HORROR. The fascination and thirst for new and creative ones on-screen is insatiable.
Hellish, nightmares, demonic figures, evil forces, blood rituals and sacrifices, magick, death, and all that stuff.
Why are people drawn to such images and storylines?
Movie makers are getting more creative and detailed with their productions, feeding the masses in large doses which, oddly enough, keep many addicted.
For example, when "Cabin in the Woods" was released after April this year, it became a widely successful horror film that also obtained great critical acclaim. According to wikipedia, the film gained mostly positive reviews and grossed over $65 million worldwide.
The movie is about five All -American friends who spend a weekend in a remote cabin in the woods where fun, alcohol and teenage frolicking awaits.
The pals however don't know that this weekend of apparent partying is, in fact, a big ritual sacrifice conducted by a high-level, international organization.
The cabin is set up in an environment that is totally artificial and controlled by the puppet masters. In fact, the cabin and its surrounding is one big TV recording studio, complete with mics and cameras, mind altering drugs to control the actors and remote controlled doors and light effects.
As the teenagers drive towards to the cabin's location, viewers realize that they are entering a "virtual" zone that is totally created by and controlled by the organization. Inside of it, the teenagers become puppets at the hand of high-tech puppet masters or "technicians".
Once arrived at the cabin, the teenagers are made to embody specific archetypes in order to complete the ritual drama required by the gods. It therefore needs to be carried out in a specific manner and it needs to be completely recorded and televised. The "gods" require the death of five specific archetypes in the ritual drama: The whore, the athlete, the fool, the scholar and the virgin.
On their way to the cabin, the teenagers meet an unsavory character dubbed "The Harbinger" that warns them in not-so-subtle ways that they will be killed. Despite the warnings, the friends resolutely carry on, of their own free will.
Which is exactly what is needed of them, if the sacrifices must be successful.
During the movie, one technician says:
"They have to make the choice of their own free will. Otherwise, the system doesn't work. Its like The Harbinger…this creepy old fk who is practically wearing a sign saying 'You Will Die'. Why do we put him there? The System. They have to choose to ignore him. They have to choose what happens in the cellar. Yeah, we rig the system as much as we need to but, in the end, if they don't transgress, they can't be punished."
Right from the start of the movie, the character named Jules Louden plays the role of a whore that appears to be aroused by anything.
During her (short) stay at the cabin, she constantly feels the urge to talk about doin' it or to dance like a stripper. We however learn that Jules is not being herself: She was drugged and manipulated to become the proverbial whore.
After the death of the first victim, (Jules killed whilst having sex) we see one of the technicians reciting a dark prayer and then kissing a pendant bearing the secret society's magical symbol.
The ending of the movie is very telling, yet very unsettling. In order for the ritual to be complete, Marty (the fool) must die before the virgin (Dana). If this doesn't happen, the "ancient evil gods" will rise and kill everyone on Earth. When asked to kill himself to save the world, Marty refuses - knowing very well he'll be killed anyways by the evil gods.
Dana and Marty then light up a joint and wait for the gods to rise. Dana says:
"It's time to give someone else a chance…Giant evil gods".
Then a giant hand rises up from beneath the Earth, kills everyone and then reaches out to grab the movie viewers. And that's how the movie ends…with an evil god grabbing the viewer.
Critical reactions on wikipedia:
The film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 91% approval rating with an average rating of 7.8/10, based on 200 reviews. It offers the consensus: "The Cabin in the Woods is an astonishing meta-feat, capable of being funny, strange, and scary - frequently all at the same time."
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times said: "The Cabin in the Woods has been constructed almost as a puzzle for horror fans to solve."
Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "B" grade and said that "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."
A.O. Scott of The New York Times said, "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."
vigilantcitizen.com criticised the movie saying: "the plot of The Cabin in the Woods.... describes mega-rituals in a direct but very caricatural matter..... while fictionalising it - it puts everything out in the open while making people believe that "it's just a movie". While there is a lot of satire and foolishness in the movie, its underlying concept is truer than most would believe."