Directed by: Drew Goddard
Starring: Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Jesse Williams, Kristen Connolly
MPAA Rating: R
Distributed by: Lions Gate
Release Date: September 18, 2012
Running Time: 94 minutes
Film: 4 out of 5 stars
Extras: 4 out of 5 stars
“The Cabin in the Woods” is one of the most original ideas for a film that I have seen in a long time. With a world of all remake and sequels, this is rare thing in Hollywood. The film was created by Drew Goddard (“Cloverfield”) and Joss Whedon (“The Avengers”). It is also a very large genre cross ranging for laugh-out-loud comedy to some sick-ass horror. The story focuses on a group of students (Kristen Connolly; Chris Hemsworth; Anna Hutchison; Fran Kranz and Jesse Williams) whole nice vacation at a secluded mountain cabin suddenly turns into a brutal fight for survival. There is so many levels to this film that I feel that even after watching it a few times, there is still so much you can miss. As I am surely not the only one this film leaves the options wide open for future installments, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. What I liked most about this film is that Drew and Joss are just big fans of themselves and they just aimed to deliver a fun and unique film. You will not be disappointing.
The Blu-ray presentation is very impressive and really delivers on all accounts. Lionsgate also released this film as a combo pack, so you get a Blu-ray disc of the film and also a digital copy. With the digital copy, you are able to choose between iTunes download or an Ultraviolet digital streaming copy. The latter is easily the smarter choice of the two. The 1080p transfer looks absolutely amazing especially during the last 30 minutes. It is also presented its 2.39:1 original aspect ratio. The main star of this film is a truly amazing 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track. When things get crazy in this film, that track really gets a nice work out.
The special features are just as impressive as the film is and does not disappoint for its fans.
There is an awesome audio commentary with writer/director Drew Goddard and writer/producer Joss Whedon, fans of the film are going to slow this! There is an really in-depth and informative behind-the-scenes documentary called “We Are Not Who We Are: Making The Cabin in the Woods”. There is a two-part featurette called “The Secret Secret Stash”, including “Marty’s Stash” and “Hi, My Name is Joss, and I’ll Be Your Guide”. Great stuff here! There is also two more Behind-the-scenes featurettes including “An Army of Nightmares: Make-Up & Animatronic Effects” and “Primal Terror: Visual Effects”, both of these are easily my favorite extras. You can also catch the fun “Wonder-Con Q&A with Joss and Drew”. Lastly there is a BLu-ray exclusive extra, which is the icing on the cake, called “It’s Not What You Think: The Cabin in the Woods Bonus View Mode”, I am going to leave that one as a surprise because it is AWE….SOME!!!
