Yeah, I don't think it was supposed to be anything else other than "fun", made for those of us who enjoy the lighter side of horror movies; taking those cliched moments & exaggerating them. I think it's just one of those you enjoy it or you don't films, not meant to analyze further than surface value.

Finally saw it - took them forever to release it over here (well, took them forever to release it anywhere, the movie is 3 something years old already) - and loved it.
A lot of unused potential though - I think it should have been much scarier.
Still, a very fun ride!

No one has pointed out that this entire movie was just a big budget version of the Buffy season with the Initiative.
They did this exact premise in Buffy, Joss Whedon even said back then that he wished he could have done a big budget version of a prison where monsters were kept and then they all escaped....and then he finally did.
I liked it but I hate horror movies that aren't really horror movies but action thrillers.

Loved it. So much fun. Horror? Metaspiritual comedy violence?

For those who havent seen it
Tucker and Dale vs Evil
is another most see.

I didn't love it but I didn't hate it.

I was pleased that they set the tone early. It would have felt like a 100% cop-out if half-through you found out that it was all rigged.

AGREED. Nothing like a cop out to ruin your viewing experience.

Speaking of twistish movies though, I just watched The Tall Man & really enjoyed the ride. I can see many hating it though, if you want it to be a specific type of movie. Ha, I suppose that's super vague, but I don't want to ruin it either. Definitely recommend watching it though... Perhaps I should say though, if you want to watch a horror movie or even a movie w' elements of horror, don't watch the tall man. You'll be disappointed. It's a thriller to the full extent of it's definition.

I really enjoyed this film though there were a lot of negative critics when it was out.

I thought this film was killer, eff the critics.

Director Drew Goddard answers your questions - live on Io9:
http://io9.com/5944666/cabin-in-the-woods-director-drew-goddard-is-live-on-io9-and-taking-your-questions

Thanks for the Tall Man ref. Was really good.

Finally saw this last week. Great love letter to the genre. It was fun playing "spot a reference". The Cenobites were particularly well done.

This movie blew my mind!!!!!!!!

The bat at the end of the movie, helped me with a sculpt we are working on too.

It's just an all around crazy funny movie.

Brilliant!!!!!

Just got around to watching this last night. Most people have seen it by now, but I will stick to general points to save any moderate spoilers. Sharpen the pitchforks and light the torches, because I would not say I loved it. It was modest entertainment, and good in creative way, but I say that more as a reflection of the nausea of garbage cinema being produced these days. Really, when I try and think of the last really good horror or sci-fi movie I saw I usually draw a blank, but I am admittedly a grumpy dude.

As I said, the concept was good, and for the most part executed well. I did like that they got the whole 'scenario' think out there right at the start, since almost everyone knew something akin to this going in to the movie. Where it could have been better though was in actually mocking the terrible modern cliches instead of just mimicking them. The comedy element came through enough, but at the same time, we were being treated to the same tired old teeny-horror tropes.

But, what really killed the movie completely for me was it fell apart once they entered the lower sections. it just lost all sense of credibility and felt so forced. They pushed to get more creatures in to emphasise the devastation aspect - less is more, what is hinted at is far more effective than throwing it all into one panel. It also didn't jive with the whole concept of overall ultimate control of the scenario. When everything went haywire, so did the movie. You know something is going to go amiss of course, it has to, but it just wasn't handled all that well.

There ya go, the gentleman who just can't be pleased.

ultrakaiju, have you seen Tucker and Dale vs Evil. It seems to mock the genre more while at the same time being sweeter and more light hearted. Its a hard one to get people to watch but inevitable they really enjoy it.

But I do think both horror and scifi are the most difficult "quality" movies to be found. And scifi tends to get dated to fast. Except for Buckeroo Banzai. (yes, I know its not scifi)

Just watched this.

This movie was awesome and just plain fun. Even my wife enjoyed it and this is nowhere near her taste usually.

Guilty! You nailed that one right on the head. I had definitely dismissed it based on, well everything actually - pics, description, & of course many horrible movies that "seemed" to be w'in the same realm. So since you essentially put up the challenge w' "Its a hard one to get people to watch but inevitable they really enjoy it", I had to give it a go. You're right, it was fun! So much better than I thought it would be. I'm happy someone finally made a movie from this perspective! So stupid, but I suppose that was the point, huh? Yeah, was pleasantly surprised.

I'd say it's 100% a comedy, BUT for people who can handle the gore of horror movies.

I enjoyed tucker and dale but I don't think it was a patch on cabin in the woods, not nearly as clever whilst maintaining humor. tucker and dale was more like shaun of the deads little brother and cabin in the woods is the older brother, if that makes sense.

I did see Tucker and Dale, but for recent entries into the comedy horror genre, I think I enjoyed Lesbian Vampire Killers more. But I did see this in the theatre, which is a huge part of the enjoyment of these kind of flicks. Nothing much in the new wave has anything on the Evil Dead series of course.

Saw Cabin this weekend. All I knew about it was that it was "really good" and that Joss Whedon directed. I'd definitely take "really" out of the "really good" description, and possibly replace it was "pretty" or even "kinda". I was not impressed.
I definitely liked Drag Me To Hell and Dale and Tucker a LOT more. Cabin wasn't much of a send-up of the genre, rather it just went through the exact motions of the genre while being aware of going through those motions. Despite having a few funny moments, it wasn't funny. And it wasn't really clever either. They had a nugget of a good idea, but really didn't build anything interesting around that idea.

This. And this. On both points it seems they came close, but I don't know if they lost sight of where there were initially intending to take it, or just caved into popularity, but what could have been brilliant was just modest.

Another little odd one is Rare Exports. I am a fan of childrens movies and this could be called a childrens christmas horror movie so it worked for me.

Oh man - this has been in our queue forever. Just waiting for December to watch it!

The best Sy Fy Channel movie ever made.

I thought it was trash, but it looks like i'm in the minority.