The Cabin in the Woods: The Official Movie Novelization

by Tim Lebbon

YOU THINK YOU KNOW THE STORY

Five friends go to a remote
cabin in the woods.
Bad things happen.
If you think you know the story,
think again.

Official Movie Novelization.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Zombies, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Humor, Thriller

297 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 5, 2011

About the author

I love writing, reading, triathlon, real ale, chocolate, good movies, occasional bad movies, and cake.

I was born in London in 1969, lived in Devon until I was eight, and the next twenty years were spent in Newport. My wife Tracey and I then did a Good Thing and moved back to the country, and we now live in the little village of Goytre in Monmouthshire with our kids Ellie and Daniel. And our dog, Blu, who is the size of a donkey.

I love the countryside ... I do a lot of running and cycling, and live in the best part of the world for that.

I've had loads of books published in the UK, USA, and around the world, including novels, novellas, and collections. I write horror, fantasy, and now thrillers, and I've been writing as a living for over 8 years. I've won quite a few awards for my original fiction, and I've also written tie-in projects for Star Wars, Alien, Hellboy, The Cabin in the Woods, and 30 Days of Night.

A movie's just been made of my short story Pay the Ghost, starring Nicolas Cage and Sarah Wayne Callies. There are other projects in development, too.

I'd love to hear from you!

Reviews

[Lynn Dubinsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Warning : This isn't really a review, just a whole bunch of movie gifs and such.

My love for this movie might just have something to do with me rating this book so high. I mean come on, the movie is so fucking good. How can you not like a movie that has:


scary ass monsters








killer unicorns



redneck zombies!



some sexy dancing





1 fucking hot fool







Fuck that man is beautiful ^_____^



Don't mind me drooling....


And don't forget evil gods!!



Seriously, it feels like this movie was made for ME. It has basically everything I love.

It's not just another horror movie where five friends go into the woods and are killed one by one. It's so much more than that.

This is probably one of my favorite movie novelizations ever. It's just like the movie, but I love how you get more background on all the characters and more info about the gods. Also I FUCKING LOVE the fact that we officially know that Marty felt something towards Dana. When I first watched the movie I honestly thought they were supposed to be together, not Holden and Dana. I hate Holden. In the book he seemed more like a perv. >< Dana and Marty are so cute together though! Their parts were my favorite in the book. Especially the passages where you are in Marty's head and you find out he has feelings for Dana. :D SQEEEEEEEE!!!!! Sorry...I guess I'm slightly obsessed with those two together. If I directed the movie I would have had Marty confess how he feels about her at the end and have them kiss or something. That's just me though.

I wasn't going to add this to my favorites shelf due to the fact that I love the movie and all, but fuck it. I'm 100% sure I would have added this to that shelf even if I didn't watch the movie. Sure, the writing isn't the greatest but I was so invested in the story that I DID NOT CARE. :D


I recommend this to anyone who has seen the movie and loved it just as much as I did. As a matter of fact, I'm going to stop typing nonsense and watch the movie again. ;)



OK I'm done, I promise....

[Amanda McGill · Rating 1 out of 5]

I picked this book up from an used book sale and read the back:

Five friends go to a remote cabin in the woods.
Bad things happen.
If you think you know the story, think again.

Sounds interesting. I'm always up for a good mystery that has a twist ending. I should of read the Movie to Novelization part. This was a horror movie starring Chris Hemsworth and Jesse Williams that was rewritten as a novel.

This was not the novel for me. Yes, 5 friends do go to a cabin in the woods, but then they get attacked by zombies and there are technicians controlling the events and placing bets on everything that happens. It was weird and sadly not the mystery I was expecting.

Maybe watch the movie if you are into this sort of thing?

[✟Roxanne✟(Death by Book Avalanche) ☠ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I watched the film quite a while ago and must say that I don't remember a great deal about it, just that it was weird, wacky, out there and pretty difficult to follow. I had no idea there was a book, so when I found it at the library I followed my faith that the book is always better than the film and decided to borrow it. Now, I really enjoyed this! Straight after I finished the book the film was on TV (weird...I had no idea) so I compared. Others may find it weird as the film and book are pretty much the same but I enjoyed the book so much more, I connected to the characters more and I found it easier to follow. At first glance this may seem like your average 'been done before' horror novel but that's far from the truth....this is original. Although a little slow to start it soon picked up to a nice fast pace with twists and turns and plenty of gore! It's not the best horror I've read but I still enjoyed it very much. There's just one thing I do have to mention and it's totally my own personal feelings but I have minor OCD and so the constant ending of sentences in the middle made me have twitchy face. I know the incomplete sentences were used for effect but it just didn't work for me, I like my sentences completed more often than not and it just happened too many times that it started to affect my enjoyment. Apart from that this is a really good horror novel and I would recommend it to all horror fans.

[clumsyplankton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really really liked this

[Tasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this one in order to discuss it on a podcast. (It was a great deep-dive conversation, with a ton to say about how the movie, novelization, and script all differ from each other.) It was an interesting read — very close to the movie in most regards, but with a few small bits that were in the screenplay and not in the movie, and with a visible attempt (familiar from other movie novelizations) to fill out the characters while not adding any dialogue. Unfortunately, the filling-out process turned Sitterson (the Robert Jenkins character) into a raging sexist, and Hadley (the Bradley Whitford character) into a racist. That isn't my interpretation — Sitterson (who narrates all the puppeteer segments, with Hadley relegated to just a background character) literally muses about what a sexist he is, and what a racist Hadley is.

This manifests throughout the book via Sitterson spending a LOT of time thinking about how "all women are mad" and holding them in contempt, while also ogling every woman he sees and thinking in detail about wanting to fuck them, especially Lin, the Chem head played in the movie by Amy Acker. (He also spends a fair bit of time focusing on her tight hair bun, which he thinks is so severe that styling her hair probably requires machine assistance.) Through Sitterson's ogling, we find out that Dana (Kristen Connolly) has shaved pubes, which "doesn't do it" for Sitterson, but he notes that Hadley really does like "baldies." I didn't need to know any of this.

Overall, it's a functional novelization. There are some poetic bits, usually built around violence and death. But it's nowhere near as satisfying, entertaining, funny, or scary as the movie.

[Wendy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I remember liking the movie quite a bit. The twists and plays on horror movie tropes were fun and I picked up the novelization because I’d hoped to get to explore it in more detail.

Now I figure if I were a character, the audience would be shouting at my poor, poor decision.

This turned out to be a hate read. I’m happy I completed it so I can pan it with knowledge.

It begins with gross casual sexism and a solid thread of racism. It was off-putting, for sure, but I told myself it was probably just the POV character. Alas, the sexism/objectification continued in the narrative voice and it was cringeworthy. Because it was embedded in there I couldn’t read it as critique or satire.

I’m a longtime horror fan so I know there’s plenty of that sort of thing in the genre. At the same time, UGH. I mean, I guess this surfacing in a Joss Wheedon project shouldn’t surprise me either. It still bugged.

Anyway, I don’t think this added anything of substance to the story, and made me like the movie a whole lot less. FAIL.

[Craig "NEEDS MORE DAMN TIME TO READ !!!!" · Rating 4 out of 5]

After some initial trepidation I quite enjoyed this book. Trepidation because I found the characters annoying haha. I liked how it kept you guessing...was it a slasher movie type book? Backwoods horror? Zombie horror? Well, I suppose all of the above to some degree but it was a whole lot more, some interesting revelations and twists! The payoff at the end was great. I did watch the first 40 minutes or so of the movie in tandem with reading but now I look forward to watching the rest :)

[Patrick Kiernan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Went to see the movie in the cinema loved it and I'm just finished reading this it's a great read.

[Dez Nemec · Rating 3 out of 5]

Never saw the movie, but this was pretty good. Much more of a story line than I thought there would be.

[Jaimie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best horror novel I've read in forever!

I've been looking forward to this movie for way over a year now and when I heard there was a novelization, I knew I just had to read it. And I was not disappointed. At first when I heard about The Cabin in the Woods I thought, yeah, okay. Teens going into the woods and getting hacked up by some killer. I'm sure that's what a lot of people thought. But fuck, everyone was far from the truth!

This is one of the most fucked up and crazy books I've read! I thought Slice of Cherry by Dia Reeves was messed up but this definitely took the cake. The deaths were gory, the "things" - as I'll call them - were terrifying and the characters were awesome! Dana and Marty being my favourites.

