The Cabin in the Woods



""On another level it’s a serious critique of what we love and what we don’t about horror movies. I love being scared. I love that mixture of thrill, of horror, that objectification/identification thing of wanting definitely for the people to be alright but at the same time hoping they’ll go somewhere dark and face something awful. The things that I don’t like are kids acting like idiots, the devolution of the horror movie into Torture Porn and into a long series of sadistic comeuppances. Drew and I both felt that the pendulum had swung a little too far in that direction.""

- Joss Whedon

Five friends go to an isolated cabin in the woods for a weekend vacation. What could possibly go wrong?

The Cabin in the Woods, a 2012 horror movie, sets itself apart from other horror movies by virtue of its co-writers (Joss Whedon and Cloverfield writer Drew Goddard, who also directed this film) -- and by deconstructing both the cabin in the woods setting and horror movies in general. The film stars Chris Hemsworth, Fran Kranz, Kristen Connolly, Anna Hutchison, Jesse Williams, Amy Acker, Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford.

Feel free to watch the trailer, but know that it spoils the film a bit.

As a note: we can't really get into the tropes without spoiling damn near the entire film. We've tagged spoilers as normally as possible, but honestly, reading past this paragraph will blow most of the movie's surprise, since we can only preserve the real punch of the film with an entire page of white. (We placed really spoileriffic tropes behind their own special folder, just in case.) Anyone who wants to see the movie fresh should go watch the movie first instead of reading about it here.

"Safe" tropes
"Mordecai: "You sassin' me, boy?" Marty: "You were rude to my friend.""
 * Actor Allusion: The uncredited, but extremely memorable One-Scene Wonder as the secretive, feared Director of . Which accurately describes the same performer's role as the "Big Guy" of the movie, which was released earlier but filmed later.
 * All Men Are Perverts: When Jules and Curt go off to fool around in the forest, . They only leave (with plenty of "Awww"s of disappointment) when Hadley shoos them out of the room.
 * Anyone Can Die: In addition to the usual expected horror movie deaths,
 * Apocalyptic Log: Patience's diary.
 * Arsenal Of Doom: The cabin basement. Though we eventually settle on the tried and true.
 * Awesome but Impractical:
 * Barrier-Busting Blow: One of the zombies pulls through a window. Later on,
 * Be Careful What You Wish For:
 * Beehive Barrier:.
 * Big Bad:
 * Bigger Bad:
 * Big Damn Heroes:
 * Big Red Button: One of these.
 * Black Comedy: Boy howdy.
 * Bloody Hilarious
 * Break the Cutie: Dana. As to be expected
 * Brick Joke:
 * "Oh, come on..."
 * Also,
 * The intern splits the pot with Maintenance.
 * Buffy-Speak: In the credits, even. "Japanese Floaty Girl."
 * Casting Gag: This is the third time Amy Acker has played a scientist in a Joss Whedon production.
 * Chekhov's Gun:
 * Closed Circle: The titular cabin.
 * Cluster F-Bomb: Sitterson's response to the Japan iteration. Made even more delightful in that it is targeted at a group of 9-year-olds.
 * Creepy Basement
 * Creepy Gas Station Attendant: Mordecai.
 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass:
 * Cruel and Unusual Death: All of them.
 * The Cuckoolander Was Right:
 * Cultural Translation: In-Universe; the Kyoto scenario invokes J-Horror tropes rather than American Horror Tropes.
 * Curiosity Killed the Cast:
 * Danger Takes a Backseat
 * Death by Irony:
 * Death by Sex: Invoked, lampshaded, discussed, and justified, not all in that order.
 * Deconstructive Parody
 * Deconstructor Fleet: Of horror films.
 * Developing Doomed Characters: This happens.
 * Development Hell: The film was stuck on release since 2010 after MGM's bankruptcy and was almost released in 3D in 2011. Finally, Lionsgate acquired the distribution rights to the film and released it in 2012.
 * Devil but No God: The Ancient Ones are seemingly the only divine beings of any consequence and they will go on an apocalyptic rampage the moment they fail to receive their full annual tribute.
 * The Determinator: Curt. He goes from sensible, level-headed guy to headstrong savior.
 * Don't Go in The Woods:
 * Dumb Blonde: Yet another Invoked Trope.
 * Eldritch Abomination:
 * Empathic Environment: Invoked when Hadley and Sitterson fine-tune the weather to encourage Curt and Jules to fool around.
 * Enforced Trope:
 * Epic Fail: We know early on/from the trailers that there's an invisible grid blocking off the cabin area. Curt does not.
 * Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Insofar as they can be called evil, the opening scenes show Hadley talking to Sitterson about how he and his wife are preparing to have a baby.
 * Everybody Lives:
 * Expy: Fornicus, Lord of Bondage and Pain, is an obvious riff on Pinhead, with his puzzlebox, bondage outfit, and head full of sharp objects.
 * Faceless Goons: "Internal Security"
 * Face Revealing Turn: The ballerina girl/"Sugarplum Fairy".
 * Final Girl:
 * Five-Man Band: Enforced
 * The Hero: Dana
 * The Lancer: Marty
 * The Smart Guy: Holden
 * The Big Guy: Curt
 * The Chick: Jules
 * Foreshadowing:
 * Marty's comment about how
 * Lampshaded with Mordecai, "the harbinger," whose job it is to let the co-eds know that they're going into danger. In the process, he calls Jules a whore,.
 * The Fool: Marty is called this by many, but he surprisingly fits into the Tarot archetype beyond just being a hippie stoner--he manages to succeed where others fail, often by pure luck.
 * Freeze-Frame Bonus: Multiple, all overlapping. The myriad artifacts the cast finds in the basement, the board at the beginning showing, then the Monster Mash cameos during "The Carnage".
 * Friendship Moment: When creepy station attendant Mordecai snaps angrily at Jules, Marty steps in to snark right back at him.
 * Freeze-Frame Bonus: Multiple, all overlapping. The myriad artifacts the cast finds in the basement, the board at the beginning showing, then the Monster Mash cameos during "The Carnage".
 * Friendship Moment: When creepy station attendant Mordecai snaps angrily at Jules, Marty steps in to snark right back at him.

