The Cabin in the Woods - DVD

Movie: It starts out like any typical horror slasher: along with her friends, athlete Curt (Chris Hemsworth, Thor), sexy Jules (Anna Hutchison), well-read Holden (Jesse Williams), and stoner Marty (Fran Kranz), kind-hearted Dana (Kristen Connolly) goes on a weekend vacation to a remote cabin in the woods, far from any civilization. And of course, along the way, they encounter a grim hillbilly who predicts the good-humored kids' imminent demise. And sure enough, after their first drug binge and a little sex, the first bloody murder occurs. It all seems to go exactly according to the manual for slasher movies. But in the background a completely different story is taking place, in which Dana and her friends play a central role - but in a completely different way than they first believe...

Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon (The Avengers), who have already worked together on Whedon's TV series Buffy and Angel, deliver with the script for The Cabin in the Woods the perfect proof that you can still get new and surprising sides from the worn-out horror genre. Goddard, who delivers his more than successful directorial debut, plays with all the clichés of the subject in a wonderful way, so that the viewer is always lured on the wrong track. There will hardly be a viewer who can guess at the beginning where the journey will lead to in the end. And that's exactly the reason why you should avoid to find out too much about the story and the numerous plot twists in advance. Because the film thrives on its moments of surprise, unexpected gags and even more unexpected moments of shock. This gives The Cabin in the Woods an extremely high fun factor that would be a real disservice to spoil.

Often the film is compared to Wes Craven's Scream, which was also considered a revolution in the horror genre at the time. As obvious as the comparison may be, although both films ultimately go in very different directions, it can be rightly doubted that The Cabin in the Woods will have as lasting an effect on the genre as Scream did. This is truly not due to the quality of the film. Rather, it's the fact that Scream, as a concept, was much easier to copy and apply to other films than The Cabin in the Woods is likely to be. Sequels or copies would hardly work, if at all, due to the very particular nature of the plot twists. While there are definitely some moments, especially in the last third, and a very special factor within the story that would make a sequel, spin-off, or most likely a prequel possible. And yet, the film works so well precisely because it tells a self-contained story that works because of its very special originality - even on multiple viewings.

The wonderful interaction between Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford, about whose roles nothing more will be revealed here, of course, the mixture of loving play with genre clichés and with the expectations of the audience, bitter sarcasm, amusing wordplay (who knows Whedon's previous works, especially in the original English version) and bloody effects of a particularly over-the-top kind make The Cabin in the Woods the best, most original and most amusing horror film since Tucker and Dale vs. Evil. It's a real surprise that's just plain fun from the first minute to the last. And for that then we give it a: Absolutely worth seeing!!

Picture + Sound: Technically, the DVD conversion is on a good to very good level. The picture is very clean and the tuning of the black levels and the contrasts ensures a good recognizability of the action even in the darker scenes. The colouring is atmospheric and is particularly convincing towards the finale with very powerful red tones. The sound is still a bit leisurely at the beginning and is mainly determined by the dialogues and the music in the first minutes. But when the events escalate in the cabin in the woods, good sound effects always provide a lot of movement in the surround. Good!

Extras: The DVD comes up with plenty of bonus material. It starts with a on the cover not announced, very amusing and informative audio commentary by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard. It's just fun to listen to the good-humored conversation between the two men. Especially Whedon understands it as always first-class, also factual information with high entertainment value and also a little self-irony to convey. Unfortunately, there are no German subtitles to the commentary, which is why only fans with a good knowledge of English can enjoy this nice extra.

Continue with just under 90 minutes of video extras. Besides a worth seeing Making of (approx. 27 min.), which allows an entertaining look behind the scenes, there are two short documentaries about the visual effects (approx. 18 min.), as well as about the make-up and the animatronic effects (approx. 11 min.). Afterwards Fran Kranz talks about his role as a stoner (approx. 7 min.) and Joss Whedon leads us through parts of the set in an amusing featurette (approx. 5 min.). Finally, there is an extensive Q&A with Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard (approx. 30 min.), to which, unlike the other video extras, there are unfortunately no German subtitles. The trailer for the film rounds out the extensive and very entertaining bonus package. Very good!

Conclusion: The Cabin in the Woods is an original, amusing and surprising horror film, which plays in a quite wonderful way with the clichés of the genre and the expectations of the audience and skillfully mixes humor and disgusting effects to an entertaining whole. The DVD presents the film in good technical realization and also has a lot of worth seeing extras on board. For this there is of course only one possible conclusion: Absolutely recommendable!!!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp