I saw "Cabin in the Woods." (spoilers)

[The Mandarin]

Part of the fun for me was spotting all the Joss Whedon mainstays. There was Amy Acker, there was the computer nerd from Dollhouse, the "Virgin" wasn't Felicia Day, but looked a lot like her.

[AndrewCrossett]

Part of the fun for me was spotting all the Joss Whedon mainstays. There was Amy Acker, there was the computer nerd from Dollhouse, the "Virgin" wasn't Felicia Day, but looked a lot like her.

And Tom Lenk (Andrew Wells on Buffy) played Ronald the Intern.

Finally saw this today, having somehow remained unspoiled. Against all odds, I thought it actually lived up to its hype.

Bradley Whitford and Richard Jenkins were just perfectly cast.

Favorite moments:

* Fran Kranz's Transformer Bong. (I guarantee someone is sitting in his dorm room working on building a real one right now).

* The speaker phone.

* "I'm drawing a line in the fucking sand. Do NOT read the Latin!"

* Anna Hutchison's legs. Seriously, where did she come from? Girl can wear a pair of shorts.

... but I agree with whomever said that the best moment was.... *ding!*

And the funniest thing: Joss Whedon is not ruling out a sequel.

[Hybrid2]

And Tom Lenk (Andrew Wells on Buffy) played Ronald the Intern.

Finally saw this today, having somehow remained unspoiled. Against all odds, I thought it actually lived up to its hype.

Bradley Whitford and Richard Jenkins were just perfectly cast.

Favorite moments:

* Fran Kranz's Transformer Bong. (I guarantee someone is sitting in his dorm room working on building a real one right now).

* The speaker phone.

* "I'm drawing a line in the fucking sand. Do NOT read the Latin!"

* Anna Hutchison's legs. Seriously, where did she come from? Girl can wear a pair of shorts.

... but I agree with whomever said that the best moment was.... *ding!*

And the funniest thing: Joss Whedon is not ruling out a sequel.

I'd watch that.or even a prequel.
But I'd love to see a movie with all the monsters loose is a city.

[AndrewCrossett]

I'd watch that.or even a prequel.
But I'd love to see a movie with all the monsters loose is a city.

Well, we kept hearing about how humanity is doomed if the Old Gods get loose, but... somebody put them down in that hole in the first place, right?

Humanity vs. gods is right up Whedon's secular humanist alley.

[The Mandarin]

They've even got a built-in plot-device waiting if they want to bring back those same two stars: the "virgin" was bitten by a werewolf. So unless those falling rocks were silver, she could survive it. It was even be an excuse to badass her up, alah Buffy and Aliens 4.

[AndrewCrossett]

A sequel would be a very different movie, though. Whereas this movie was a Scream-type "bottle" story focusing on a few characters fighting for their lives, now that the cats are out of the bag the sequel would have to be a global-scale "save the world" story along the lines of Independence Day or Armageddon. Not sure that's a movie Goddard and Whedon want to make, but I could be wrong.

Prequels would be possible, but would be hard to pull off effectively since we've already seen how the whole thing turns out and know all the secrets behind the curtain.

This might be one of those movies that's just better off left to stand on its own.

After The Avengers Whedon is going to have a golden ticket to make any movie he wants with a fat budget. I think he'll probably go off in a different direction.

[Gail Simone]

I really thought the first half dragged, but that the ending was electric. I would have no problem with a sequel...half the fun would be seeing how they got out of the end of the first one!

[AndrewCrossett]

I found the whole movie enjoyable from beginning to end... a lot of the fun in the first part was recognizing all the horror movie tropes and seeing (or anticipating) how they would be put to use in the movie. Giving a functional purpose to the various "cliches" of the genre was brilliant. And the scenes at "mission control" were my favorite parts of the whole film. (The betting pool, the speaker phone, "being prepped is not the same as being prepared".... all of it gold, IMO).

I admit I went into this movie expecting to really love it. But... there's nothing I hate more viscerally than a movie I expected to love and wound up hating. (*cough* Avatar *cough*). Then it feels like not just a bad movie, but a personal betrayal. I'm really glad this one lived up to my expectations.

[RobStaeger]

Wow, I loved it.

It felt like Funny Games mixed with a special effects/action movie. Great stuff!

[ShaunN]

Really enjoyed this movie. A comment on one of the earlier comments:

I agree that the big plot fail in this movie was "purge". It makes utterly no sense that a "purge" function would lead to releasing all the creatures in the complex. It should have led to them being destroyed or maybe even released into the outside world, but not the complex itself.

On how these creatures were created: my sense is that they were not created at all. They were really genuine supernatural creatures. If anything, they were just captured and turned loose on the sacrifices.

As to how "they" knew the fool wasn't dead - well, only the old gods knew, and they were operating on a whole different level. I don't think that operators mixed up their victims either. As we saw, they manipulated the different people to fit the roles they needed them to fit. Whether or not the kids were really like this was not the issue. For the purposes of the sacrifice, they just had to play certain roles. The one mistake the operators did make was in giving the fool weed that actually enhanced his understanding. It's possible that is what made it possible for him to survive and throw off the balance.

Anyway, this will be a future cult classic.