The Cabin in the Woods
Lionsgate | Release Date: April 13, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
72
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
32
Mixed:
6
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubApr 12, 2012
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. Read full review
100
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallApr 11, 2012
The Cabin in the Woods isn't merely another "Scream" exercise in self-awareness, or a "Scary Movie" spoof of the same. It's a wickedly smart hybrid mutation, biting the severed hand feeding the genre. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubKeith PhippsApr 11, 2012
It's an exercise in metafiction that, while providing grisly fun, never distances viewers. And it's entertaining, while asking the same question of viewers and characters alike: Why come to a place you knew all along was going to be so dark and dangerous? Read full review
90
NPRIan BuckwalterApr 16, 2012
A horror-movie attic sale is, in essence, exactly what Cabin in the Woods is, an attempt to exorcise the genre of its formulaic possession by stuffing the movie full of its most overused and predictable elements - and then dumping them through clever skewering. Read full review
90
MovielineAlison WillmoreApr 12, 2012
Cabin in the Woods does what "Scream" only halfway managed, which was to find something new by looking back at the familiar - and at least in Whedon's world, the geeky ones are never first on the chopping block. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzApr 11, 2012
The Cabin in the Woods is a fantastic poke in the eye of our horror-movie expectations. Read full review
90
VarietyPeter DebrugeMar 10, 2012
Not since "Scream" has a horror movie subverted the expectations that accompany the genre to such wicked effect as The Cabin in the Woods, a sly, self-conscious twist on one of slasher films' ugliest stepchildren: the coed campsite massacre. Read full review
90
Boxoffice MagazineDavid EhrlichMar 10, 2012
Drew Goddard's giddily brilliant The Cabin in the Woods has a lot on its twisted mind. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenApr 11, 2012
The horror-movie clichés form the backbone from which the film's humor and creativity emerge. This Cabin may not be the Parthenon, but it's definitely a place to worship the gods of horror. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversApr 12, 2012
Cabin is a deliciously devious scare dance that keeps changing the steps until you lose your shit and fall helplessly into its demonic traps. Read full review
88
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanApr 12, 2012
The film's main virtue, a large virtue indeed, is that it does not give anything away before its shockingly apt time. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldConnie OgleApr 12, 2012
It showcases one of Whedon's greatest strengths: his ability to take previously disrespected genres - in this case the slasher film - and turn them inside-out and upside-down and every which way but loose. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianShawn LevyApr 12, 2012
It's a film full of clever moments that may at first seem cheeky but come to feel inspired, with a third act (which only a churl would describe) that rises to a dizzyingly heightened level of metaphysics and mayhem. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesApr 14, 2012
Because the first narrative is so crushingly generic (which turns out to be the point), most of the amusement derives from trying to figure out what the second one is all about. I'm not sure I ever did, but the climactic one-two punch of special-effects chaos and meta-movie chin stroking should have the fanboys trembling with delight. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'HehirApr 12, 2012
I'm recommending that you rush out and see it, but not altogether because I think it's so totally great and completely works. 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. But I also want you to see it so we can argue about what works and what doesn't. Read full review
80
TimeMary PolsApr 12, 2012
At the very least, it's awfully entertaining and for "Buffy" fans, reason to put down the boxed sets and run off to the cinema. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierApr 12, 2012
Not all of the twists work, but most are self-knowing enough to keep you guessing until its (literally) groundbreaking conclusion. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfApr 10, 2012
Charmingly, like a throwback to the pre-Twitter age, here's a horror film that's been made with no reasonable way to discuss it beforehand. Read full review
80
Total FilmJamie GrahamApr 9, 2012
A super-entertaining, super-slick love/hate letter to horror with a final 20 minutes that's stunningly bonkers. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Staff (Not credited)Apr 12, 2012
Cabin is a meta-horror-comedy mash-up that, at least for two-thirds of its running time, holds together smartly. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayApr 12, 2012
