It never occurred to me that the lab party scene would be so difficult to film.



It really is.

Simon | April 16, 12:07 CET

I love Drew Goddard.

gossi | April 16, 12:26 CET

I *loved* the surprise of Sigourney Weaver. There was an audible reaction of surprise in the theater when she showed up.

Synphyl | April 16, 14:06 CET

I'm glad I'd seen the film. I was at a con and the woman beside me described the whole plot of the film - and mentioned Sigourney Weaver, quite loudly to her friend over the phone.

redeem147 | April 16, 14:35 CET

Wow, that lab party scene does sound difficult. Maybe that's why it felt quite unusual to me - most filmmakers would stay away from the idea as too much work...

I love the line about the final scene being everything he ever wants to say in his work, except he didn't even write it, Joss did. Heh.

skittledog | April 16, 15:03 CET

Oh man. I wondered how they did that video scene later but I'd assumed filming and editing the background fight in advance would be too complicated and there'd been some digital magic involved instead.

Sunfire | April 16, 16:28 CET

I wonder if they were miffed that Paul came out with a similar cameo?

shnoods | April 16, 17:44 CET

I don't think it hurts if Sigourney Weaver has done, or continues to do, other cameos: there was something really classic and 'right' about her appearance.
In fact the more I think about this the more CitW reminds me of Galaxy Quest: a movie that managed to be a sci-fi film while being a spoof of sci-fi AND paying homage to sci-fi all at once. I think that that is what Joss and Drew managed to do here, pay homage and ridicule while still being true to the horror genre. It was so brilliant.

embers | April 16, 17:57 CET

Yeah, I think there's still something powerful (right now) about her cameos. They're not on the level of Stan Lee farce, but I suppose he's never been given anything serious.

Jaymii | April 16, 18:14 CET

to shnoods, I don't think Drew and Joss were miffed about Weaver's cameo in Paul. For one thing, she had more lines, and second, the way she was "eliminated" was funnier. Aliens and zombies, it's all different

impalergeneral | April 16, 18:45 CET

embers - awesome - Galaxy Quest mentions are always appreciated... at least by me ;) I'm surprised about the video screens being the actual edited down fight scene; that is impressive.

zeitgeist | April 16, 19:13 CET

Now I want to see a movie about alien zombies...

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, an alien race with no more cemetery space on their home planet began to "bury" their dead by shooting them into space. After traveling for a millennia or so, a corpse capsule crashes into the earth as part of a meteor shower and the scattered aliens corpses are revived by the warmth of our yellow sun and begin brain munching and the inadvertent infection of humans with alien zombie virus/hive mind. Sigourney Weaver is the top research scientist by day/sculpture welding artist by night who saves us all.

(What? It could work.)

BreathesStory | April 16, 19:31 CET

I must admit, although it becomes obvious why once you reach the final act, when the zombie redneck family was picked I was a little disappointed. I'm with Whitford; I wanted Mermen.

Great little interview there and also surprised just how much work was involved in seeing the fight in the background during the party scenes. Obvious when you say it, but it was done so well that the complexity of the sequence never occurred to me.

I'm also with Drew on the ending. It is such a classic horror image that it is the perfect ending to this film. Having it smash down on the audience is a wonderful moment over the topness too.

In the intro to the article, it mentions "homage to horror classics, such as The Evil Dead and Suspiria." I don't recall any nods to Suspiria. Anyone know what they were referring to? The points of reference, excluding the sequences from around the world, pretty much all seemed to be from very American horror and, although Argento heavily influenced the American slasher movies from Halloween onwards, I don't recall there being anything particularly with that early giallo feel to it in the film.

Vandelay | April 16, 21:45 CET

Oh gosh, that Galaxy Quest reference is bang on. This is how I'm explaining this film to everyone who hasn't seen it yet. It's like Galaxy Quest but for horror films. That'll sell it to the people who'll enjoy it.

Sparticus | April 16, 22:10 CET

I second (or third) the Galaxy Quest analogy! People keep asking me what the movie is like, but they don't seem to comprehend that it's not like any horror movie they've seen.

"Is it like Evil Dead?"

"It parodies ED, but it's not really like it."

"Is it like Army of Darkness?"

"No."

"Is it like Evil Dead?"

"Um... Still not like it."

"Then why should I see it?"

So now I can try "It's like Galaxy Quest but for horror films."

We'll see if that works! :-)

Nebula1400 | April 16, 22:35 CET

Galaxy Quest seems more like a parody whereas Cabin is more like a satire.

Simon | April 16, 23:11 CET

Yes, but then you get people with sad face if you call it a satire. The fact is, it isn't like GQ, ED, or Scream, and the average schmo doesn't know how to react to "it's not like any other movie." We want to get them to see the movie. Then they can decide what it is.

Nebula1400 | April 17, 00:28 CET

That's interesting--I hadn't connected the God Hand at the end with the, of course, iconic horror movie image of a zombie/otherwise not-good hand coming out of the grave. That really makes me love the end of this film.

sumogrip | April 17, 00:47 CET

I hadn't thought about the icon image of the 'Hand of God' either, but now I'm thinking 'Carrie'! LOL

embers | April 17, 01:06 CET

Drew is awesome. What a directorial debut too.

jacobsfoot | April 17, 03:04 CET

BreathesStory wrote:
Now I want to see a movie about alien zombies...


The other way rould might also be fun:
The benevolent Alien has come to Earth to greet mankind and welcome it into the galactic society. Unfortunately humankind has just been overrun by a plague of zombies and now the hunt begins. We could name the alien "Alice" and call the movie "Alice in Zombieland".

kurna | April 17, 05:58 CET

Galaxy Quest is a good reference but the first movie I thought of was Shaun of the Dead. A comedy, a horror, and an ending built on relationships. Funny seeing how we're comparing Weaver cameos from Paul.

korkster | April 17, 15:12 CET

Sigourney Weaver's voice was heard earlier in the film as the Director speaking to all the staff in the monitoring room.

lottalettuce | April 19, 05:43 CET