The Cabin in the Woods

Cabin in the Woods. Chris Hemsworth starring again. An MGM production again. You know the drill here.

Last year I actually visited the post-production offices of Cabin in the Woods and had a long sitdown with director Drew Goddard. He showed me about twenty minutes of the film, and showed me some very awesome monster designs. I suppose I’m still under embargo on the specifics of that visit, despite the fact that everyone involved at MGM has now moved on and I don’t even know if there’s a company there anymore, so I’ll just say that everything I saw that day was kind of great and pointed to a movie that could exceed its low budget boundaries. The film plays with the idea of kids visiting a scary cabin in the woods and unleashing an ancient evil, but it does it in a way that feels very unique and fun and knowing. I had already read Godard and Joss Whedon’s script and liked that, but what Goddard had done visually with the material was pretty cool.

The film was supposed to already be out, with a February 2010 release. But in October of 2009 MGM decided to hold the film back and post-convert it to 3D, moving the release date to 2011. The rest, as they say, is history. Cabin could have technically come out in February if the original release had held, although I don’t know that MGM could have afforded to open that and Hot Tub Time Machine. Then again, Cabin probably would have done better than Hot Tub Time Machine (which I quite liked).

Now the movie sits in limbo. I’m not even sure if it’s still being post-converted. A couple of weeks ago Goddard sent me a very cool Cabin in the Woods t-shirt (pictured above); in a better world you’d be able to get one at Comic Con, but it doesn’t look like the movie is coming to the convention this year. Goddard must be very frustrated, sitting on an incredibly cool movie that all but begs for a line of licensed monster figures and that is set up in a way to encourage endless fanfiction and involvement. I don’t know that Cabin is a franchise starter, but it’s definitely a cult builder. If anybody ever gets to see it, that is.