The Cabin in the Woods

Critic Reviews

One of the best movies of 2012 so far, in any genre.

By the time the ride is over, director Drew Goddard and co-writers Goddard and Joss Whedon will change course three or four times, nodding and winking but never losing momentum.

-Peter HartlaubFull Review

And you thought you were just headed for a weekend getaway.

-Lisa KennedyFull Review

A horror movie embedded in a conspiracy flick embedded in another horror movie-the most inventive cabin-in-the-woods picture since The Evil Dead and the canniest genre deconstruction since Scream.

-Christopher OrrFull Review

The climactic one-two punch of special-effects chaos and meta-movie chin stroking should have the fanboys trembling with delight.

-J. R. JonesFull Review

"The Cabin in the Woods" gets at the story underneath the story, and the reason behind the cliches.

-Stephen WhittyFull Review

If it's true that you always kill the thing you love, then horror honchos Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard have taken an ax to slasher cinema in The Cabin in the Woods and chopped it up for kindling.

-Peter TraversFull Review

Everything about "The Cabin in the Woods" is a delicious practical joke...

-Rafer GuzmanFull Review

For all of its many intellectual pleasures, and smart commentary, Cabin in the Woods is a visceral roller coaster of a movie at heart. And like the best thrill rides, when it's over, you just want to get back on and go again.

-Ian BuckwalterFull Review

Cabin is a meta-horror-comedy mash-up that, at least for two-thirds of its running time, holds together smartly.

-Full Review

Cabin is a meta-horror-comedy mash-up that, at least for two-thirds of its running time, holds together smartly.

-Liam LaceyFull Review

Movies that mean to deconstruct movies seem to be made solely by and for cinema vampires, those ghost-faced geeks whose pallor is rarely challenged by exposure to the sun.

-Kyle SmithFull Review

A pulpy, deceivingly insightful send-up of horror movies that elicits just as many knowing chuckles as horrified gasps.

-Ann HornadayFull Review

If you like nutty energy, wacky ideas, crisp dialogue and scary, bloody, gory, grotesque and twisted movies - man, are you going to have a blast this weekend.

-Tom LongFull Review

You needn't be a fanboy to enjoy the moment when the ride really takes off and the spectacle flowers. A scary imagination will do just fine.

-Chris VognarFull Review

Quite a bit of it is great, and most of it works, and the stuff that clicks is outrageously entertaining and funny, sometimes with surprising depth.

-Andrew O'HehirFull Review

Though there are plot holes in the elaborately concocted scenarios, The Cabin in the Woods gets points for the twists and turns that come along with its sly wickedness.

-Claudia PuigFull Review

All the actors do a decent job with whatever is thrown at them - usually sharp objects.

-Betsy SharkeyFull Review

Zest counts for a lot, and resonance carries the day.

-Joe MorgensternFull Review

There is a scholarly, nerdy, completist sensibility at work here that is impressive until it becomes exhausting.

-A.O. ScottFull Review

To say that TheCabin in the Woods isn't your average horror movie is like observing that King Kong isn't your average ape.

-Peter HowellFull Review

Let's just say that if you like smartly twisted spins on worn-out horror cliches and if you have a strong stomach for flying body parts, put down the newspaper/laptop and go - we'll talk later.

-Ty BurrFull Review

Mind blown, hair on fire. Seeing "The Cabin in the Woods" set a new personal benchmark for fiendishly creative takes on genre entertainment.

-Colin CovertFull Review

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie's gory silliness, but I have the feeling it may be overpraised for infusing a modicum of wit into a genre that usually demonstrates so little.

-Dana StevensFull Review

Not all of the twists work, but most are self-knowing enough to keep you guessing until its (literally) groundbreaking conclusion.

-Joe NeumaierFull Review

Whedon and Goddard bake their cake and eat it too.

-Michael PhillipsFull Review

This film plays with our expectations of what a horror movie is and tries to upend them, and for the most part succeeds.

-Moira MacDonaldFull Review

Fans of Whedon are fond of repeating the mantra "In Joss we trust" - and with good reason.

-Connie OgleFull Review

This is not a perfect movie; it's so ragged, it's practically constructed of loose ends. But it's exciting because it ventures so far off the map.

-Roger EbertFull Review

The movie, heavily hyped by fanboys and long-delayed, isn't scary. By the third act, Whedon has written himself and his characters into a corner too silly to gracefully get out of without cheating.

-Roger MooreFull Review

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