Somebody make a Wiki for THE CABIN IN THE WOODS’ Kristen Connolly!

A few weeks ago I got to grab a quick five minutes with Kristen Connolly – star of the Drew Goddard/Joss Wheedon horror film that’s been on hold over at MGM for a few years.

This film ‘premiered’ at SXSW, but I was fortunate enough to have seen it in December last year.  And I’ve waited FOUR MONTHS to drag my friends to see it with me since I can’t tell them a thing about it.

Kristen was at the 36th Atlanta Film Fest to show this as the gala closing film. We only had a few minutes while red carpet photography was going off, but I did try to not ask the same questions, since I’d already seen the movie, and didn’t need to know all about her character.

Holly: Hello Kristen, nice to meet you.  First off —  I have to tell you that I’ve already seen the film.

Kristen Connolly:  You have?!?  How?

HB: Well, I saw it at Harry Knowles’ Butt-Numb-A-Thon in December.

Joss (Wheedon, co-writer of the film) and Harry produced a documentary with Morgan Spurlock (COMIC CON Episode IV: A FAN’S HOPE) – and Joss and Harry are friends …. and so about 200 of us got to see it early. We had to keep very quiet about it, relatively speaking.
KC: Yeah yeah… of course!

HB: Since it was in limbo for so long (due to woes at MGM) – did you ever fear or despair it just was never going to get released?
KC: No…we weren’t the only movie that wasn’t getting released. I mean, you’re up there with JAMES BOND and THE HOBBIT –and it’s like “Okay, it’s not about us. These problems go beyond our movie.” 

A lot of us believed in the film, and wanted it to come out, you know? And your family wants to know…when’s it coming out?!?  You know, I think it worked out perfectly to be with LIONSGATE and to premier at SXSW.

HB: When I saw it at BNAT…that’s a 24-hour film festival (noon Saturday to noon Sunday) – well, we saw it at like 4 in the morning…
KC: You must have been exhausted! (laughing)
HB: Well, it was so energizing to us to have it screen at that time of night. A lot of us we saying “Can we watch that again??” and the answer was… “No…no you watch THE GREY” – which was a great movie, but such a shift from CABIN that it’s bonkers.
KC: Yeah…that is a little more serious of a film.

HB: Did you have to have Horror 101 training for this to know where the film or literature that is referenced in The Cabin In The Woods?
KC: Well, I had seen quite a few horror movies, and Drew (Goddard) gave us a few specifically. Like THE DECENT for one. The EVIL DEAD movies. The first HALLOWEEN. We watched them as a group, which was a lot of fun.

He also gave Fran (Kranz, her co-star) and me BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID to watch, which was kinda cool.
HB: Harry premiered  THE DECENT at BNAT, too. At the screening, a few people had to leave the theatre because the claustrophobia was too much for them.
KC: Oh yeah! The claustrophobia is the worst thing in that movie!

People are scared —  and it freaks you out.

HB: Joss, and to a lesser extent, Drew have LEGIONS of fans as you know. Are you prepared for stalker-y-ness and extreme loyalty at the same time?
KC: Absolutely. (laughs) But I don’t know if prepared is the right word. I just like… I think it’s such a cool thing that people are supporting this film, and the people involved with it. And that’s awesome! You can’t have that without someone like Joss. He’s a genius.
HB: Are you gonna get your friends to create your Wikipedia page for you since you don’t have one yet? I was trying to do some research on you, and I went there (among other places) and there’s no page for you.
KC: Oh my god… I don’t know.
HB: You know, you can’t write your own, that’s against the rules.
KC: I didn’t even know this. I don’t know anything about Wikipedia, except I go there when I don’t know something. I’ll have to put it on my Facebook asking someone to do it. Like, “Somebody make me a Wikipedia page!”

Okay, you heard her…somebody get to makin’ that woman a Wiki-page on the double. Because if CABIN does the money and word of mouth that I think it will, she’s going to be getting lots of chances to fill that page up.

Now…what are still you doing reading this? If you have the chance, get your ass to a movie theater and go see what so many critics have danced around in their reviews of this clever, witty, scary, screamfest of a film.

You might not want to go camping any time soon after doing so,

but you’re going to want to visit THE CABIN IN THE WOODS over and over again.

PS… Fran Kranz has all the best lines.

Mea Culpa: I was wrong about the order of films; GHOST RIDER 2 was the next film after THE CABIN IN THE WOODS. But as you can tell, I tried to put it out of my mind ‘cause I totally thought THE GREY was what we saw next. In my defense, it was like Ridiculous o’clock in the morning.

 ~ H. Blain is a freelance writer living in Atlanta who likes reading far too late in the night, most types of comic books, all things cinema (including being excited by certain names in the credits that you usually ignore) and saw The Empire Strikes Back three times opening day when she was ten years old. ~