"Curt: "
 * Funny Background Event: Of the horror or dark comedy variety.
 * During the celebration, we continually see  getting brutally savaged in the background, while the operators live their lives practically oblivious to it.
 * When the monsters attack, one of the screens shows the intern frantically holding up signs to the camera, trying to deliver a message to the control room.
 * Genre Blindness:
 * Genre Savvy:
 * The main characters have shades of this.
 * the latter referring to the film's resident stoner.
 * The whole movie can be seen as a subversion of the concept, as the main characters often exhibit Genre Savvy but every time they do so.
 * Marty is particularly Genre Savvy, but
 * Gorn: And loads of it.
 * Gory Discretion Shot: Rather severely averted for the first wave of "The Carnage", then played surprisingly straight for wave two.
 * Heroic BSOD:
 * Hillbilly Horrors: "They may be zombified pain-worshipping backwoods morons ..." "But they're our zombified pain-worshipping backwoods morons."
 * History Repeats:
 * Hoist by His Own Petard:
 * Hotter and Sexier: Though you never get to see them.
 * Human Sacrifice:.
 * Improbable Weapon User:
 * Improvised Weapon:.
 * I Need a Freaking Drink: When the scientists start cracking open beers, Lin says that while Hadley and Sitterson are celebrating, she is drinking.
 * Industrialized Evil: The controllers have done this so long, they're completely desensitized to it and run a betting pool for fun. What's more, they've basically turned ritualistic murder into a factory assembly job.
 * Infant Immortality: We see a classroom of Japanese schoolgirls (all age nine) being terrorized by an angry spirit.
 * It Got Worse: "Oh, man..."
 * Ironic Echo:


