>they show us what's behind the curtain WAY too early.

but can it be counted as a negative in a movie that was designed to spill some particular beans from the get go? and not everything was revealed all at once either. you understood straight away there was another element at play with the reveal, but u still have no idea wtf is happening in any kind of definitive detail.

>like, the first scene, even. and then repeatedly throughout the
>movie. what they should have done was have a straight horror
>story that was strong enough to stand alone, and THEN slowly
>start peeling back the layers.

and the point of doing that would be...? to show a cliche'd horror story as the main story? the point of it being cliche'd to the point of audible groans is a glaringly obvious part of the tone of the movie, a means to an end. they even took the "creepy old dude warning teens of messed up house in the woods" guy and extracted a pretty hilarious laugh out of it (with the speaker-phone bit). the point was (and u already know this) to turn all this shit on its head, or to treat it with a modern sarcastic 'we've seen all this shit before in a million other horror flicks' vibe and have fun with the results (that said, there was still a genuine story/plot going on around & outside the microcosm of the cabin, whether or not it was a horror story is up for discussion, my opinion being that it was more gods & monsters epic than strictly blood & gore horror).

>because their "teenagers go to a cabin in the woods for some reason" story was so weak and
>cliche (on purpose maybe, like to dig at the genre, but even
>then it was a mistake), they almost had to shout it out right
>away that THERE'S SO MUCH MORE GOING ON HERE! otherwise, the
>audience is sound asleep.

but...but....isnt that the point? cos there IS so much more going on here? its the story outside of the faux-story that works like a regular plot, revealing bits n pieces of itself as everything moves along, but everything within the controlled bubble of the cabin & the specific wooded area its confined in via invisible barrier is a cog in the wheel, not the whole wheel. it manages to provide some commentary on the state of horror flicks and its tropes while simultaneously pushing forward a larger story of humans paying tribute to old gods to keep the peace.

i get criticism, but i dont get expectations post-viewing of a film that is trying to be anything BUT the horror movie cliches it lampoons, but the cool part (to me) was its duality as providing sarcastic commentary and being an actual film (even the title of the film works in favour of both of these goals, the general and overused setting reflected in the simplicity of the title speaks on the sarcastic nature of the film, and the title works as just a title as well...pretty sure i explained that semi-coherently...i think).

V.