At least three people have shown interest in another SC so here we go.

This time its a horror, Cabin In The Woods by Joss Whedon.

If you'd like to participate please pm "me" with your e-mail address and I'll send it on over.

As per our previous procedures, a mod will lock this thread in order to give everyone time to read and digest the script before we start the discussions.

Come join people. There's always stuff to learn by dissecting a pro script.  

Unlocked by request.

**SPOILERS**

Here's the infamous Script Shadow's take on Cabin in the Woods:

http://scriptshadow.blogspot.com/2009/03/cabin-in-woods.html

I'll post my critique of the script a little later.  I need to give it another read.

Purge.


Purge button.


Hello, I'm sargent wtf... And if I was to build an underground contraption to harbor all the nasty ghouls and goblins we could think of, I would certainly have a PURGE button to release them all when convenient...

Oof... Review coming tomorrow. After I purge my bowels...

Sargent wtf...

I've read half of it so far.

I like it.

Did I notice style? No. Does that mean the story was good enough to make me not care?

I have to say though that I was a bit disappointed about the zombies. However, I do like them better than some of the other choices.

...Yes, I do like it so far!

I'm a MASSIVE fan of Joss Whedon. I watch everything he's involved in, even Dollhouse. I loved Firefly. Serenity is one of my favourite movies. I always watch the series two finale of Buffy at least once per year because I think that double episode borders on genius. In my opinion, he's that good.

WTF was that all about??? I honestly thought it was quite good until the last 15-20 pages, but the ending is the worst thing I've read in a long time. Like you would have a button to release every monster at once. The very last scene with the massive hand shooting out of the ground? Yeah right.

There were some good things throughout. I loved the dialogue, but Whedon's dialogue is always great (if a little overdone sometimes). I also liked Marty's character. When reading, I wanted him to survive the most so I was glad when we found out he was alive. The script was interesting at points. I liked the reality TV angle, the workers taking bets. Other things kept me thinking, like the invisible forcefield, which was a good thing.

The ending ruined it all. I get angry just thinking about it. Sacrifices to Gods under the earth? Please.

I will add more when I get home from work.

Brian

There's no doubt it's a well written script, especially in regards to formatting.  The dialogue is good, as one would expect, and everything seems to move at a brisk enough pace.

My biggest problem with the piece is how incredibly (and annoyingly) meta it was.  Ok Joss, we get it...you've seen a lot of horror movies.  And we get it...all the people are carbon copies of everyone you've ever seen in a horror film.  And we get it, it takes place in A CABIN, one of the most clichéd places to set a horror film; thank you very much, Evil Dead 1 and 2.

But in the end, particularly after such a mind-fuck of an ending, I'm left to wonder, what's the point?  It's not funny enough to be considered a parody and it's not scary enough to be considered a horror film.  In the end, it's just an unholy mash-up which feels like two movies smashed together.  I can only imagine how this thing is going to play out on the big screen.

So yeah, the characters have good dialogue, it's formatted well, blah blah blah, but I ask again; what's the point?  To me it just seems like navel-gazing at its finest.  Personally, I don't really like being winked at every 5 seconds in a movie.   It's like watching a Michael Haneke film, if you're familiar with any of his work.  His films basically serve as a massive sociological experiment and usually end with a metaphorical middle finger to its audience.   The same basically can be said for Cabin in the Woods.  In the end, it almost feels like you've been pranked.  And because of the "3-D" aspect of the film that's being added, you can be guaranteed Whedon will be laughing all the way to the bank.

My thoughts are exactly yours, Matt!

I knew nothing of this project beforehand so went in 'fresh'. the formatting is good though when your gonna be the director of your own script, I guess you can have it as you want it.
Yeah, it is almost a mixture of the 'Scream ' movies, taking the piss of all the cliched horror stuff. But its intermingled with violence, which, however, fails ultimately cos you don't really care about the characters, as there's too much parody at times.
It was good that there were only 5 'victims' instead of the usual ten or twelve anonymous peole dying in the films being sent up.
Even the crew in the control room were sort of funny, so whedon's idea got a bit muddled.
I dunno...the ending was ok - there were earlier hints to the lab guys fighting aagainst some type of world threatening evil. But the mix of comedy and gore jarred.
i couldn't see this doing any good at the box office, but, well, as we all know, these days any kind of shit can make it...
Cheers stevie

Ps - it was a very fast read, I'll give it that.     The title sucks though.

I can't wait to see what Jeff thought of it!!

I still think 'Killing On Carnival Row' rocked!!!

Alright, in all seriousness, he took the Fab 5, not the Beatles Stevie; the cliche Jock, prissy bitch, nerd, stoner, and virgin and wrote them better then anyone else has IMO. They were fun to watch.

I have to admit, I actually thought this was the script for "Cabin Fever" for a moment. Was waiting for an inbread, retarded boy to jump off the gas station porch yelling "pancakes!" to bite one of them in the hand.

