Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Rolling with the Changes, or How to Keep Our Violent Nature at Peace


Horror movies exist in order for people to deal with the inevitability of death. The cold hand of Death will one day grip each of us, and it is through the artistic expression of the horrific that we are able to process and attempt to resolve our feelings about our demise. 2011’s horror film The Cabin in the Woods (dir. Drew Godard) looks under the hood of cinematic horror fiction to show us why we need horror stories and what is wrong with the current generation of horror movies.

The Cabin in the Woods begins with a cliché setup: a group of friends (3 guys, 2 girls) plan to get away together and enjoy some R&R in a cabin in the middle of a wooded area. We’ve seen this story a million times, of course, in horror films dating as far back as 1972’s The Last House on the Left and 1974’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. This doesn’t even begin to consider the rise of teen exploitation horror flicks starting with 1980’s Friday the 13th. But, The Cabin in the Woods takes this familiar tale and spins it in a different direction…downward.

The film’s biggest twist involves the introduction of two unique characters, Sitterson (Richard Jenkins) and Hadley (Bradley Whitford). These are ordinary working joes who just so happen to work in an underground control room, orchestrating the events affecting the teenagers in the traditional tale. Sitterson and Hadley manipulate the environment to maneuver the teens into death situations. They are quite successful, and one-by-one the teens die at the hands of a redneck clan of zombies. This is all due to an elaborate ritual that must occur periodically to sate the “old gods,” whom, without the ritual, would rise up to destroy the earth.

One of the major themes of The Cabin in the Woods is the idea that we seek the voyeuristic thrill of watching murder and death to keep our violent nature in check. The film’s most pivotal, and memorable scene – the “Roll with the Changes” party scene – expresses this idea with a disturbing force.

The scene begins with our “upstairs” heroine, Dana (Kristin Connelly), dragging herself out of a lake after barely escaping a zombie attack in a sinking RV. She collapses on a dock and tries to catch her breath while being overwhelmed by the terror of her evening. Right as we think she may be safe, the lead zombie, Judah Buckner, attacks her. Suddenly, we cut to a video screen image of the attack and the song “Roll with the Changes” by REO Speedwagon begins playing. A party is going on in the “downstairs” control room. Employees are flitting about between groups, laughing, gossiping, celebrating a job well done. They drink beer and toast to their success. Some talk about the event, some about overtime bonuses, others try to hook up with the opposite sex, and all the while the images of Dana being throttled by Judah Buckner play on the massive video screens, ignored by the group. The scene ends with Sitterson learning there was a technical problem with power supply from “upstairs.” Just as he is intrigued and concerned, a red phone rings, making it clear the party is over.

There are several elements to this scene exploring the idea we need to see violence to stay peaceful. The most important element is the song selection for the party. REO Speedwagon’s soft rock anthem, “Roll with the Changes” tells the story of a man looking to take his relationship with a woman to the next level. He implores her to join him and roll with the changes of their life. The song isn’t in the film because of its romantic elements, though. It’s there because of the chorus:

If you’re tired of the same old story
Turn some pages
I’ll be here when you are ready
To roll with the changes

These lyrics imply the story needs to be changed, and we need to roll with it. The film’s tired tale of doomed teens in the woods needs to be shaken up – we, as an audience, are over it. Having seen a slew of these horrors, there’s not much else left. Our desire for a different sort of violence is growing. If we don’t get something new soon, we will blow.

While the song selection dominates the party scene, other elements also contribute to the scene’s meaning. After the party environment is established, the video screen showing the attack on Dana is in nearly every shot, hovering over the proceedings with an ominous blue-gray glow. It’s a reminder to us that we have become desensitized to the violence we see. There is nothing amusing or entertaining about violence being perpetrated on another human being, yet the employees laugh and drink as if the images around them should be celebrated. The constant exposure to violence has numbed us to its impact, which keeps us from giving in to our darker impulses.

Since the movies provide us an outlet for our violent thoughts, our darker impulses are replaced by other, more socially acceptable forms of violence. This is seen in a choice moment of the party scene. We witness Hadley being congratulated on a job well done. A couple employees kiss his ass, and he not-so-humbly shines them on. As he hears them go on about the RV crash, he becomes reflective, and finally says, “I just think it would have been cooler with a merman.” His desire for a better violent payoff is more powerful than any human empathy with the innocent kids he has coldly slaughtered. Watching and creating these voyeuristic moments of violence, from his perspective, keep the Old Gods at bay, which keeps truly destructive violence from entering the world.

The Cabin in the Woods is a horror film with more on its mind than bloodletting, despite the fact that it is, indeed, a remarkably gory film in its last act. It wants to make a bolder statement about why people watch horror films, and most importantly, what happens to us when we don’t attempt to satisfy our violent nature. The answer to that question is devastating. Without horror films, without horror fiction, without quality horror fiction, man is unsatisfied and struggles to resolve his fears of death. Yet, we need to change the same old story to keep the monster at bay. We need to roll with the changes.

Works Cited

The Cabin in the Woods. Dir. Drew Godard. Perf. Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford. Lionsgate, 2011. DVD.

Cronin, Kevin. "Roll with the Changes." Rec. Mar. 1978. You Can Tune a Piano, But You Can't Tuna Fish. REO Speedwagon. Kevin Cronin and Gary Richrath, 1978. MP3.

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