The movie addresses racism and stereotypes from both sides. It seems fairly apolitical. But the commentary is an interesting take.
Race is obviously a big theme for the film, but it is not exclusively about race. Race is more of a backdrop. Betrayal, trust, hypnotism, and intrigue are all part of the story.
There’s even a bit of comedy. Not enough to call this a horror-comedy as some have. But some of the exaggerated stereotypes are funny.
The timing and pacing of the thrills and chills are right on the mark.
Certainly not a film told from a Christian worldview. The societal acceptance of interracial dating is addressed. Premarital sex is treated as normative (much as our culture does). According to the review at Plugged in Online the film has...
“More than 50 f-words and about 45 s-words. We also hear ‘a—,’ ‘b—ch,’ ‘d—n,’ ‘h-—’ and ‘n-—er.’ God’s name is misused about a dozen times, twice with the word ‘d—n’.”
This is the directorial debut of comedienne and actor, Jordan Peele.
I’ve called it a horror-drama-comedy, in part for the specific comedy bits in it, and in part because of the “comedic” violence, meaning over-the-top in a way that tends to lessen the tension, where other horror types will use the violence to heighten the tensions.
Also, there’s a comedic streak in the musical score, especially the exaggerated “volume cues” that are used in a lot of horror movies to subliminally get the audience ready for “something bad to happen”. IN this movie, the loud sounds happen kind of right AFTER the actual scares that would normally have been predicted by the sounds. (My favorite being at one point early on, the servant woman walks through the background. You clearly see her, because she is specially lit to stand out. And just as you are thinking “I saw her, that’s creepy” the music does a huge crescendo, like “hey something is about to happen” but it already happened.
(BTW, in this sense, there were parts of cabin in the woods that became comedic, like the utter over-the-top aspect of the killing fields at the end of the movie. And of course the merman and the killer unicorn.