Kristen Connolly plays people in danger without winking at the audience, and her warmth gives us a reason to care. The Cabin in the Woods makes good use of that seriousness, though its screenplay leaves her too little room.
Fi1m perspective
In The Cabin in the Woods (2012), Kristen Connolly plays Dana Polk's fear straight while the film keeps finding reasons to laugh. The screenplay needs us to recognise its young people as familiar types almost immediately. Connolly gives Dana enough warmth that the shorthand does not entirely define her. We cared about her safety because that warmth made the danger matter, even when the jokes kept interrupting it. Drew Goddard's horror comedy is inventive and funny, but she has the useful job of giving us someone to worry about.
That lead role brought Connolly mainstream attention after small film parts and recurring work in soaps. Her other horror lead that year was Stephanie in Barry Levinson's found-footage film The Bay (2012). Television then gave her Christina Gallagher in House of Cards (2013–14) and the journalist Jamie Campbell in Zoo (2015–17), both main roles. The movement between horror films and television thrillers suits an actor frequently cast as an ordinary person who has to improvise under pressure. Dana remains the clearest reason for our recommendation.
In The Cabin in the Woods, Fran Kranz supplies useful comic energy as Marty Mikalski. Connolly's lack of self-aware winking is just as useful to a film so conscious of horror conventions. Goddard and co-writer Joss Whedon give the friends too little time before their functions in the story become conspicuous. That limits how much she can do with Dana. The control-room double act is more rewarding company, a reservation about the screenplay rather than a failure of effort from its young cast.
Dana is also a physically demanding role, and Connolly's commitment helps keep the fear credible. We value that willingness to take the character seriously when so much around her is inviting a laugh. We would welcome a screenplay that gave her warmth more time to work before putting her in danger. Start with The Cabin in the Woods, but do not expect its constant jokes to leave much room for sustained fright.
Biography
Kristen Connolly is an American actress. She was born on 12 July 1980 in Montclair, New Jersey. She began her career with recurring roles in CollegeHumor digital shorts and appeared as an extra in films including Mona Lisa Smile (2003), Meet Dave (2008) and The Happening (2008). She also had recurring roles in the CBS soap operas Guiding Light and As the World Turns.
Connolly gained wider recognition for her leading role as Dana Polk in the 2012 film The Cabin in the Woods. She played Christina Gallagher in the first two seasons of the Netflix series House of Cards (2013) and Jamie Campbell in the CBS series Zoo (2015). Other credits include The Bay (2012) and A Good Marriage (2014).
