Cabin in the Woods (2012) directed by Drew Goddard is a hybrid of the horror and the comedy genre, yet it also is a meta-commentary on the horror genre. I found it a very interesting, intelligent and self aware film. I found myself laughing and scared at the same time.. an interesting combination. The film plays with the expectations the audience has of a horror film. The film uses ‘near perfect replications of certain horror conventions’ (Jackson, 2013, p. 21), in a a way that brings the audiences attention to their own expectations of the genre. For example it provided obvious and cliche jump scares, that I knew were coming, and yet I couldn’t help but jump anyway. It was frustrating and hilarious. It made obvious, the tropes of horror in which the characters will rush in to stupid situations (a creepy cellar, for example)  by having a character (Marty) that stated how stupid those acts were. Marty acted as the viewer’s voice of reason. (What ever you do don’t read the Latin!) The way the film played with the audiences expectation seemed the most intelligent part of the film.

This playing with expectations makes the viewer aware of them, and how easily and unconsciously we dip into our knowledge of tropes when making sense of a genre film.

Jackson, Kimberly (2013). Metahorror and simulation in the Scream series and The Cabin in the Woods. In Technology, Monstrosity, and Reproduction in Twenty-First Century Horror, pp. 11-30.