Another day, another horror movie. Father Steve Grunow braved the hype to bring us his most recent review, which might be better tied to a name like "Been-There Cabin in the Done-That Woods." Read on for a closer look.
The "Cabin in the Woods" is the lastest creepy creation of pop culture phenom Joss Whedon, perhaps best known for as the creator of the character and series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." His fans are numerous and loyal, and even before its release, "The Cabin in the Woods" was receiving critical buzz insisting that we should prepare to be amazed. Early reviews were overwhelmingly positive, most citing the creativity of the story and the wit of the writers. Whedon co-authored the script with Drew Goddard (who I think scripted the early episodes of "Lost").
The story of "The Cabin in the Woods" is utterly familiar. In fact, it is a cliche. Bright, beautiful and goofy collegians are off on break from their studies and each is systematically maimed and murdered by, in this case, zombie monsters. Moviegoers have been submitting themselves to this plotline for years, and Whedon and Goddard want to propose a reason as to why. I won't rehearse the details of the story except to say that it is derivative of every horror movie you have every seen. I really mean that. Everything here is all served up on a cinematic platter that is at the same time a tribute and a parody. Whedon doesn't let himself off the hook in this monster mash-up—there are plenty of scenarios (and actors) that fans of "Buffy" and its spin off "Angel" will immediately recognize. The film also tips its hat to just about everything H.P. Lovecraft has ever written, particularly his Cthulhu myth.
Therefore, both the delight and the tedium of "The Cabin in the Woods" is that we are seeing everything that we have seen before. Yes, there are slight modifications in the appearances of certain characters and themes (perhaps to avoid copyright infringements) but the entirety of the popular culture's horror genre is on display.
There is a kind of story beneath the story of "The Cabin in the Woods," which is that what are called "the ancient ones" lurk beneath not only the plot of the movie, but of human culture, particularly our institutions. It is hard not to interpret this bugaboo as a symbol for religion (it is also hard not to project into the story Whedon's very public stances in favor of a strident secularism). These "ancient ones" are gods, beings thought to be mythological but that turn out to be very real and very hungry for human blood. The movie is a contemporary telling of these gods and their relationship with the world, and how human institutions are used to provide these gods with what they want—lest their wrath be unleashed and humanity destroyed.
These institutions do their best to mask the horror of the blood sacrifices and the threat of doom hanging over our heads, and whether they are employed by a temple, a laboratory or an office, they are quite effective at their work. They keep us from figuring out what is really going on and shove the victims into the back of the pirate Bluebeard's closet so we can't see their terror or hear their cries. The unmasking of the true nature of the phenomenon is what drives the plot of "The Cabin in the Woods" to its bloody and nihilistic conclusion.
Maybe Whedon and Goddard are trying to tell us that the persistance of certain narrative patterns in the horror genre are a kind of recapitulation of primal tendencies to elevate violence to not only a form of entertainment, but ultimate concern. In this respect, violence is a kind of religion. The difference between us and pre-modern peoples is that we can now, with the aid of technology, make it seem like inncoent people are dying or that supernatural forces are at work in the world, even though it is all now just a cinematic illusion. The temple and the arena have been replaced by the cinema, but the passions aroused by the former continue to be inflamed by the latter.
While watching "The Cabin in the Woods" I thought repeatedly of Rene Girard. He gets a lot of mention on this site, and that the popular culture seems to be consciously or unconsciously displaying the veracity of his thesis about violence and the origins of culture over and over again ("The Hunger Games") is something worth thinking about. My guess is that Whedon's secularist ethos would see little difference between the Biblical narrative and the Cthulhu mythos of H.P. Lovecraft.
My fear is that many Christians might be presenting what we believe about the sacrifice of Christ in terms that would confirm the secularist critique of Christianity. Girard's thesis about what Christianity should be saying about God, Christ and the Bible would really make our cultured despisers think twice before dismissing our creed as one more variation on the theme of a bloodthirsty deity hell bent on our destruction.
Whedon and Goddard certainly demonstrate in "The Cabin in the Woods" the breadth of their knowledge of the horror genre. In this they are very well read. But had they picked up Rene Girard's "Violence and the Sacred" or "The Scapegoat" they might have been able to create a film that was not only a tribute to the masters of terror, but also able to say something about all those monsters that might have been not only more startling, but, at least to the popular culture, provocative and new.
Father Steve Grunow is the Assistant Director of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries.