A tip for watching the film, to prevent disappointment.

Rating: 3/10 (27 March 2012)

Firstly - this was one film I was really looking forward to having been hyped up on the Harry Knowles site. It tried to be Sam Raimi, it tried to be Hostel, but it failed on all counts because it couldn't settle on any particular tone.
At the beginning, a juxtaposition between a corporate office environment and a retro horror film vibe with the cabin feels a bit like the seventies movie WestWorld. But whilst WestWorld took itself seriously and had an eerie, gritty vibe (thanks to Michael Crichton), Cabin in the Woods tries too eagerly to please with lame humour, whilst still trying to take itself seriously. This is where it tries to emulate Sam Raimi, and fails miserably, because its neither funny nor scary.
The Cabin segments evolve from goofy/silly into (trying to be) scary. The corporate segments evolve from serious, into goofy and silly. Because of this, you have no idea what to think or feel whilst watching these tones shift. It just feels messy, there is no solid frame of reference. I appreciate this may have been on purpose, to keep the audience on its toes, but it doesn't work at all. You end up just not caring about either segment, because you don't know what to trust. You're just waiting for the "big reveal".
The reason for the juxtaposition for these two opposite environments gives the film its intrigue, you spend all your time trying to figure out the motive. I kept waiting for another meta-level of irony and satire to emerge. Perhaps the control room is funded by Hollywood, and this is how all the lame horror movies really get made? No such luck.
One tip for watching the film - keep yourself firmly in a Sam Raimi frame of mind, a la "Drag Me To Hell" so you know not to get too "off track" with your predictions. The film descends into complete silliness by the end, and if you were falsely lulled into a "Hostel" or "WestWorld" vibe then you'll be sorely disappointed.
Another thing worth mentioning - the score of this film was by David Julyan, who scored The Descent and Eden Lake. All three movies capture similar vibes with the very similar scores by Julyan (and wide angle shots of cars driving into woods). His score here was far too similar to those films - but what a difficult film to score, having to jump from eerie to silly/goofy at the drop of a hat. Julyan was definitely a wrong choice.