For some reason, I really wasn’t expecting Cabin in the Woods to be anything like it turned out to be. I was expecting a group of isolated college kids to be placed in deep trouble – see The Breed or Wrong Turn or just about any other fish-out-of-water horror fayre. From the trailer, I was also actually expecting to add aliens to the mix. I really wasn’t expecting (spoiler alert from here on in….) ancient ghouls or even older gods, I certainly wasn’t expecting zombie axe murderers, or slick, manipulative, bet-placing scientists nor a world wide conspiracy to save the human race…
A collaboration between Joss Whedon and the writer of Cloverfield, the set up for “Cabin in the Woods” is really very good; you’re hooked immediately. The acting is above par for this kind of thing, the script is a decent balance of bejesus scares and funny, and the look-and-feel is consistently richly excellent. Unfortunately though, I found it devolved into something a little silly, and it lost me entirely towards the end. The only location info I can find is that some scenes shot at the Aerospace Campus of the British Columbia Institute of Technology in Vancouver. Verdict: Entertaining enough but no cigar.