He certainly knows his way around some comedy too. I drank a good deal of water the day I read this and almost pissed myself when the gas station attendent was on speaker phone.


That said, I find it hard these people would be having so much fun watching these people die as a sacrifice. Betting on which monsters they choose... Gotta admit, that part did give me some creeps. When she read the diary and they started coming out of the ground.

Then it fell flat. The action wasn't impressive. The giant force field was ridiculous.

The ending... As I said above, one fucking button to release all monsters!!!! From a guy whose heart is imbedded in sci-fi, I expect better then that.

Then it was as if they knew humanity would end, and let it happen. She should have killed him.

And the formula to please the beasts... The virgin must die last or optional. Why??? Why the fuck would they care??? They're sleeping underground for centuries., Did they have these complex control rooms hundreds of years ago to keep them slumbering??? I think not.

The writing was good. Characters very discernable. He's very talented. I can see why this script hasn't been made though. And probably never will. It has a couple mild chills, and after that it's just a deranged comedy.

I stand corrected!!! I didn't do research, but am I to believe this pile-o-shit is in production Dressel???? Oof, and you know, we'll all go pay $12 to watch this disaster in 3D.

Hopefully this is an early draft. He needs to crank up the horror factor for this to be fun IMO. Give me some great kills along with the comedy and I will forgive.

After research...

They're obviously pitcing this as a comedy... The poster is up on IMDB. Three versions... One reads; "If you hear a strange noise outside... Have sex" The other;"If an old man warns you not to go there... Make fun of him" and my fave... "If something Is chasing you... Split up"

Welp, fuckin A. Wouldn't have gave this a snowflakes chance in hell if it was written by one of us... I guess we'll all be buying a ticket february of 2011.

I liked the first half of the script, didn't care for the second and hated the ending.

Didn't care about the characters. Slasher archetypes never interest me. I didn't hate them though. The dialogue was extremely well written. The jokes weren't funny, per se, but they were witty and the bit with Jules and the wolf's head was amusing, albeit not as much as I expect the writers thought it was. It seemed like something that would come out of a real truth-or-dare. I felt like the characters related to each other in a fairly realistic and even interesting manner. I also appreciated the fact that the "stoner" was a genuine supporting character and not just comic relief. But I wasn't rooting for anyone. I guess they were written just well enough for me not to want them to die and to take interest in their exploits.

I thought the idea of a company staging a horror movie with real people was brilliant. I was constantly hanging on to find out why exactly they were doing this. I loved the competition with Japan and the variations between the two. I loved how laid back everyone was. I loved the bets and the party. It felt like a real job for these guys. The two dudes were douche-bags and the jokes were so-so. Sometimes they zinged. Other times they fell flat. But overall, I did enjoy watching them do what they do and I think the actors they got to play them will do wonders with the script.

Up to a point, there was a perfect balance between being self-aware and being contained in the movie world. In fact, I wouldn't say it got self-aware until the second half. The first, there didn't seem to be any nods to the camera or any bullshit like that. Rather the characters existed with knowledge of the archetypes they were embodying.

The zombies were pretty cool. I liked the family element. I feel like zombies have descended have just about left the horror genre and found a new home in post-apocalyptic sci-fi. This one seemed to bring them back to horror and with some variation to them.

I liked the bit with the car going underwater but once Curt pulled out the bike, the story started going down hill. Basically became a dumb action movie. I liked the "Costco of death" but once the monsters all got mixed together, it just felt like too much. I kept thinking about the South Park Imagination Land trilogy and how over-the-top that was.

And then comes the ending... so all horror movies exist to appease some ancient evil gods... WTF! I mean WTF!!! So what did everyone do before the 80s, 70s... before movies? And why these gods even care? They're obviously uber-gargantuan and can take down the world any time they want? What's the tie in to all these stereotypes? Is it an overblown metaphor or just stupid?

I don't feel like the ending ruined the story but it certainly squandered a golden opportunity to make something genuine and fresh. Instead, they turned it into one big joke? For fuck's sake, Joss! I guess it wasn't enough for you to ruin vampires. You just had to try your hand at horror movies as well. And you know what? You were doing great up until now. So why this?

The think that pissed me off the most about the ending was Marty's line about "something else taking a shot" after humans. I guess these guys thought they could make a joke and be super edgy, nihilistic and misanthropic at the same time...

First of all, you can't make Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Lost and get to be nihilistic and misanthropic. Sorry... and yes I know Drew Goddard is only a writer on Lost. Second, you can't be cutesy.

I see Michael Haneke's Funny Games has been brought up, which is good. But whether or not you hated that film, you can at least give it that the ending had conviction. It basically spit in the face of its audience. These guys seem too timid to do that but at the same time, there's an air of faux edginess. Wow! You guys ended the world because morality tales disguised as mindless sex and violence are lame... but it's in 3D!!! It's all in good fun, right?!

