CABIN IN THE WOODS (2011 - Cert 15)

I don't really know what to write about this film.

Luckily for me, the first thing I read about Cabin in the Woods warned me to go in completely unprepared, to have any knowledge of the plot would lessen the impact, ruin the surprise. It's like Christmas, that odd shaped present under the tree, you are dying to know what it is, you peel back the corner of the wrapping paper and have a sneak peak. You're chuffed when you find out what it is, it's what you wanted in your letter to the big man, but when it comes to Christmas morning, you go through the motions, you smile in the way you are expected to, the emotion is removed.

The week before the release of the Cabin in the Woods, I came across an article on the BBC website posing the question, 'Do Trailers Reveal Too Much'. As it's a subject I also feel very strongly about I started to read, only to discover that it started to go into the plot of Cabin in the Woods. I darted away from my desk, asking a colleague to close down my browser. Phew, that was a close one.

As I sat in my cinema seat on a chilly Monday night, waiting for the film to start, I realised how excited I was. I couldn't remember the last time I had gone to see a film I knew nothing about, I had not preconceptions, I hadn't seen the best bits in a trailer, I hadn't been drip fed images of the film from the marketing department and I hadn't had to endure the stars doing press releases about what their character has to endure. What's all the more impressive is that the hype of the film had been created by the very idea that it was best to not know anything about it. I suppose it's too much to ask the entire film industry to take note of that fact.

Anyway, as I said, I don't know what to write, I'm going to be very careful, I want to give absolutely nothing away (unlike a number of reviewers in the written press over the last week or so). I'm even taking the unprecedented step (for The Orca) of not including a trailer in the post.

Essentially the title gives away all that you need to know. It's about a Cabin in the Woods. That, to anyone who has watched a horror film in the last 40 years, should be enough to at least give an indication of what this is all about.

However, a collaboration between Joss Wheddon (Buffy, Angel and Serenity among his writing credits) and Drew Goddard (writer of Cloverfield and episodes of Lost) is unlikely to play by the rule book. What follows is pure enjoyment, a roller coaster ride that never lets up, but one that manages to take time to comment on the genre and what makes us watch horror films. It's funny, it's gory, its at times scary, and very importantly, it's clever. It the new generation's Scream.

I don't really want to tell you much more. I suppose I can touch on the cast, the stand out name is Chris Hemsworth (who with this and Thor, is becoming a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine), he is decently supported by Anna Hutchison, Jesse Williams, Fran Kranz and Kristen Connolly. No one is going to get an Oscar here, but it's what you would expect, the most important thing is that none of them are annoying.

Right, that really is your lot. All that remains to be said is that I urge you to go and see this. Yes, it may well be a bit of a marmite film, and I certainly wouldn't take your gran to see it, but you really should give it a go. The most important thing though is to approach it as I did, resist the urge to watch the trailer on Youtube, don't start reading a review in Time Out, don't even let your mates who have seen it tell you about it. Just go an see it, put your seat belt on and give yourself over to it. Don't resist it and you will love it.