The Cabin in the Woods

Drew Goddard's directorial debut about a group of college students in a remote cabin in the woods who fall victim to a variety of monsters is one of those genre-deconstruction films so pleased with itself that I can't help but dislike it. Since I knew nothing about the film before seeing it, I had fun for the first half hour and enjoyed the unexpected, interesting setup. But this is ultimately neither a good horror film nor a clever exploration of a genre; it's a shallow meta-movie that puts itself above the material it is supposedly celebrating and invites the audience to do the same. While this film probably succeeds in making stupid people feel smart, it seems pretty insulting to those who truly love horror (or movies for that matter).