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Blu-ray Review: THE CABIN IN THE WOODS
By Dave Dreher - FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER OR FACEBOOK
Dec 1, 2012 - 6:18:22 PM

This has been a complicated review for me to write as I have found THE CABIN IN THE WOODS to be a film that has really challenged me as a writer and as a fan.

I actually watched this project several times.  The first time I'd had a very long day and actually dozed off about two thirds of the way through, actually I think I dozed of a couple times before that if I'm honest with you.  Needless to say I came away from the viewing with a less than favorable impression.

Thinking I hadn't given the film a fair shake, I watched it again, this time on a day off, nothing to blame a bad viewing on. 

Although I managed to stay awake for the entire film this time I still found myself a bit muddled and conflicted.

While I found the story arc truly original and a bit daring I also found it awkward and dare I say a bit annoying.

The film opens with a couple of dudes in office attire shooting the shit around a lunchroom.  Seems to be a pretty average work environment.  We then find ourselves following a group of horny college kids heading out on a weekend excursion of drink and fornication.  What the two environments have to do with one another is at this point still unknown but it's clear that we will soon all find out.

So the group heads on out to the titled CABIN IN THE WOODS and through a series of events a horror unfolds that is both awesome and mind-boggling.  Problem for me was the fact that all unfolds in a rather silly cavalcade of genre pratfalls that actually ends up kind of making fun of the genre we all love so dearly.

In the end it all works out pretty well actually with a nice little unexpected cameo by the always-amazing Sigourney Weaver showing up to add just the right amount of dramatic flair to a rather silly romp up till that point.

The horror is real, it's just played for laughs and jump scares instead of tension and unease.  Nothing wrong with that I guess but it makes this film seem rather disjointed and therefore ineffective.  Although project helmer Joss Whedon has concocted a truly original premise it all just gets kind of jumbled around to the point of not really having much of a point when all is said and done.

After all this rather negative sounding blathering you might be led to believe that I would warn you to stay as far away from this one as you could but actually quite the contrary.  There is some pretty cool, original shit going on here and most of it very much worth checking out.  It didn’t work for me but it might just be the cup of tea you’ve been looking for.

Some really great FX work, cool ass monsters and fantastic concept stuff, again it all seems like much ado about nothing. 

Of course, the Blu-ray looks fantastic, they all do if they are done correctly and this one is most certainly done correctly.  An impressive slate of bonus materials and all the bells and whistles that one has come to expect from a modern day, main stream release.

Go ahead and give this one a whirl.  It certainly tries hard and it really attempts to reinvent the wheel, problem is it just goes round and round to ultimately end up going nowhere.