Leave the hateful stuff to Haneke and Von Trier. They don't have TV shows that are adored by hordes of American teenagers. Even so, John Carpenter pulled off this type of ending in both his Snake Plisskin flicks and he did it without the negativity and without the cutesiness. You don't have to be super-existentialist to do it.

...

So what did I think overall? Well, I'm not a Joss Wheedon fan and I don't watch Lost so I have to say there was more good here than bad. I thought the concept, sans twist, was a stroke of genius and I was surprised at how good the writing was. The actual screenplay format broke all the rules but it was fun to read and extremely immersive. The whole thing had a lot going for it. In the end, it seemed like they just said... fuck it!

I think what disappointed me the most is that these guys don't seem to have any genuine affinity for the genre. It's all just a big joke. Maybe if they'd approached this with the intent to write a real movie and not just to cheat everyone, it could've been garnered a cult following or something. Guess not.

Quoted from jwent6688 The ending... As I said above, one fucking button to release all monsters!!!! From a guy whose heart is imbedded in sci-fi, I expect better then that.

Good point. I can't imagine what good would come from having this button, what situation it might actually be appropriate to push it... But then, how would they get all the monsters into one place, huh?

Quoted from jwent6688 I guess we'll all be buying a ticket february of 2011.

Nope! I'm Netflixing the motherfucker.

Quoted from James McClung I see Michael Haneke's Funny Games has been brought up, which is good. But whether or not you hated that film, you can at least give it that the ending had conviction. It basically spit in the face of its audience. These guys seem too timid to do that but at the same time, there's an air of faux edginess. Wow! You guys ended the world because morality tales disguised as mindless sex and violence are lame... but it's in 3D!!! It's all in good fun, right?!

You know, the more I think about it, the more I wonder if the beginning (with the sudden musical sting and title card) is a nod to Haneke's Funny Games.  It's possible it's not, but if you're familiar with the film, you'll remember it starts in a similar way.  But even though I dislike Haneke's films, I at least give him credit for having a point.  Even if his point is to feel superior to his audience.

But I digress, because Haneke didn't write this film; Whedon did.  And Drew Goddard, who has been left out of this discussion up to this point (by myself included).  He's the co-writer on this and also is the director.  He was responsible for Cloverfield.

Quoted from jwent6688 They're obviously pitcing this as a comedy... The poster is up on IMDB. Three versions... One reads; "If you hear a strange noise outside... Have sex" The other;"If an old man warns you not to go there... Make fun of him" and my fave... "If something Is chasing you... Split up"

I think they're doing that to have a tongue-in-cheek approach to the whole thing, not to pitch it as a straight-forward comedy.  After all, look at the website:

http://thecabininthewoodsmovie.com/

But who knows, like I said, it might just all be to be a type of practical joke on the audience.  Make it look as much like a horror film as possible and then hit them with something completely different.  I actually can't wait to see how people respond to this film.

Initial thoughts: Hard to say. I thought it was just about OK. Some of it felt like it had been written by a student over a weekend, some of it was quite good.

It's basically Evil Dead with a weird and completely pointless "extra" bit tagged on.

The characters were dull, with the exception of Marty. None of the others stood out and they were all forgettable.

The action was well-paced, but pretty dull. With all the potential choices of monster...they went for the dullest possible. They were OK as it was but that's always the danger with these things...when you try and parody something, the majority of the time all you do is copy it...so it's as unoriginal as the subject you're parodying, but with an extra air of obnoxious arrogance.

There were a couple of interesting scenes...just a couple. The typical redneck weirdo garage attendant was good and he actually made me laugh...the only time in the script that I did so.

And the wolfshead scene...that was pretty good.

The whole thing with the mermen was quite fun as well...although they didn't do much. Would have much preferred them to have been at the core of the story.

Other than that it was pretty mediocre.

The cabin horror is a staple of low-budget filmmakers...new careers are always made when someone finds a fresh twist. There's something about a successful writer taking a pop at such a genre that felt a bit "off". I can't really explain that any better but it was just a vague feeling I had.


I think the script will probably make a slightly better film. If it's filmed with enough vitality it should make a reasonably fun picture. All the creatures running about should look fun enough in 3D.

Not much else to say. I think with the amount of marketing that they seem to be putting into this and the teen audience it's set at it should do reasonably well at the Box Office. It's certainly not  guaranteed hit...but it could do well enough, I suppose.

I like the main concept a lot. Overall it was a fun read, but I must say the ending ruined it for me.

I can buy the presence of one particular monster in a horror movie. But to throw every kind of monster there is in the mix (plus the ridiculous giant hand) is too much.

The conflict's resolution is the equivalent of emptying your fridge to throw everything into the blender, and then drink the thing. The individual components may be tasty, but the mix will surely taste like goat $hit.

I think/hope that the ending will be changed before this hit the screens.