The Cabin in the Woods is a 2011 science fiction horror comedy film directed by Drew Goddard in his directorial debut, produced by Joss Whedon, and written by Whedon and Goddard. It stars Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, and Bradley Whitford. The plot follows a group of college students who retreat to a remote forest cabin where they fall victim to a variety of monsters while technicians manipulate events from an underground facility.
Goddard and Whedon, having worked together previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, wrote the screenplay in three days, describing it as an attempt to "revitalize" the slasher film genre and as a critical satire on torture porn. The special effects, monster costumes, special makeup, and prosthetic makeup for the film were done by AFX Studio. Filming took place in Vancouver, British Columbia from March to May 2009 on an estimated budget of $30 million.
The film was originally slated for release on October 23, 2009 and February 5, 2010, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and United Artists, but was indefinitely shelved due to financial difficulties. In 2011, Lionsgate picked up the distribution rights. The film premiered in December 2011 at the Butt-Numb-A-Thon film festival in Austin, Texas and was released in the United States on April 13, 2012, grossing over $66 million worldwide. It received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its screenplay, tone, and performances.
Plot[]
In an underground laboratory, engineers Gary Sitterson and Steve Hadley discuss plans for a mysterious ritual, after a similar operation in Stockholm has just ended in failure.
American college students Dana Polk, Jules Louden, Curt Vaughan, Holden McCrea, and Marty Mikalski are spending their weekend at Curt's cousin's cabin in the forest. From the lab, Sitterson and Hadley remotely control the cabin and manipulate the students by intoxicating them with mind-altering drugs that have effects such as hindering rational thinking and increasing libido. The lab departments take bets on what kind of monster will attack the students and discuss the failures of international operations. In the cabin's cellar, the group finds bizarre objects, including the diary of Patience Buckner, a cabin resident abused by her sadistic family. Dana recites incantations from the diary and inadvertently summons the zombified Buckner family.
Hadley releases pheromones to induce Curt and Jules to have sex outside. They are attacked by the zombies and Jules is decapitated while Curt escapes. Marty discovers concealed surveillance equipment in his room before being dragged off by a zombie and presumably killed. The lab workers learn that the rite in Japan has also failed, meaning that the American rite is "humanity's last hope". Curt, Holden, and Dana attempt to escape in their RV, but Sitterson triggers a tunnel collapse to block them. Curt attempts to jump a ravine on his motorcycle to seek help on the other side, but crashes into a force field and falls to his death. Holden and Dana realize that their experience is staged and controlled. As they try to escape in the RV, Holden is killed by a zombie, and Dana is attacked once the RV crashes into the lake.
The lab employees, seeing that Dana is the only survivor, celebrate the success of the rite, but are interrupted by a phone call from "The Director", revealing that Marty is still alive. Marty saves Dana and takes her to a hidden elevator he discovered. They descend into the lab and discover a large collection of different monsters locked in cages. Dana correlates them with the objects in the cabin's cellar and realizes that the objects determine which monsters are released. Cornered by security personnel, the pair release all the monsters, which wreak havoc and slaughter the staff; Hadley is killed by a merman while Dana accidentally stabs Sitterson, who bleeds to death.
Dana and Marty flee and discover an ancient temple, where they are confronted by The Director. She explains that worldwide annual rituals of human sacrifice are held to appease the Ancient Ones, a group of cruel subterranean deities. Each region has its own ritual, and the American ritual involves the sacrifice of five slasher film archetypes: the whore (Jules), the athlete (Curt), the scholar (Holden), the fool (Marty), and the virgin (Dana). The order of the killings is arbitrary as long as the whore dies first and the virgin dies last or survives. The Director urges Dana to kill Marty to complete the ritual and spare humanity, as all other rituals had failed that year. Dana is about to but is attacked by a werewolf, while Patience kills The Director; Marty proceeds to kill all except Dana.
Deciding that humanity is not worth saving at the price of human sacrifices, Dana apologizes to Marty for almost killing him and the two share a joint while awaiting their fate. The temple floor collapses and a giant hand emerges from the ground, destroying the facility and the cabin as the world ends.