Last weekend Danelle and I went with a bunch of friends to see The Cabin In The Woods (imdb | flixster) at the AMC. I’d harbored no desire to see it; based on the previews it looked like another dumb, formulaic slasher film.

But then I saw the reviews. 90%+ on Rotten Tomatoes. Okay then.

So yeah, I saw the movie. And now I know that the dumb, formulaic slasher film is exactly what they’re playing off. It had elements of that by-the-numbers, but it presented them as if to suggest that all the rote procedurals you’ve seen before have been the work of an off-screen deus ex machina. So it was clever.

It was also really, really goddamned funny. Probably the most I’ve laughed in a movie theatre since Bridesmaids. Putting Brad Whitford and Richard Jenkins — two actors of way higher calibre than you’d expect in a movie like this, which probably should have tipped me off — in their roles and letting them run was a great move. Of course, the script had to be good, and Nellie pointed out at least eleven times before we watched the movie that it was written and directed by Drew Goddard — ex of Buffy, Alias, Angel and Lost — so this was clearly in his wheelhouse.

Make no mistake, it’s a violent movie too — incredibly, and actually comically so at times — lest you think bringing your kids along is a good idea. But if you like self-referential + self-aware (kind of like winking at the very fact that it’s winking at the audience) genre films that make you laugh, and don’t mind some ridiculously savage violence mixed in, this is your new jam.