Into the Woods, Again

Austin already got a peek at The Cabin in the Woods when it opened the 2012 SXSW Film Festival, but Friday, the rest of the world can queue up for the film the Chronicle's Marjorie Baumgarten calls "the most intoxicating morsel to hit the horror circuit since Scream."

Much buzzed about – and occasionally maligned (if you want a good laugh, read Rex Reed's finger-so-off-the-pulse-he's-practically-flatlining review) – The Cabin in the Woods is about a gaggle of good-looking kids, intentionally painted as horror-film "types" (the virgin, the stoner, etc.), who journey to the titular cabin and are put through the wringer, with twists a-plenty.

"I've always asked myself the question, 'Why do these kids [in horror movies] always go out to the creepy, abandoned cabin in the woods?' co-writer and producer Joss Whedon told The Austin Chronicle's Marc Savlov in March. "Why do they always seem to be getting dumber, why does the blonde go first, why do they always get separated? I love horror movies, but I'm also very interested in their patterns, and in some ways, I can get kind of cranky about the way they're changing. It seems so logical to me that what happens in [our film] is what's really happening. It's not just a critique of horror but also, I think, a look at our own creative process. You write what you know, and what I know is writers and the ways in which they decide to manipulate [their characters] and the terrible things that they do to them."

You can read the whole interview with Whedon and co-writer/director Drew Goddard here. Chron film critic Marjorie Baumgarten bestows four stars on the film here.