Companion book to the film which features interviews, cast comments, the script, design work, and concludes with a creature feature which I feel could have been longer, but I’m guessing they wanted to leave some surprises for the film alone. Also, a warning — the print is tiny. For anyone who loves the movie, this is a kind of must have. There’s a lot here that made me want to watch the film frame by frame to catch all the detail I’m sure I’ve missed, namely the wealth of creatures. I warn anyone who hasn’t seen the film and wants to, not to look at the book first. There will be no shocks left. ( )

This is a lovely book - interviews, concept art, stills, and the script to Cabin in the Woods. I mostly got it out of sheer fannish enthusiasm - it was a smart little movie and I want to encourage everyone involved to make more smart little movies - but I'm happy to have it. I adore concept art, I like reading scripts (and this is a great script) and the interviews were particularly good. ( )

I'm a huge fan of Cabin in the Woods; I watch the last half hour about three times a week, so you can imagine how excited I was to get this book. What a disappointment. It doesn't offer any real insight into the heart and soul of the movie at all. The interviews with Goddard and Whedon were fifty or so pages of (more or less):
Did you change anything? - no
Was there anything you'd do differently? - no
Was there anything you enjoyed but had no choice but to cut? - no
Is the mermaid based on anything? - no
Thanks for all those stunning pearls, boys!

And listening to them anytime they talk about each other. Ugh! All it is, is:
Goddard: You're the best
Whedon: No, you're the best!
Goddard: No, we're the best!
All I hear is: "Me, me, me ME!"

Having a copy of the script is cool, but it's formatted weirdly. There's nothing to distinguish set/movement direction from dialogue, so you lose a bit there.

The third part of the book is the "creature feature" - it's pretty cool to see the designs behind all the prominent monsters, but what about the ones that flit by so quickly? A splash panel of all the different elevators would have been awesome and completely made this book.

Also, more information about the objects in the basement. It's mentioned how EVERY single object in the basement would have summoned a different monster, but they don't tell you what summons anything so you're stuck figuring out most of them for yourself (thankfully, quite a few are obvious: the conch, the unicorn, the music box, the dolls, the clown toys, the lament configuration, etc). This book doesn't add much of anything to the movie. ( )