I've still to the see the movie, but after reading this I know it's going to be awesome. And it seems like it is. Critics are praising this movie and the rating on IMDb is high. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing it.

P.S.

If you wanna see the movie, or have already seen it, read the book. It's a lot of fun. :)

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's an all-too-familiar story: five friends - the jock, the slut, the nice girl, the brain, and the clown - go for vacation to a cabin in the Middle of Nowhere, and then...well, you know. Only in this case, you don't. This one's different. Really. No, I can't tell you why. Only that there's much more beneath the surface.

I don't normally read movie novelizations but this one's by Tim Lebbon, one of the current greats, and though I've been very excited to see the film I don't know when I'll get to it. It's a real page-turner. Since I haven't seen the film, I can't say how close the novel is, but I wonder if they went with a different... but no, I can't say anything about that, either. Just read it. It turns every horror movie cliche on its head, and horror movie fans will have fun spotting references to other movies.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was a fun read, but there were some things that could have been tweaked. You could tell the author was from the UK, Americans don't usually say things like windscreen and torch. There were some missed opportunities when it came to the POV changes. Like, why would he write Dana watching her friends explore the basement? There should have been quick paragraphs from the differing POVs.

I wonder what they would have had to use to summon the vagina dentata woman.

[Makayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a 5/5 movie though and should have just stayed a movie.

[Ari Damoulakis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh, maybe my fault in a way, but there was no indication this book had supernatural crap.

[Darren Hayes]

Cabin In the Woods

I recently took the time to read the movie novelization of the same tilted film which was written by best selling author Tim Lebbon. Of course as a movie this was advertised as something new and something fresh. The book also takes this approach with little detail of what the book is about on the rear cover. Which is always refreshing to see something want to do something different especially when this item has something to do with the one and only Joss Whedon.

This novel starts like your typical horror movie/novel. Your basic cast over all you figure you know who is going to get it and who is going to make it out alive and that the plot line is pretty much them just getting killed off. Then you have the other characters who are mysterious who are a big seceret to where the book is going.

The book jumps back and forth between the two sets of characters. The more intriguing and mysterious of the two are the second set that are not found in your typical horror setting. This book pretty much gives you to options. You can cheer on the cliché characters that seem to be in every horror flick or you can cheer on the side characters and the evil that they seem to release to torment the kids in the cabin.

Yes this all sounds like just another typical horror story in the making but it does actually have a uniqueness to it. I have not seen the movie version so I can not compare the two. I will admit there was one point where I wanted to give up on the novel because it became just too much for me. In the end I did complete it. I am sure the movie version is toned down in the part I speak of. In the end it was an interesting read and a much more adult driven story in the Joss Whedon universe.

[Cindy · Rating 1 out of 5]

While this is a faithful adaptation of the film and provided us with some additional insight into some of the characters, overall it was disappointing. The pacing is much too slow with the result that much of the humor & horror of the screen doesn't translate to the page. It's also (at least the nook edition) riddled with typos and poorly attributed dialogue that threw me right out of the story. The final straw for me was when "Judah" suddenly became "Jonah." There's no excuse for that lack of/poor quality of editing. I loved the film and have enjoyed other books by the author and was expecting much better, even for a media tie-in. Do yourself a favor--watch the movie and give the book a pass.

[Nina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tajusin muutaman kymmenen sivun jälkeen, että tämän on kirjoittanut se sama Tim Lebbon, jonka kirjoittamaa Star Warsia tällä hetkellä myös luen. Ja harmikseni totean, ettei Lebbon ole mielestäni kyllä kauhean hyvä kirjoittamaan.

The Cabin in the Woods on yksi suosikkikauhujani sen satiiriuden ja arkkityyppien kustannuksella pilailevan luonteen vuoksi. Vaikka tämä novelisaatio on kirjoitettu käsikirjoituksen pohjalta, kirjana se ei vain toiminut kamalan hyvin. Lebbon yliselittää asioita, erityisesti vitsejä ja komiikkaa, niin pitkälle, että ne menettävät niiden huumorin ja muuttuvat vain kuiviksi ja kankeiksi. Lisäksi hahmot olivat vähän huonosti esiteltyjä, eikä heidän käytöstään tässä selitetty kauhean hyvin.

En usko, että luen enempää Tim Lebbonin tuotantoa.

[Bradley Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Plot
Five college students travel to a remote cabin for a weekend getaway, only to find themselves caught in a sinister, pre-planned scenario controlled by a shadowy organization.


Review
it's not bad I do like the characters particularly Dana, the acton is decent I just sometimes get confused you ever have that feeling when you are reading a certain part and you get confused on what's happening and maybe it's because I haven't seen the movie in a long time but again it's not bad I have don't think it's great


Conclusion
Like I said it's not bad I do like the characters and the acton is decent I just think it gets confusing sometimes that I can't follow overall not bad but not great either.

[Lindsay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two stars seems really low, but "it was okay" about sums up my feelings on it. It's really just the movie, more or less. I was curious if this would lend any more insight or depth into it. It doesn't. It's not bad, but if you seen the movie you're covered.

[SilentEvilCry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the movie, so ultimately I love the book. They are the same. I was hoping for a bit more... I had heard there were at least more creatures and creature descriptions, but I'm not sure that's really true. I remember most of them from the movie and the book doesn't even mention the giant tarantula. 😢 However it was still written well, I still enjoyed it, but yeah definitely nothing new, which is my only read for not giving 5 stars. Still a great story for fans of horror.

[Tamarra Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was scary and was interesting to read at the same time. And also i was excited to read the book because i had saw the movie and it had took me back to when i did see the movie. That's why i said that i was scary. But other then that i will be reading this book again if i have a chance to get the book from the library again.

[Ash · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this film, so even though I knew what was going to happen I still enjoyed this novelisation of Cabin In The Woods!

[Sandra (youmaysayimareader) · Rating 4 out of 5]

For other reviews and bookish things go to http://youmaysayimareader.blogspot.com


3.75/5

"An army of nightmares, huh? Let's get this party started."

This book was a reread for me and I've seen the movie more times that I'm comfortable acknowledging so I knew where I was getting into.

But... I don't know. The first time I read it I gave it five stars on Goodreads. Ok, maybe it was more like a 4.75, but the thing is that I really liked it.

So what happened this time? Maybe my love for the movie clouded my judgement that first time and now I've been more critical.

"Ok, I'm drawing a line in the fucking sand here. Do not read the Latin!"

The book is pretty much exactly the same as the movie. The plot, the funny quotes, the amazing killing unicorns... But one thing it's a little bit different: we read what the characters are thinking, and it's not that interesting.

I understand they're horror movie stereotypes, but we only get that, we don't get the progression from normal people to the caricature characters in a horror movie, that's what we should've gotten, in my opinion.

"It was the pioneer days; people had to make their own interrogation rooms. Out of cornmeal."

In the movie I didn't feel that way, I understood that these people were changing every passing second, that the dudes in the office and everybody that worked in that secret company were manipulating these fools.

In the book Jules seems stupid from the beginning, even though she's pre-med. Curt, who is a sociology major, thinks like a over-sexualized dick. And Sitterson it's just creepy, I don't remember him being that creepy in the movie.

"We are not who we are... I'm gonna go read a book with pictures."

Anyway, it's a quick and fun book that maybe couldn't be perfectly adapted because the movie is really visual and that's pretty difficult to translate into a book. Who knows?

If the only good things about a book are the ones that the movie already gave you and nothing else, well... We have a problem.

"I'm sorry I let you get attacked by a werewolf and then ended the world."

For all the normal folk out there I would tell you that is probably better that you just watch the movie.

For the horror / Joss Whedon / The Cabin in the Woods: The Official Movie Novelization obssessive nerds like me... I'm not gonna say anything to you 'cause you're probably reading the book already.

"Cleanse them. Cleanse the world of their ignorance and sin. Bathe them in the crimson of... Am I on speakerphone?"

S.

[C. Chambers · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is fine. And I find that so disappointing.
The movie is incredible and groundbreaking, yielding a love that I spell with a capital 'L'. It's so great.

And this? It's just... fine.

Almost worth 1 star, but bumped up due to my appreciation of the source material.

