film’s writers Joss Whedon. This isn’t to say there isn’t any horror, it’s there in its traditional R rated form but it’s there more to serve the purpose of deconstructing the genre and delivering the film’s pessimistic theme about the state of today’s modern society than it is to scare the viewer. Still it works on both levels.

It’s best if you go into Cabin in the Woods with as little knowledge about its plot as possible. All you really need to know about the plot is that it follows 5 friends as they go to a cabin in the woods and they stumble onto something horrific and that it is a lot smarter than that simplistic setup. The rest is best enjoyed as it unfolds in front of you for the first time. So go, watch, enjoy tonight’s Netflix Flick Pick and stop worrying about the mostly terrible films that Netflix has lost.