‘The Cabin in the Woods’ Is Finally Streaming Free—Here’s Why It Still Rules
I was at the bar waiting for some friends when the man sitting a few seats over from me asked if he could ask a random question. The bar was empty except for a few people playing pool in the back, and I wasn’t completely invested in the book I was reading, so I let him go ahead. He asked if I had seen a movie about a killer robot. When I asked if he meant Companion, he nodded emphatically before telling me that he thought I look like Sophie Thatcher (reader: I do not look like Sophie Thatcher).
“Sucks that the trailers spoiled everything,” he said. “It was such a cool movie.”
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who felt that way. But then again, I’ve been thinking about movies with questionable marketing ever since Karyn Kusama revealed that the marketing team behind Jennifer’s Body suggested that Megan Fox should host an amateur porn site to promote the film. Do creative teams have such little faith in the audience or such little faith in the film itself that they believe they should just reveal everything in the trailers? Do they have a grasp on who the target audience is, what they want, what will excite them?
Which gets me to The Cabin in the Woods (2011), arguably one of the more iconic movies that came out of the 2010s with one of the worst trailers I’ve ever seen. It’s now available to stream on Hulu, which is perfect considering it’s almost Halloween. But if you haven’t seen the movie (or you don’t remember the marketing), just click out here, log into your Hulu account, and come back after you’ve watched.
Watch the Trailer Below for a Refresh:
Imagine how great it would have been if you went into The Cabin in the Woods blind. But even with the reveal in the trailers, it’s impossible to communicate how much of a chokehold The Cabin in the Woods had on horror fans in 2011. I vaguely remember friends at school talking about how crazy the film was, how it would change horror the same way Scream did.
Now, here’s my hot take: The Cabin in the Woods didn’t change anything. But it didn’t need to.
It’s too much to ask one movie to change an entire genre—though, of course, a few have. In the years directly following its release, horror actually began shifting away from the kind of self-aware, schlocky fun that The Cabin in the Woods embodied and toward what we now call “elevated horror” (a term I also have gripes with). Only recently have we started to move away from that label and back towards films that are weird and playful and very, very, stupid (and I mean that as a compliment).
But The Cabin in the Woods still deserves every bit of praise it got from audiences and critics alike because it reminds us why we love horror in the first place. Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon built a film that breaks down and pays homage to the horror genre as a whole, treating the act of watching horror as a ritual meant to satisfy our basest desires. When the college students are picked off by the familiar redneck zombies, we’re underwhelmed because we (and the entire facility in one of the funniest scenes in the movie) have seen it before. But when the film unleashes every monster in the lab in the climax, we get the bloodbath that we were hoping for in the first place. Does that make *us* the Ancient Ones? Well, yes.
If it’s been a while since you’ve watched The Cabin in the Woods, do yourself a favor and watch it now that it’s streaming free. This is also a great gateway horror film for younger viewers in my opinion, but make sure they stay off their phones and do not show them the trailer. Just tell them they’re going to see a pre-Thor Chris Hemsworth.
And if you love The Cabin in the Woods, let me know: @ashjenexi on X and Instagram.
Categorized: Streaming News
