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When we first heard about it, we were told that the Joss Whedon co-written horror film The Cabin in the Woods is going to be scary. We were later told that the film, which was co-written and directed by Cloverfield scribe Drew Goddard is going to be really, really scary. Now we’re being told that it’s being pushed back a year so that it can be converted to 3D.

ShockTillYouDrop talked to MGM reps, who said that the studio has decided to push the film back from its original February 5, 2010 release date to January 14, 2011. They say that the early response to the film has been phenomenal and they’d like to take six months or so and convert it to 3D.

Despite all of the red-hot buzz emanating from this project, this decision is still curious. For one, the film was not filmed in 3D, so the conversion to 3D (and subsequent delay due to lack of availability of 3D theaters) sounds like more of a risk than it might be worth. Second, if you’re going to push it back, why not move it to October and release a scary movie in the vicinity of Halloween? Instead, they will open on the four-day weekend that ends with Martin Luther King Jr. Day, where Underworld: Evolution opened to $26.8 million this past year.

The length of the delay could be tied to the availability of 3D theaters, but in checking the schedule I’m not seeing any major 3D movies releasing in the month of October 2010. The closest planned 3D release is Dreamworks’ animated film Oobermind, which hits theaters on November 5, 2010. It all just rubs me the wrong way…

What say the masses about the Cabin in the Woods release date shuffle and 3D conversion?