[B.G.M. Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

A tough book to review: on the one hand, I enjoyed reading it; on the other, I can't think of anyone I'd recommend it to.
Writers of novelizations have a tough job: they need to be faithful to the film, not skip too much or add too much that isn't needed, while accepting that there's a limited market for horrow novelizations [I still own a copy of the combined noveliztion of "A Nightmare On Elm Street Parts 4 & 5" - I suspect few others do].
The movie of Cabin in the Woods seemed to divide audiences, who either loved the mix of a horror movie with a deconstruction of the genre and typical Whedon/Goddard/Buffyesque dialog, or came out confused by the juxtaposition(plus a lot of WTF reactions to the ending!).
Because I spotted it on a library shelf at just the right time, I actually read the book the same week I re-watched the film on blu-ray. The book is faithful, reproducing the film's plot and dialog, while giving us a little more background into what the characters (especially in the control room) are thinking.
But, if you like this sort of thing, just go ahead and watch the movie. There's no point reading the book first and spoiling the impact of the movie, but after you've seen the movie you'll wonder why you should bother with the book.
Having said that, I'm interested enough to check out some of Lebbon's non-novelization books.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars out of 5
I loved this movie, it is in fact one of my all time favorites. So instead of delving into the sheer genius of the movie, I will stick to the book. I knew the second I saw it at B&N that I had to read it. The novelization is true to the movie as you'd expect, reflecting its success. I was hoping for a closer look at the monsters, but instead was surprised by getting to know each character intimately. The book is brutal. I found myself unnerved by the violence, not because it was disgusting, but because I found myself caring more for the characters than I thought I would. I felt strange because I was hearing the character's thoughts, hopes, and fears, while objectifying and dehumanizing them in the contrasting Control Room sections of the book. Even though I knew how everything would play out I worried about the terrible fate awaiting each character because their happiness mattered to me. The book is well written, I underlined a lot. The writing style is casual and disarming, enabling it to sucker punch you in the gut. The Cabin in the Woods is the horror genre.

[Taksya · Rating 2 out of 5]

Novellizzazione del film omonimo, un horror tradizionale ma completamente fuori dagli schemi, creato da Joss Buffy Whedon e Drew Cloverfield Goddard.
Mescolando tracce tipiche dell'horror (la casa nel bosco, il gruppo di amici destinati al massacro, il mostro inarrestabile, la final girl), con richiami e riferimenti a un metatesto mitologico oscuro e citazioni a nomina un mostro... c'è il suo clone (così non si infrangono i diritti di nessuno), il film riprende quel filone inaugurato da Scream e lo rinnova quanto basta.
Il libro non offre nulla di più, riducendo l'impatto visivo che è uno dei punti di forza della storia.
L'approfondimento dei personaggi si limita a varie riflessioni che ognuno di loro fa quando gli tocca il turno. Non ci sono dettagli o descrizioni e non ci sono più spiegazioni rispetto a quelle presenti nel film. Se si arriva al romanzo dopo averlo visto, automaticamente si sovrappongono le immagini alle parole.
Tutto è identico, dialoghi e descrizioni, se proprio volete guardate il film.

[JasonA · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't usually read movie novelizations, but figured I'd give this one a shot since I liked the movie and I've liked everything that I've read by Tim Lebbon. It's about what you figured: if you liked the movie, you'll like the novel. If you don't, then you won't. You get a little bit more on the background on what the characters are thinking and there's a scene that wasn't in the movie with Kevin (from the board of monsters). I watched the movie again after finishing the book and they follow each other pretty closely. The biggest perk of the book is that you get a better feeling for who Holden and Sitterson are. Sitterson gets plenty of screen time in the movie, but Holden kind of feels rushed in the movie version and the book gives him a lot better character development.

[Bryan D · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a kid I collected tie-in novels because they were a fun way to get into reading, I could re-live the film whilst waiting for the video tape to grace the Irish stores (This was in the 80's) and sometimes you'd get extra stuff not featured in the film.
And then there are the exception to the rule when the book was well written, compulsive reading and just a joyous experience; I could bore you with a list of those that fall into this category but I'll save you the Arnold Rimmer rant and just say this novel is a perfect horror book; short, sadistic and really funny, great monsters, deaths and all the juicy stuff that makes horror books serious fun.

[Maryellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the movie and was looking for the chance to "see" the story again and also maybe get a little further into the characters. There are no big surprises, but there's a bit more character development and a little bit more philosophy. One disappointment is that the cellar scene wasn't explored in any greater detail - I wished I would've learned more about what items linked to what horrors!