15 Most Overrated Movies Of The Decade (So Far)

15. The Cabin In The Woods

Cabin in the Woods
Lionsgate

Back in the nineties, Scream did a great job of dissecting the slasher genre, presenting a world of self-aware teens in amongst the knowing genre tropes. But, in the modern day, people like their meta-horror a bit more extreme. Enter The Cabin In The Woods, a rewriting of just about every horror movie ever as a corporately-ran ritual to please malevolent ancient beings.

Explaining away all the genre traits - the creepy local, the dumb bimbo, the final girl etc. - with smart subversion, it was a concept so high that there was an audience-imposed secrecy around the film. Even vaguely knowing what the plot was about was deemed a movie-ruining spoiler, an approach certainly helped the film's reputation - the basic idea became more of a talking point than the eventual execution.

And, while there's fun to be had with Drew Goddard's directorial debut, the film that can never quite go beyond that idea. Outside of the geek-thrill of a movie mock-embracing conventions there's not much here, with the final third just an excuse to throw lots of different creatures (and copious amounts of blood) at the screen. You could argue the film's earned a moment so self-indulgent, but, as something heralded as a game-changer, it's not quite enough.

Contributor
Contributor

Film Editor (2014-2016). Loves The Usual Suspects. Hates Transformers 2. Everything else lies somewhere in the middle. Once met the Chuckle Brothers.