 * Jerk Jock: Subverted by Curtis, who is pushed into this role by the villains, but is actually an intelligent sociology major who never acts like an alpha male douchebag.
 * Karmic Death:
 * Killer Game Master: Hadley and Sitterson have this trope as their profession.
 * The Last of These Is Not Like the Others: Werewolves, robots, ghosts, zombies, giant snakes..... and a bloodthirsty unicorn
 * Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
 * When Truman objects to
 * Let's Split Up, Gang! / Never Split the Party: . Marty's response to all of this is a confused "Really?"
 * Lovable Jock: Curt and Holden.
 * Monster Mash:
 * The whiteboard has a Long List: Werewolf, Alien Beast, Mutants, Wraiths, Zombies, Reptilius, Clowns, Witches, Sexy Witches, Demons, Hell Lord, Angry Molesting Tree, Giant Snake, Deadites, Mummy, The Bride, The Scarecrow Folk, Snowman, Doombat, Vampires, Dismemberment Goblins, Sugarplum Fairy, Merman, The Reanimated, Unicorn, Huron, Sasquatch, Yeti, Wendigo, Dolls, The Doctors, The Redneck Torture Family, Jack O'Lantern, Giant, Twins and Kevin (who, per Word of God, is a sweet, harmless looking guy who will exsanguinate you in seconds).
 * Other monsters seemingly not mentioned on the whiteboard, but spotted throughout the film, include a man-sized tarantula, a ghostly woman, a quartet of masked figures, some manner of giant cephalopod, a medieval torturer, a scorpion-like automaton with a buzzsaw for a stinger, something terrible that crawls toward the camera on the ceiling, a Stringy Haired Ghost Girl, a dead King Kong-esque Kaiju seen on a monitor, a Creepy Child whom a guard tries to escape by dragging himself along the floor, and Fornicus, Lord of Bondage and Pain (though he may be the "Hell Lord" on the whiteboard). And finally, there's.
 * Mood Whiplash: The movie is exceedingly fond of making hilarious jokes instants before gruesome events, and vice-versa.
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast:
 * Necessarily Evil: The Controllers and the Director are this, especially the latter (the former have grown desensitized over time.)
 * Negated Moment of Awesome:
 * Nested Mouths:
 * Never Trust a Trailer: Ironically, this is one of the few films where it could be argued that this is exactly the mindset the viewer should have before watching the film.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Overlaps with Pyrrhic Victory.
 * Nietzsche Wannabe Marty
 * Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot:
 * Nothing Is Scarier:.
 * Noodle Incident:
 * The US branch has a nigh-spotless record marred only by 1998, when the Chemical Department screwed up. No further elaboration is made, giving rise to fan theories that it's a possible Take That to a particular horror film released on that year.
 * Not So Above It All: Lin tries to present herself as distanced from the "clowning" behavior of Sitterson and Hadley, such as their organizing the office betting pool . But this doesn't fool Hadley, who, after asking whether Truman is placing a bet, simply reaches out wordlessly in Lin's direction. Lin sheepishly stuffs some money and her prediction into his hand.
 * Offscreen Moment of Awesome:
 * Off the Rails:
 * Oh Crap:.
 * One Last Smoke:.
 * One-Scene Wonder: Because if there's anyone who knows how to deal with unimaginable horrors, it is.
 * The Only One: Averted. The obvious one here is the Japan branch's work with the schoolgirls, but considering the dozen of other operations we're given glimpses of, there are quite a few other stories going on in the periphery of this one.
 * Only a Flesh Wound:
 * Only Sane Man: Marty, who keeps cautioning the group against actions like reading the mysterious Latin. His pot-smoking has made him Properly Paranoid as well as resistant to the mind-altering chemicals used by the villains.
 * Our Zombies Are Different:
 * Paint the Town Red: The aftermath of "The Carnage"
 * Pet the Dog: Subverted.
 * The Power of Friendship:
 * Punch Clock Villain: Every character responsible for operations (with exception to The Director) have shades of this. Bonus points for Truman, who makes a point of being aware of this. The fact that they're doing it to save the world each year explains why they're otherwise normal people.
 * Purple Prose: Mordecai's phone call. "Cleanse them. Cleanse the world of their ignorance and sin. Bathe them in the crimson of -- am I on speakerphone?"
 * Railroading: Hadley and Sitterson resort to this with.
 * Really Gets Around:
 * The Reveal: Several.
 * And then the ultimate reveal:
 * Scary Scarecrows:
 * Schmuck Bait: The cellar isn't just this, it's filled with these.
 * Side Bet: The scientists bet on.
 * Shout-Out:
 * Angel: The symbol on the floor and the one on the controllers' talismans sure looks like the Circle of the Black Thorn . ..
 * The entire controller's compound is reminiscent of The Initiative from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
 * The Evil Dead: College friends, cabin in the woods, evil basement, ominous book with ancient chant, and evil molesting trees. "Deadites" also show up on the betting board. The cabin itself looks almost identical to the one from the Raimi movies.
 * Hellraiser: The pale guy in black bondage gear, holding a puzzlebox, with sharp metal things embedded in his head.
