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The Cabin in the Woods: Difference between revisions

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The Cabin in the Woods (view source)

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(Import from TV Tropes TVT:Film.TheCabinInTheWoods 2012-07-01, editor history TVTH:Film.TheCabinInTheWoods, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license)
 
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== "Safe" tropes ==
* [[Actor Allusion]]: The uncredited, but extremely memorable [[One -Scene Wonder]] {{spoiler|[[Sigourney Weaver]]}} as the secretive, feared Director of {{spoiler|a government facility dealing with containing and exploiting the supernatural, and isn't above engaging in a little badassery when her goals are jeopardized}}. Which accurately describes the same performer's role as the "Big Guy" of the movie {{spoiler|''[[Paul (Film)|Paul]]''}}, which was released earlier but filmed later.
* [[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.}}
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** Also, {{spoiler|each and every single monster on the board (except maybe [[Nothing Is Scarier|Kevin]]) is released and seen during the final act. Yes, including the Angry Molesting Tree.}}
** 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 (TV)|has played]] [[Dollhouse (TV)|a scientist]] in a Joss Whedon production.
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: {{spoiler|Played with the coffee mug bong. Subverted with the motorbike.}}
* [[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. {{spoiler|In this case he's not just set dressing, it's important that the sacrifices choose to continue to the Cabin of their own free will, despite the creepy old guy warning them that "gettin' back is your concern"}}
* [[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass]]: {{spoiler|Marty.}}
* [[Cruel and Unusual Death]]: ''All of them.''
* [[The Cuckoolander Was Right]]: {{spoiler|Marty was surprisingly on the money about a lot of things even before they started to go to hell.}}
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* [[Enforced Trope]]: {{spoiler|This is most of the plot.}}
* [[Epic Fail]]: We know early on/from the trailers that there's an invisible grid blocking off the cabin area. Curt does not. {{spoiler|Curt jumps his dirtbike right into it and BOUNCES down to the bottom of the canyon.}}
* [[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 (Film)|Pinhead]], with his puzzlebox, bondage outfit, and head full of sharp objects.
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* [[Face Revealing Turn]]: The ballerina girl/"Sugarplum Fairy". {{spoiler|Though it would be generous to call it a "face".}}
* [[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 {{spoiler|The Virgin, and the only one allowed to live}}
** [[The Lancer]]: Marty {{spoiler|The Fool, and the only other person to MAKE it to the end.}}
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** During the celebration , we continually see {{spoiler|Dana}} 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]]: {{spoiler|Invoked in-universe on the [[Five -Man Band]].}}
* [[Genre Savvy]]:
** The main characters have shades of this.
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** {{spoiler|The deaths of almost everyone in the control complex are generally more sadistic and ''far'' more on-screen graphic than what happens to the five at the cabin.}}
* [[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 ItsIt's Not Heinous?|bloodthirsty unicorn]]
* [[Leaning On the Fourth Wall]]:
** 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."}}
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* [[Lovable Jock]]: Curt and Holden. {{spoiler|At first, anyway. The controllers use mind-altering chemicals to turn Curt into a [[Jerk Jock]], and Holden into a [[Hollywood Nerd]] to fulfill their roles in the ritual.}}
* [[Monster Mash]]:
** The whiteboard has a [[Long List]]: [[Wolf Man|Werewolf]], [[Starfish Aliens|Alien Beast]], [[Mutants]], Wraiths, [[EverythingsEverything's Deader With Zombies|Zombies]], [[Reptiles Are Abhorrent|Reptilius]], [[Monster Clown|Clowns]], [[Wicked Witch|Witches]], [[Hot Witch|Sexy Witches]], [[Our Demons Are Different|Demons, Hell Lord]], [[When Trees Attack|Angry Molesting Tree]], [[Reptiles Are Abhorrent|Giant Snake]], [[Evil Dead (Film)|Deadites]], [[Mummy]], [[Kill Bill|The Bride]], [[Scary Scarecrows|The Scarecrow Folk]], [[Snowlems|Snow]][[Jack Frost 1997 (Film)|man]], [[Bat Out of Hell|Doombat]], [[Our Vampires Are Different|Vampires]], [[An Arm and A Leg|Dismemberment Goblins]], [[The Fair Folk|Sugarplum Fairy]], [[Our Mermaids Are Different|Merman]], [[Re-Animator (Film)|The Reanimated]], [[Unicorn]], Huron, [[Bigfoot Sasquatch and Yeti|Sasquatch, Yeti]], [[Wendigo]], [[Creepy Doll|Dolls]], [[Deadly Doctor|The Doctors]], [[Hillbilly Horrors|The Redneck Torture Family]], [[All Hallows Eve|Jack O'Lantern]], [[Our Giants Are Bigger|Giant]], [[Creepy Twins|Twins]] and Kevin (who, per [[Word of God]], is [[Face of an Angel Mind of A Demon|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 [[Giant Spider|man-sized tarantula]], a [[Our Ghosts Are Different|ghostly woman]], a quartet of [[The Strangers|masked figures]], some manner of [[EverythingsEverything's Squishier With Cephalopods|giant cephalopod]], a [[Torture Technician|medieval torturer]], a [[Mechanical Monster|scorpion-like automaton with a buzzsaw for a stinger]], something terrible that [[Ceiling Cling|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 [[First Encounter Assault Recon|dragging himself along the floor]], and [[Hellraiser|Fornicus]], Lord of Bondage and Pain (though he may be the "Hell Lord" on the whiteboard). And finally, there's {{spoiler|[[Eldritch Abomination|The Ancient Ones]]}}.
* [[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]]: {{spoiler|Fornicus, Lord of Bondage and Pain.}}
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* [[Nested Mouths]]: {{spoiler|The Sugarplum Fairy}}
* [[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.}}
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* [[Oh Crap]]: {{spoiler|The SWAT team's reaction when they realize the monsters have all been released}}.
* [[One Last Smoke]]: {{spoiler|Marty and Dana share one last joint before the world goes to hell in a hand basket}}.
* [[One -Scene Wonder]]: Because if there's anyone who knows how to deal with unimaginable horrors, it is {{spoiler|[[Sigourney Weaver]]}}.
* [[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]]: {{spoiler|Marty and Curtis are both stabbed in the back, yet show no effects from their injuries in later scenes. The bear trap weapon also seems to have little effect on anyone except tying them up for a moment.}}
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* [[Unexplained Recovery]]: {{spoiler|Marty is stabbed in the back and dragged off-screen by a monster. He shows up later, perfectly fine.}}
* [[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]]: {{spoiler|The scientists controlling everything are doing so as part of a ritual that prevents the [[Bigger Bad]] "Ancient Ones" from rising and destroying the world.}}
* [[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".
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* [[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. [[The End of the World As We Know It|EVE-RY-ONE]].
* [[Playing With a Trope]]: [[The Movie]].
* [[Stealth Parody]]: Though it's pretty obvious, [[PoesPoe'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.]]
 
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