A pulpy, deceivingly insightful send-up of horror movies that elicits just as many knowing chuckles as horrified gasps. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchKevin C. JohnsonApr 12, 2012
Moviegoers looking for a thrill should go into The Cabin in the Woods knowing as little as possible about the film. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia PuigApr 12, 2012
Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford are particularly funny in their middle-management roles. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrApr 12, 2012
The movie balances nicely on the edge of meta-horror, with characters breaking free of their assigned roles (in more ways than one) and monkey-wrenching the very urban legend they're dying to get out of. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertApr 11, 2012
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. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliApr 11, 2012
The devilishly clever script tries a lot of things. Not all of them work, but it's hard not to admire Whedon and Goddard for the attempts. This is definitely not your standard kids-get-slaughtered-by-zombies motion picture. Read full review
70
SlateDana StevensApr 12, 2012
It's often funny and smart, but seldom deeply involving, and practically never scary. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternApr 12, 2012
The initial brilliance of the premise is eventually dulled by illogic, the whole thing proves unmanageable and the filmmakers unmanage their climactic revelation with far more zest than finesse. Still, zest counts for a lot, and resonance carries the day. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinApr 9, 2012
Is it scary? Not especially. But there are enough gory surprises around every bend to keep you laughing/screaming/cringing. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumApr 11, 2012
The movie's biggest surprise may be that the story we think we know from modern scary cinema - that horror is a fun, cosmic game, not much else - here turns out to be pretty much the whole enchilada. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsApr 12, 2012
The Cabin in the Woods is pure mechanics, as if the shadowy Dharma Initiative of "Lost" switched agents and found itself at the center of a brain-bending ensemble drama. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineJaime N. ChristleyApr 8, 2012
The Cabin in the Woods, regardless of its many genealogical links to prior Whedon creations, is an ideal Hollywood film in the Age of Pixar: spectacle for spectacle's sake, but infiltrated by intelligent commentary and an atmosphere of generosity and inclusion. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawApr 12, 2012
However smart and sophisticated this film is, it may disappoint those who, in their hearts, would still like to be genuinely scared. Read full review
60
EmpireDan JolinApr 8, 2012
Part "Evil Dead," part "The Truman Show," part "Arthur Christmas"... For horror hounds who love a larf, and those of us who always wondered exactly what that dry-ice stuff that rises out of the forest-floor moss is. A fun ride - but not quite a "Scream." Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyApr 12, 2012
The laughs come easily, the screams not so much. It's as if the filmmakers got so wrapped up in the satire they forgot to include the intense sensation of rising dread that creates all the thrills and chills that are part of the attraction. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. ScottApr 12, 2012
Novelty and genre traditionalism often fight to a draw. Too much overt cleverness has a way of spoiling dumb, reliable thrills. And despite the evident ingenuity and strenuous labor that went into it, The Cabin in the Woods does not quite work. Read full review
50
Village VoiceMark OlsenApr 10, 2012
A horror comedy with a structural twist intended to emit an air of being something more, Cabin has an off-putting vibe of cocky self-confidence, a "don't you get it" conviction that it's something special. As with people, it's not a charming quality in a movie. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyMar 10, 2012
Effects work is slick, and Goddard keeps his foot on the accelerator with help from David Julyan's suspense-building score. It's just too bad the movie is never much more than a hollow exercise in self-reflexive cleverness that's not nearly as ingenious as it seems to think. Read full review
38
New York PostKyle SmithApr 13, 2012
I've seen a lot of rip-offs of "The Truman Show" and a lot of rip-offs of "Scream." I guess I have to give credit to The Cabin in the Woods for ripping off both at once. Read full review
25
ObserverRex ReedApr 10, 2012
A creepfest so stupid it makes trashy slash-and-burn epics like "Humans Versus Zombies" and "I Spit on Your Grave" seem like Molière and Proust. Read full review
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