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[[File:CitwTeaserSmall_243.jpg|frame|That's one complicated Rubik's Cube]]
{{quote|''"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."''|'''[[
▲{{quote|''"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 (Creator)|Joss Whedon]]'''}}
Five friends go to an isolated cabin in the woods for a weekend vacation. ''[[Tempting Fate|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 [[Thor (
Feel free to watch the [
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
----
{{tropelist}}
== "Safe" tropes ==
* [[All Men Are Perverts]]: When Jules and Curt go off to fool around in the forest, {{spoiler|the control room is packed to capacity with male staffers, all of whom (save Truman) are grinning ear to ear and eager to see some action
* [[Anyone Can Die]]: In addition to the usual expected horror movie deaths,
▲* [[All Men Are Perverts]]: When Jules and Curt go off to fool around in the forest, {{spoiler|the control room is packed to capacity with male staffers, all of whom (save Truman) are grinning ear to ear and eager to see some action}}. 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, {{spoiler|this trope is also openly invoked as a plot point.}}
* [[Apocalyptic Log]]: Patience's diary.
* [[Artifact of Doom|Arsenal Of Doom]]: The cabin basement. Though we eventually settle on the tried and true {{spoiler|[[Tome of Eldritch Lore]]}}.
* [[Awesome but Impractical]]:
* [[Barrier-Busting Blow]]: One of the zombies pulls {{spoiler|Marty}} through a window. Later on, {{spoiler|a giant Vampire Bat smashes an agency employee into and through a wall, giving Marty and Dana an escape route.}}
* [[Be Careful What You Wish For]]:
* [[Beehive Barrier]]: {{spoiler|It surrounds the site. And it doesn't just deflect contact, it ''fries'' whatever touches it}}.
* [[Big Bad]]: {{spoiler|The Director is initially presented at this, then turns out to be [[Necessarily Evil]] due to...}}
* [[Bigger Bad]]:
* [[Big Damn Heroes]]:
* [[Big Red Button]]: One of these
* [[Black Comedy]]: Boy howdy.
* [[Bloody Hilarious]]
* [[Break the Cutie]]: Dana. [[Joss Whedon|As to]] [[Signature Style|be expected]].
* [[Brick Joke]]:
**
**
** 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]] [[Angel
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]:
* [[Closed Circle]]: The titular cabin. {{spoiler|The controllers try very hard to ''keep it'' closed, especially when the tunnel back to civilization fails to [[Broken Bridge|conveniently blow up.]]}}
* [[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]]: {{spoiler|Marty.}}
* [[Cruel and Unusual Death]]: ''All of them.''
* [[The Cuckoolander Was Right]]:
* [[Cultural Translation]]: [[In
* [[Curiosity Killed the Cast]]: {{spoiler|The controllers' job is to lead them to the cellar [[Closed Circle|(and keep them contained in the staging site)]]. But once the cellar is open, its various artifacts exposed to the group's curiosity, the controllers can't do anything. It's up to the teens themselves to actually pick one. Of course, they ''all'' find something that interests them personally, and it was just a matter of who would activate their artifact first.}}
* [[Danger Takes a Backseat]]
* [[Death
* [[Death
* [[Deconstructive Parody]]
* [[Deconstructor Fleet]]: Of horror films.
* [[Developing Doomed Characters]]: This happens.
* [[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 {{spoiler|to grease spot at the bottom of the canyon}}.
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* [[Eldritch Abomination]]: {{spoiler|The Ancient Ones, a bunch of sadistic god-like beings who like to watch humans die in [[Gorn|fascinating,]] troperiffic ways. [[You Bastard|Just like a horror-viewer.]]}}
* [[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]]: [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|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]]: {{spoiler|The Japanese scenario. At least until the failure of the US branch leads to the end of the world...}}
* [[Expy]]: Fornicus, Lord of Bondage and Pain, is an obvious riff on [[Hellraiser
* [[Faceless Goons]]: "Internal Security"
* [[Face Revealing Turn]]: The ballerina girl/"Sugarplum Fairy".
