7) The Cabin In The Woods (2012)
Filmmaker Drew Goddard has been a busy bee the last few years. From World War Z to the Netflix series Daredevil, Goddard has seldom slowed down in his perennial screenwriting drive. And with an Academy Award nomination under his belt for The Martian, it seems that Goddard can only look above and beyond in his filmmaking career. But before he had the opportunity to don a tuxedo and grace the red carpet at the Kodak Theatre with other A-list celebrities, he wrote and directed The Cabin in the Woods, one of the better postmodern horror films in recent memory.
What Wes Craven began with Scream continues with Goddard’s wonderfully self-reflexive The Cabin in the Woods in the new millennium. With a bevy of great talent (including a pre-Thor Chris Hemsworth) and sharp writing, The Cabin in the Woods is a clever new take on the unoriginal horror films that make up the majority of the market. Telling the age-old tale of a group of college kids who are murdered one-by-one in a remote cabin, The Cabin in the Woods seems to be a hackneyed slasher film at first glance. But soon, the brilliantly postmodern screenplay comes alive and begins undoing any and all of the worn-out slasher tropes, providing a refreshing and wildly entertaining work that will be remembered for years to come.