When you hear that Joss Whedon is making a horror movie, you have to assume it'll be something special, even if the plot is straight out of the horror playbook. So while The Cabin in the Woods sounds like the usual crap about teenagers getting stalked by a psycho killer, the casting of Richard Jenkins (as of today an Oscar-nominee) and Bradley Whitford adds something very, very new into the mix. As Whedon himself told The Hollywood Reporter, "They're the first proof that though The Cabin in the Woods is a classic horror film, it isn't one you've seen before."

Whedon co-wrote the movie with Drew Goddard, who will be in charge of directing. Whitford and Jenkins will play white-collar co-workers who have unknown, mysterious connections to the cabin. Or, as Goddard joked in THR, "It's really just your basic typecasting: When you need two actors to run through the woods in low-cut nighties, you immediately think of Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford."

Jenkins and Whitford have starred in two of television's most beloved series, Six Feet Under and The West Wing, respectively, and both have a cranky cleverness to their acting that will make them fun to watch together. I still avoid most horror movies as a rule, but this one, which comes out February 5, 2010, has enough going for it to make it seem special.