The Cabin in the Woods (2011)

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General		Extras
Category	Horror / Thriller	Featurette-Making Of-We Are Not Who We Are: Making The Cabin in the Woods Trailer-x 3 for other films
Rating
Year Of Production	2011
Running Time	91:07
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Drew Goddard
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Kristen Connolly Chris Hemsworth Anna Hutchison Fran Kranz Jesse Williams Richard Jenkins
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	David Julyan

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.40:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes, a few joints are passed around
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     In the pre-credit sequence we are introduced to Sitterson (Richard Jenkins) and Hadley (Bradley Whitford), men who seem to be technicians in some sort of modern research facility. Then the focus shifts to five young people, athlete Curt (Chris Hemsworth), his sexy girlfriend Jules (Anna Hutchison), her friend Dana (Kristen Connolly), brainy Holden (Jesse Williams) and stoner Marty (Fran Kranz) on their way to a weekend in a cabin in the woods. But we very quickly see that the five are being watched on screens by the team led by Sitterson and Hadley, who seem also to have the ability to control the environment. In the cabin the five find some strange things, including a disturbing painting and a surveillance two way mirror, but they are there to have fun so take little notice. That evening, however, they are lured down into the cabin’s basement and the horror commences.

     The Cabin in the Woods is never quite as simple as one expects it to be. It is a horror slasher story, using many of the conventions of the genre as pretty young things in a haunted cabin go down to the basement and unleash terror, but it is also a monster movie and a sci-fi film and suggests we may be being controlled and manipulated – a bit like The Truman Show (1998) but with zombies and monsters! The film also comments on the voyeuristic nature of our society, cutting back to the watchers at the facility during quite intimate or violent moments, and is very disturbing because it suggests that we can become desensitised to violence as the technicians run a book in the facility betting on aspects of the deaths of the five.

     The Cabin in the Woods is an intriguing, multilayered mixture from co-writers Joss Whedon (the creator of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series and writer of the intelligent sci-fi action thriller Serenity (2005)) and Drew Goddard (writer on series such as Angel and Alias as well as the intriguing monster / sci-fi thriller Cloverfield (2008)). It is therefore not too surprising that The Cabin in the Woods is full of invention, ideas, surprises and mixed genres. Goddard also directed The Cabin in the Woods, his first directorial effort, while Whedon was second unit director.

     The Cabin in the Woods could have been a mess but it isn’t, although the last act does verge on getting out of hand. For most of the running time the film is clever, intelligent, funny and reverential to the genres it pays homage to. There are the scares and shocks, which work well, and the blood and gore, but it is not too gruesome or over the top. Chris Hemsworth, with high profile films such as Thor (2011), Snow White and the Huntsman (2012) and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) over the last few years, must be the hardest working Australian actor currently in Hollywood; he is good fun here but all the young people are good, with Fran Kranz making far more of the stock stoner character than expected. But I guess this could be said of the entire film: nothing is quite as expected.

     The Blu-ray release of The Cabin in the Woods has already been reviewed on this site here. I can only echo Mike’s view that The Cabin in the Woods is something quite special.

Video

     The Cabin in the Woods is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.40:1, the original ratio being 2.35:1, and is 16x9 enhanced.

     This is a good looking print, sharp with nice detail. Colours are good and natural, without too much obvious manipulation. A lot of the film takes place in darkness or in dark rooms, but blacks and shadow detail are excellent. Skin tones are natural, brightness and contrast consistent.

     The print shows slight occasional blurring with motion and some digital noise in a couple of the dark scenes, but nothing serious. Otherwise artefacts are absent.

    The layer change occurred at 37:05 during a scene change.

     There are English subtitles for the hearing impaired. At one point yellow English subtitles come on to translate a couple of lines of Japanese.

     A very good SD print without issues.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Audio is a choice of an English Dolby Digital 5.1 track at 448 Kbps or English Dolby Digital 2.0 at 224 Kbps. Also available is an English audio description for the vision impaired utilising a youngish sounding male voice.

     Dialogue was occasional unclear in the opening sections within the facility, even with the sound turned up, but nothing important would have been lost. The surrounds were frequently in use for music and ambient sounds. In the cabin sequences there is a nice enveloping feel with the surrounds adding creaking floorboards and dripping water. When the action kicks in the surrounds add a cacophony of noise including gunshots that is very effective. The sub-woofer added weight to music and effects but again came into full rumble during the last third of the film.

     The original score by David Julyan was effective, not signalling obvious scares. It was augmented by a range of rock and heavy metal songs by the likes of Iggy Pop and Nine Inch Nails. The music was well represented in the audio mix.

     Lip synchronisation is fine.

     The audio track was very good, and does what is required.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

     The following trailers play on start-up and must be skipped. They cannot be selected from the menu: Piranha 3DD (1:53), Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2:21) and Lockout (1:29).

We Are Not Who We Are: Making The Cabin in the Woods (27:23)

     This features extensive on set, behind the scenes footage plus interviews with some of the cast and crew, mainly Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon, but including the editor, 1st assistant director, executive producer, special effects make-up and costume and set designer. Of the five young people Fran Kranz has some things to say, and there is something from Anna Hutchison but not the others. Of its type this featurette is quite good and interesting.

     The Region 1 US and Region 2 UK, Dutch and German DVDs of The Cabin in the Woods all have the audio commentary by writer/director Drew Goddard and writer/producer Joss Whedon plus the range of extras that were available here in Australia only on the Blu-ray. In our Region 4 DVD we only get the making of, which is quite good, but we miss out on the commentary and everything else. The result is that all other DVD versions are to be preferred to ours.

     The Cabin in the Woods is a homage to horror slasher stories but it is also a monster movie and a sci-fi film that has something to say about the voyeuristic nature of our society. The film is clever, scary, intelligent, funny and not to be missed.

     The video and audio are very good. While the Blu-ray released here in Australia had all the extras available on the DVDs in other regions, unfortunately in Region 4 DVD we we get the making of but miss out on everything else, including the audio commentary.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall