Cabin in the Woods (2011)
Dir: Drew Goddard
Writ: Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard

Firstly, Joss Whedon's career is immense (Buffy, Firefly, Toy Story and a billion accolades including prestigious sci-fi and fantasy awards the Hugo and Nebula, just for starters) and any movie/television series associated with his name will, by now, garner high expectation. Likewise, owing to Cloverfield, Drew Goddard on the writing bill was extra incentive.
To go much into the plot of Cabin in the Woods would be to give the game away. It is a good horror film, with some very imaginative creatures (basically a treasure trove for designers, as a friend of mine put it). And it is a good genre film, where the 'meta' content, or the running commentary on the horror genre, is an integral part of the film in a way that makes complete sense. This extra dimension to the film also has a developing plot which posits a horrifying idea. Plus any film which opens with Bradley Whitford (the West Wing's Josh Lyman) is in some way at least a winner. For fear of spoiling the twists and turns of this movie I will not reveal why in this film it is especially a winning appearance, but I definitely recommend it.

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006)
Dir: Steve Glosserman
Writ: Steve Glosserman and David J. Stieve

Behind the Mask is a definite genre film. Leslie, a career serial killer, agrees to let a group of film makers document his mission to fulfill the legendary horror film formula and thus follow in the footsteps of his heroes Michael Myers, Freddy Kruger and Jason Vooerhees. The plot contains two parallel paths: the first is that of a classic horror film (bunch of partying teenagers stalked by a masked superhuman killer), and the second is genre-play. The two take turns in propelling the action, and are woven together well enough that the layering is not superficial: the classic trope of knowing what's going to happen before the character onscreen figures it out with agonising slowness is given a clever twist as the film goes on (watch it and you'll see). Not particularly scary, but certainly very interesting and fun. Makes you reminisce about your favourite classics, and not in a bad way.