* [[Final Girl]]: {{spoiler|''Enforced.'' Dana (the virgin) is allowed to live as long as she is the last one standing. Even when she and Marty have broken into the controller base, the guards are ordered to kill the virgin last. She's not actually a virgin, but the villains "work with what they've got."}}
* [[Five-Man Band]]: Enforced {{spoiler|to the point it becomes a crucial element of the plot. The characters begin the film as fleshed-out human beings rather than stereotypes; even the stoner, who we are introduced to while he is smoking an enormous bong, turns out to be witty and has some surprising insights to human nature, such as ''why'' he can get away with smoking an enormous bong in the middle of his car in broad daylight. As the film progresses, each character conforms more closely to archetypes through the scientists' use of chemicals - except the stoner, who is immune due to the Chem department giving him the wrong drugs.}}
** [[The Hero]]: Dana
** [[The Lancer]]: Marty
** [[The Smart Guy]]: Holden
** [[The Big Guy]]: Curt
** [[The Chick]]: Jules
* [[Foreshadowing]]:
** Marty's comment about how {{spoiler|society ''should'' crumble, but we're all to afraid to let it foreshadows the end.}}
** 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, {{spoiler|referring to her part in the ritual}}.
** {{spoiler|The opening credits have unmistakable illustrations of [[Human Sacrifice]]}}.
* [[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
* [[Friendship Moment]]: When creepy station attendant Mordecai snaps angrily at Jules, Marty steps in to snark right back at him.
{{quote|
'''Marty:''' "You were rude to my friend."
* [[Funny Background Event]]: Of the horror or dark comedy variety.
** During the celebration , we continually see
** 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]]: {{spoiler|Invoked in-universe on the [[Five-Man Band]].}}
* [[Genre Savvy]]:
** The main characters have shades of this.
**
** 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-
* [[History Repeats]]: {{spoiler|The US branch has had only one glitch, in 1998, when the Chem[ical] Department failed to do its duty. Guess which department failed to account for Marty's hobbies?}}
* [[Hoist
* [[Hotter and Sexier]]: {{spoiler|The white board for the betting pool has "witches" and "sexy witches"}} 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]]:
{{quote|
* [[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 [[What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?|bloodthirsty unicorn]].
* [[Leaning
** When Truman objects to {{spoiler|manipulating the teens to have sex in the woods, just so the cameras can capture Jules' nudity, the controllers respond with "Gotta keep the customers satisfied."}}
**
* [[Let's Split Up, Gang!]] / [[Never Split the Party]]:
* [[Lovable Jock]]: Curt and Holden.
* [[Monster Mash]]:
** The whiteboard has a [[Long List]]: [[Wolf Man|Werewolf]], [[Starfish Aliens|Alien Beast]], [[Mutants]], Wraiths, [[Everything's Deader
** Other monsters seemingly not mentioned on the whiteboard, but spotted throughout the film, include a [[Giant Spider|man-sized tarantula]], a [[Our Ghosts Are Different|ghostly woman]], a quartet of [[The Strangers|masked figures]], some manner of [[Everything's Squishier
* [[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]]: {{spoiler|Curt attempts to jump a canyon in a motorbike in order to get help, but only succeeds in smashing into the
* [[Nested Mouths]]:
* [[Never Trust a Trailer]]: {{spoiler|It's a [[Deconstructive Parody]] of horror films. It's advertised as a straight horror film.}} 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]]. {{spoiler|Our heroes have dismantled the controllers' base and escaped being killed for the [[Eldritch Abomination|Ancient Ones]]...so they can be killed ''by'' the Ancient Ones (along with the rest of humanity) now the ritual's broken and they've returned to Earth. Whee?}}
* [[Nietzsche Wannabe]] Marty {{spoiler|and Dana by the end.}}
* [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot]]: {{spoiler|Zombie Redneck Torture Family, among many others.}}
* [[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 {{spoiler|about which horror scenario the kids will incur}}. 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]]: {{spoiler|"I had to disembowel that guy with a trowel."}}
* [[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]]: {{spoiler|In fact, "Pain-
* [[Paint the Town Red]]: The aftermath of "The Carnage"
* [[Pet the Dog]]: [[Subverted Trope|Subverted]]. {{spoiler|Sitterson and Hadley spend most of the movie manipulating the [[Main Characters]] into meeting their gory ends. When it looks like everyone but Dana has died and their job is done, Hadley starts to comment how he's actually rooting for Dana to survive after all the torment they've put her through, but he doesn't even finish that sentence before breaking out the tequila and declaring it party time. What follows is a big office party with everyone having a good time and congratulating themselves, paying no attention as Dana gets savaged by a zombie in the background.}}
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* [[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 -- [[Sophisticated As Hell|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]]: {{spoiler|Truman is savaged by a gang of evil scarecrows.}}
* [[Schmuck Bait]]: The cellar isn't just this, it's ''filled'' with these.
