Finally, I get to come across this after much anticipation and i have to say the wait was worth it. Created by Joss Whedon known for Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly and Dollhouse, gives us a new take on the horror genre. Usually in today's horror, it's tired, overused, and the least bit interesting but this movie seeem to change all of our minds. The filmmakers takes the basic horror movie formula and takes it into a completely different level, putting one horror genre after another. But before I put this review into play, I will have to warn you that there are some major spoilers involved to keep this going, so let's begin.
Here's the story: Five ordinary college students become the unwilling pawns to a secret organization who turns them into horror movie sterotypes, ultimately falling into a real horror movie they can't seem to get out of.
Joss Whedon loves to subvert and deconstruct typical horror movie tropes and make of his own. For example: You have the handsome jock, who is very smart and capable of being the leader but is downgraded into being the dumb jock by the scientist's manipualtions. then you have the virginal heroine who turns out not to be so virginal since she had a(though regretable) affair with her college professor but in this played out horror movie plot she is programmed to be so. Next, you have a sassy, witty young woman, who has turned into the dumb blonde sterotype but she is netheir blonde nor dumb. Much afterwards, you have a jock with an average I.Q. but somehow tunred into the smart guy with high intelligence. Last but least, you have the stoner who is immune to the artifical gases that the scientists implanted and is therefore AWARE of what's going on unlike most stoner characters in such films who just sit in the background, waiting to be killed like idiots.
The acting was great, especially from Kristen Connolly, who plays the "Final Girl" role in perfect spades and Frank Kranz, who's character type is usually annoying, is rather funny and charming. The two actors also give great nods to Willow(Buffy the Vampire Slayer Series) and Shaggy(Scobby Doo) to a T. You may see some notable faces in this movie such as Amy Acker, which I was delighted to see since Fred was one of my favorite characters on Angel. Then you have Grey's Anatomy hunk Jesse Williams, his blue eyes are certainly enchanting and that body is to die for. Last but not least we have the very sexy, hot Chris Hemsworth and once again we get to see his perfectly sculpted body but for only one scene.
The Plot is very smart and surprising to say at least, which will lead to the big ol' spoiler so don't say I warned you.
The reason why the secret organization is inventing the whole horror movie scenario is to stop the ancient one(meaning powerful gods) from regaining it's wrath, thus ending the world. So in order to prevent this, they please them by getting a bunch of youngsters and killing them one by one in a ritual order. So this isn't soely for anybody's entertainment anymore, this is for the fate of mankind. Now that's pretty damn jarring! But guess whose the director of all this....Sigourney Weaver. Yes, that's right. Freakin' Ripley is behind all this. Totally unexpected indeed.
But the really big wham is towards the ending, in which a character must choose between sacrifcing himself in order to save humanity or be able to live, even though he'll die along with the rest of earth's population. Guess what he does: He chooses to live, ending the world entirely. And you're stuck between whether to root for him or be pissed off by his otherwise selfish decison.
It was a blast to watch. Throughout the movie, I just felt something big was going to happen and oh was I in for a surprise....blood, gore and monsters in a heavy, dramatic climax! and don't forget the obvious shot-outs to other horror films.
You can see Josh Whedon put his heart and soul into this project and it payed off with an amazing quality.
My last word: A classic examation of horror films which is a classic itself.
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