 * Serenity: During "The Carnage", one video clip shows the woman from Serenity shooting herself before being taken by Reavers. And you wouldn't know it was from somewhere else.
 * Incorrect. The actress was not Sarah Paulson and it was not the exact clip, just an homage.
 * Alien: On a monitor during "The Carnage" you can see the foot of a Xenomorph advance towards a cowering woman, the same way the shot happened in another movie Sigourney Weaver was in. (Hint: It's Alien)
 * The third act is full of shout outs to a bevy of horror films from recent years, among the more generic zombies and Giant Spiders are some doll-masked strangers, a Boomer, a torturer in a mask and leather apron straight from Hostel and the scarecrows that tear apart  are actually from the 80's B-movie of the same name, they even get taken out the same way.
 * Carrie: The very end,
 * The shifting square containment cells might be a shout out to Cube.
 * On one of the television monitors, we can see a King Kong expy lying on the ground dead.
 * "Huron", from the betting board, may be a Stock Ness Monster reference, as Lake Huron has its own "lake monster" legends.
 * The Shining: The twin girls can be seen when all the containment cells are shown
 * First Encounter Assault Recon: A formally heavily armed SWAT member crawls away from a Creepy Child.
 * The Strangers: some of the villains in the carnage are a group of silent, well-dressed men and women with white porcelain masks. They are later seen dousing some bound technicians with gasoline, implying that they're non-supernatural killers.
 * Shoot the Dog:
 * Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Trailer:
 * Slashers Prefer Blondes: Enforced as  dyes her hair blonde just before the trip. The controllers even put toxins and pheremones in the dye to influence her behaviour.
 * Smart People Know Latin: Played very deliberately. There is literally nothing to establish Holden as the Smart Guy except that he wears glasses and suddenly remembers enough high school Latin to decipher the incantation. The only reason he's The Scholar is because the controllers decided he is.
 * Spanner in the Works:
 * Spooky Painting: The hunting scene portrayed in Holden's room is kinda.... visceral.
 * The Stars Are Going Out: Marty notices that there are no stars outside, despite being out in the middle of the woods.
 * The Stoner: One of the protagonists. Interestingly,
 * Stringy Haired Ghost Girl: What a classroom of Japanese students are shown contending with.
 * Stupidity-Inducing Attack:
 * Taking You with Me:
 * Targeted Human Sacrifice:
 * Those Two Bad Guys: Hadley and Sitterson.
 * Torture Cellar: The Black Room.
 * Trailers Always Spoil: Played straight with . The structure of the film averts this trope; the trailers spoil that there's science behind the magic, but not.
 * Turned Against Their Masters: "The Carnage"
 * Unexplained Recovery:
 * Virgin Sacrifice: The controllers regret that they can no longer just toss a girl into a volcano as a sacrifice, referencing this trope. They now have to go by stock horror film cliches, which ironically often leaves the virgin Final Girl alive.
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist:
 * What Might Have Been: An entire betting board of in-universe examples.
 * White Mask of Doom: Briefly seen in the basement, then again on some of the participants in "The Carnage".
 * Wrong Genre Savvy:
 * making the jock decide everyone should split up and not stay together.
 * X Meets Y:
 * Some call it The Evil Dead (cabin in the woods) meets The Truman Show
 * Or Funny Games meets Inglorious Basterds, for the Black Comedy, Medium Awareness, and Deconstruction of Horror Tropes, as well as the extremely over-the-top violence, gore, and absurdity.
 * Or Resident Evil meets Portal for the zombie siege meets "escaping the cage"
 * You Bastard:
 * White Mask of Doom: Briefly seen in the basement, then again on some of the participants in "The Carnage".
 * Wrong Genre Savvy:
 * making the jock decide everyone should split up and not stay together.
 * X Meets Y:
 * Some call it The Evil Dead (cabin in the woods) meets The Truman Show
 * Or Funny Games meets Inglorious Basterds, for the Black Comedy, Medium Awareness, and Deconstruction of Horror Tropes, as well as the extremely over-the-top violence, gore, and absurdity.
 * Or Resident Evil meets Portal for the zombie siege meets "escaping the cage"
 * You Bastard:
 * You Bastard:

Spoiler Tropes

 * Cosmic Horror Story: The real story of the movie.
 * Downer Ending: One of the only pieces of fiction where the world could end...and it does.
 * Physical God: Judging from the giant fiery hand we see at the end, it can be inferred that the Ancient Ones are this.
 * The End of the World as We Know It: No hope for a sequel here, people.
 * Not necessarily. Why should we believe the assumption that the gods mean to destroy the world is accurate? Maybe they just want to give humanity the secret of space travel or immortality.
 * Kill'Em All: No, not just everyone in the movie. EVE-RY-ONE.
 * Playing with a Trope: The Movie.
 * Stealth Parody: Though it's pretty obvious, people still seemed to miss the point and decried it as "A disgrace to true horror". It helps that it was advertised as a straight horror film.