* [[Side Bet]]: The scientists bet on
* [[Shout-Out]]:
** ''[[
** 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.
** ''[[
*** Incorrect. The actress was not Sarah Paulson and it was not the exact clip, just an homage.
** ''[[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 [[The Strangers|strangers]], a [[Left 4 Dead|Boomer]], a torturer in a mask and leather apron straight from [[
** ''[[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.
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** ''[[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]]: {{spoiler|Dana comes close to doing this when she strongly considers killing Marty to prevent [[The End of the World
* [[Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Trailer]]: {{spoiler|Sigourney Weaver.}}
* [[Slashers Prefer Blondes]]: Enforced as
* [[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
* [[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, {{spoiler|since the Chem department gave him the wrong weed, his drug-use makes him immune to the pheromones, making him immune to the enforced genre-blindness.}}
* [[Stringy
* [[Stupidity-Inducing Attack]]:
* [[Taking You
** {{spoiler|Truman blows himself and a bunch of scarecrows up with a grenade. Still doesn't save Hadley, Sitterson and Lin.}}
**
* [[Targeted Human Sacrifice]]: {{spoiler|The sacrifices have to fit certain archetypes for the ritual to work. Amusingly many of them do have elements of the archetypes required, but not the ones they are manipulated into. For example Curtis is a smart guy with an in-depth knowledge of Russian philosophy and a full Sociology scholarship, but he's "the athlete." Holden, on the other hand, has "the best hands on the team" by Curtis's
* [[Those Two Bad Guys]]: Hadley and Sitterson.
* [[Torture Cellar]]: The Black Room.
* [[Trailers Always Spoil]]: Played straight with {{spoiler|Marty's apparent "death"}}. The {{spoiler|double-bluff}} structure of the film averts this trope; the trailers spoil that there's science behind the magic, but not {{spoiler|the magic behind the science}}.
* [[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 [[Creepy Basement|basement]], then again on some of the participants in "The Carnage".
* [[Wrong Genre Savvy]]:
** {{spoiler|The guys behind the scenes have some sort of gas that makes the characters act like this,}} making the jock decide everyone should [[Let's Split Up, Gang!|split up]] and not stay together.
** {{spoiler|Marty finds the hidden cameras and concludes, "I'm on a ''reality TV show!''"}}
* [[X Meets Y]]:
** Some call it ''[[The Evil Dead]]'' (cabin in the woods) meets ''[[
** 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 [[Bloody Hilarious|violence, gore, and absurdity.]]
** Or ''[[Resident Evil]]'' meets ''[[Portal (
* [[You Bastard]]: {{spoiler|The Ancient Ones are basically like horror movie viewers. They watch for people to die in horrific, troperiffic ways, and, when their world does not go as they wanted it to, want to make it go away. And it's hard to not see the scientists/puppeteers as a metaphor for Hollywood's current horror output, repeating the same formula ad infinitum to appease its target audience's appetite for sex and gore as religiously as any ancient ritual. And you can see the two main scientists as a metaphor for a writer and a director, forced to keep putting out the same dross and lamenting their inability to try anything creative. 'I'll never see a merman,' indeed.}}
== Spoiler Tropes ==
* {{spoiler|[[Cosmic Horror Story]]: The ''real'' story of the movie.}}
* {{spoiler|[[Downer Ending]]: One of the only pieces of fiction where [[
* [[Physical God]]: Judging from the giant fiery hand we see at the end, it can be inferred that the Ancient Ones are this.▼
** {{spoiler|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.}}▼
▲* [[The End of the World As We Know It]]: No hope for a sequel here, people.
* {{spoiler|[[Kill'Em All]]: No, not just everyone in the movie. [[The End of the World
▲** 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.
▲* {{spoiler|[[Physical God]]: Judging from the giant fiery hand we see at the end, it can be inferred that the Ancient Ones are this.}}
▲* [[Kill'Em All]]: No, not just everyone in the movie. [[The End of the World As We Know It|EVE-RY-ONE]].
* {{spoiler|[[Playing
* {{spoiler|[[Stealth Parody]]: Though it's pretty obvious, [[Poe's Law|people still seemed to miss the point]] and decried it as [[Hate Dumb|"A disgrace to true horror"]]. It helps that it was [[Trailers Always Lie|advertised as a straight horror film.]]}}
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Horror Films]]
[[Category:Films of the 2010s]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Film]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cabin in the Woods, The}}
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