The Cabin in the Woods – 4K UHD Blu-ray Movie Review

A rambunctious group of five college friends steal away for a weekend of debauchery in an isolated country cabin, only to be attacked by horrific supernatural creatures in a night of endless terror and bloodshed. Sound familiar? Just wait. As the teens begin to exhibit standard horror movie behavior, a group of technicians in a control room are scrutinizing, and sometimes even controlling, every move the terrified kids make! With their efforts continually thwarted, do they have any chance of escape?

What an unexpected surprise! This film starts out as your usual college kids going away for the weekend to a cabin with the usual horror tropes, but quickly diverts into a sci-fi horror show that leaves you guessing what Whedon has in store for you next. It is also a clever homage to lots of other horror movies, all the while throwing in generous amounts of humor and gallons of gore. The film makers also chose to do most of the effects and make-up with practical effects and not tons of CGI. This lends to an organic feel to the monsters that makes the film even more fun. Just about every monster you can think of (well, maybe NOT Godzilla) make an appearance during the movie.

I saw this film a few years ago when it first came out and I can’t believe I did not review it then. If you love horror movies or Josh Whedon films (like Firefly), you will find this fiendishly delightful spin on haunted cabins and spooky woods. I promise you that you will be surprised. This is not a movie that goes where others have gone before. And that’s a great thing! Highly rcommended.

This is the first movie I have gotten that included Dolby Vision. My UHDTV does DV, but my current player does only HDR10. Good grief, it’s already time for another upgrade! In any case, the HDR looks good for the most part. Some of the darker (basement) scenes are a bit murky and some of the white highlights blown out, but in general, the colors pop and look very good…especially the blood and gore. Compared to BD version, the details are better, but only marginally so. The sound is very good with sounds in all speakers almost continuously, whether night sounds, lab equipment or screams and gun fire. Lots of bass will keep you sub wide awake, too. I’ll have to revisit this film when I get a DV capable player later this fall.

All of these are in HD: Audio commentaries, We are not who who we are: Making Of featurette, Army of Nightmares: Make up and Effects, Primal Terror: featurette, The Secret Stash: featurette, WonderCon Q&A. The features that show how the effects were made are pure gold and absolutely amazing.