Dipping My Toes in Horror: The Cabin in the Woods and The Evil Dead

I know I said that I wasn't going to review The Cabin in the Woods. But then it dawned on me that we're into October, and two months ago I promised that I'd do some more toe dipping this month. Originally I wasn't going to keep that promise, as these toe dipping months are kinda exhausting, but yesterday I realised that it was indeed October, and Halloween happens at the end of the month. Having seen both The Cabin in the Woods and The Evil Dead just recently, I decided that this was perfect timing. Plus, I've always meant to get into more horror, even though I think it is a ghastly genre. The Cabin in the Woods seems like a pretty funny way to do some toe dipping (okay, the phrase 'toe dipping' is starting to sound exceedingly dodgy), but as I said, this is kinda last minute stuff. And it had me scared shitless, so I suppose it did what it was supposed to do.

Anyway, so chances are you've seen/discussed/analysed/had enough of The Cabin in the Woods. And because of that fact, I honestly have no idea of what I can say about the film. So here's my list of scattered thoughts (spoiler-iffic, but most of you have probably seen it because you don't live in New Zealand):
-Yeah, Joss Whedon is pretty cool.

-It was kinda like the horror version of The Hunger Games. Not that the premise of The Hunger Games isn't scary enough.
-Anna Hutchison is in it. Which is weird for me, because I've always known her as the chick of Go Girls. And she's like, really popular in NZ. But I think about you Americans, and you haven't the foggiest of who she is, even now that you've seen the movie. I mean, it is just weird that the chick off Go Girls is in this movie. Just really really weird. That's not to say that she's not talented, but she is in Go Girls, for heaven's sake.
-I didn't even know where the movie was going half the time.
-Okay, I'm going to admit that this wasn't exactly the "refreshing" horror that I thought I was. But that's probably because I expected fireworks and crap to come out of that cabin. There was a unicorn, though, and I can safely say that I was not expecting that.
-IDK, does anyone else get sick of Sigourney Weaver randomly popping up in films? When she popped up here, all I could think was "wow, what an unoriginal choice". I have nothing against Sigourney, but man, they could have picked Eddie Murphy (said no-one, ever).
-The ending was pretty unexpected. Like, stuff got really weird. And unexpected. But it seemed a little familiar, even though I can't place why.
-Kristen Connolly was really cool in this movie. I just really liked her and her character.
-Well done Richard Jenkins, you've officially freaked me out yet again.
-I admit to being well scared by the end of this. Just the idea of having people control your death like that...that's the kind of stuff that gives me nightmares.
-Still, the question remains: why the hell wasn't this given a proper release in New Zealand and Australia? I mean, it is actually a really good horror film. And how often do we get those these days?

Another movie set in a cabin set amongst the trees was The Evil Dead, which I suspect started the trend that The Cabin in the Woods was trying to flip on its head. Basically, there's six friends who go on vacation in a cabin far far away, where they find a tape recording of demonic passages from a 'Book of the Dead'. Then a tree attacks one of them, and as most horror movies go, all hell breaks loose.

I also don't know what to say about this one, either. Is it scary? Yes. I've seen enough horror movies to know that things just come out of nowhere, but this film seemed to do that stunningly well. Which isn't so good when I'm the most paranoid person on Earth (just ask my friends, I'm fairly sure they hate me for it), and I'm at home alone until 11pm which means that anything can come out of anywhere. However, those genuine scares were kinda outweighed by the silly - and excessive - gore. It kinda typifies everything I tend to dislike about horrors. The gore was pretty darn bizarre, too. I mean, I don't think anyone should be an expert on the multiple ways blood can come out of people or how many ways you can dismember people. Because that'd mean testing on people. Which isn't ideal. But then again, there's people like me who look at horror movies and go "ugh, that's so fake". Which makes me really stuffed up in the head, because I think I know what dismembering people looks like in real life. Oh crap. What have I become?!

Well, that escalated quickly.

Anyway, The Evil Dead was pretty scary, but I can't say that I was all that enthralled by it. That's probably due to my aversion to 1980s films, and horror in general (which means this is going to be an interesting month). But big ups to Sam Raimi, who made this film when he was a mere 22. I wanna be at that spot when I'm 22. Just probably not dismembering people. Because I'd be way too realistic with it.

What do you think of these two films? Any horror delights you're just biting for me to see?