History Film / TheCabinInTheWoods

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Marty and Dana survive the organization's advances on them, but by doing so, they violated the order of the deaths and cause America's ritual to fail. As a result, the enraged Ancient Ones finally go on the warpath, causing [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the world and humanity to meet a violent end]].]]

* ApocalypticLog: Patience's diary explains the torture she had to endure with her AbusiveParents.

* BigBad: [[spoiler:The Director]] is initially presented as this, then turns out to be NecessarilyEvil. True, she is the head of an [[spoiler:organization who creates worldwide scenarios to kill innocent people and fulfill a ritual. However, that ritual is to prevent the destruction of the entire planet.]]

* AmbiguousEnding: [[spoiler: the Gods return to destroy mankind however as we have seen from the triumph of the sacrifices worldwide mankind may not be the pushover they once were with advanced technology, learning and adapability.]]

%%* ApocalypticLog: Patience's diary.

%%* AttackOfTheKillerWhatever: See MonsterMash for more details.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: [[spoiler: Hadley finally gets to see his Merman. And then it eats him. He curses his ironic luck before he dies.]]

* FinalGirl: [[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."]]

''The Cabin in the Woods'' is a 2012 horror movie that sets itself apart from ''other'' horror movies by virtue of its co-writers[[note]]Creator/JossWhedon and Drew Goddard (''{{Film/Cloverfield}}''), who also directed this film[[/note]] and by deconstructing both the "cabin in the woods" setting and the {{horror}} genre. The film stars Creator/ChrisHemsworth, Fran Kranz, Kristen Connolly, [[Series/PowerRangersJungleFury Anna]] [[Series/{{Underbelly}} Hutchison]], Jesse Williams, Creator/AmyAcker, Creator/RichardJenkins and Creator/BradleyWhitford. In 2013, Ride/UniversalStudios Orlando's ''Theatre/HalloweenHorrorNights'' event featured a haunted attraction based on the film. A more permanent attraction based on the film is planned...in South Korea, as part of the Jeju Shinhwa World resort's forthcoming Creator/{{Lionsgate}} Movie World theme park.

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Marty and Dana end up surviving the organization's advances, that's the good news, which also is bad news as well. Since the killings didn't go the way the Ancient Ones wanted and America's ritual thus ended up failing, the Ancient Ones are left angered...and they finally go on the warpath, causing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.]]

* FaceDeathWithDignity: Dana and Marty smoke a joint together as [[spoiler: the evil gods start to destroy the world.]]

* ThoseTwoBadGuys: Hadley and Sitterson.

** The list is almost too long to list (also see ShoutOut below). We have [[spoiler:the molesting tree from ''Film/TheEvilDead1981'', Alma from ''VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon'', the Boomer and others from ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'', and even the Nurses from ''Franchise/SilentHill'']]. A lot of video game references in there.

** The whiteboard has a LongList: [[WolfMan Werewolf,]] [[StarfishAliens Alien Beast,]] {{Mutants}}, [[OurGhostsAreDifferent Wraiths,]] [[EverythingsDeaderWithZombies Zombies,]] [[ReptilesAreAbhorrent Reptilius,]] [[MonsterClown Clowns,]] [[WickedWitch Witches,]] [[HotWitch Sexy Witches,]] [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Demons, Hell Lord]] (a.k.a. Fornicus, [[ToThePain Lord of Bondage and Pain]]), [[WhenTreesAttack Angry Molesting Tree,]] [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever Giant]] [[ReptilesAreAbhorrent Snake,]] [[Franchise/EvilDead Deadites,]] {{Mummy}}, [[BloodSplatteredWeddingDress The Bride,]] [[ScaryScarecrows The Scarecrow Folk,]] [[{{Snowlems}} Snow]][[Film/JackFrost1997 man,]] [[BatOutOfHell Dragonbat,]] [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Vampires,]] [[AnArmAndALeg Dismemberment]] [[OurGoblinsAreDifferent Goblins,]] [[TheFairfolk Sugarplum Fairy,]] [[OurMermaidsAreDifferent Merman,]] [[Film/ReAnimator The Reanimated,]] {{Unicorn}}, [[TheSavageIndian Huron,]] [[BigFootSasquatchAndYeti Sasquatch, Yeti,]] {{Wendigo}}, [[Film/TheStrangers Dolls,]] [[DeadlyDoctor The Doctors,]] [[HillbillyHorrors Zombie Redneck Torture Family,]] [[UsefulNotes/AllHallowsEve Jack O'Lantern,]] [[OurGiantsAreBigger Giant,]] [[CreepyTwins Twins,]] and Kevin (who, per WordOfGod, is [[FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon a sweet, harmless looking guy who will exsanguinate you in seconds]]...wonder where they got that name...).

* SirNotAppearingInThisTrailer: [[spoiler:Sigourney Weaver as the head of the Organization.]]

* ''Film/{{Enchanted}}'': The BigBad makes all her magical incantations in [[CanisLatinicus something Latinesque]].

* DeconstructorFleet: Of horror films.

%%* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: The world ends.]] {ZCE. Add more details pleaase.}

%%* EnforcedTrope: [[spoiler: This is most of the plot.]]
* {{Ensembles}}: While the five sacrifices are not [[FiveTokenBand ethnic]] or [[FiveManBand team-like]] enough for other tropes, they are made to fit five archetypes: [[TokenWholesome The Virgin]], [[PluckyComicRelief The Fool]], [[JerkJock The Athlete]], [[MsFanservice The Whore]] and [[TheSmartGuy The Scholar]].

* CuriosityKilledTheCast: [[spoiler:The controllers' job is to lead them to the cellar [[ClosedCircle (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 (potential) victims 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.]]

* NietzscheWannabe: Marty [[spoiler:and Dana by the end.]]

* AmbiguousEnding: [[spoiler: the Gods return to destroy mankind however as we have seen from the triumph of the sacrifices worldwide mankind may not be the pushover they once were with advanced technology, learning and adapability.]]

* ShoutOut: As a parody/satire/deconstruction of the horror genre itself, the movie has loads of these. Also see {{Expy}} above.
** The ''betting board''. There were a slew of them in that one scene.
** ''Series/{{Angel}}'': The symbol on the floor and the one on the controllers' talismans sure looks like the Circle of the Black Thorn...
** The whole facility (as well as what's happening to it) is ''very'' [[VideoGame/HalfLife Black Mesa-ish]].
** ''Film/TheEvilDead1981'': 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 movie.
*** The scene where the basement trapdoor swings open is ''nearly identical'' to the scene from the original ''Evil Dead''. Watch them back-to-back and the recreation is strikingly faithful.
*** Additionally, the exterior of the titular cabin in the woods looks exactly like the abandoned cabin from the first two ''Franchise/EvilDead'' films. WordOfGod says this was intentional. Rumor has it that the filmmakers actually painstakingly built it from scratch because they couldn't track down the original house.
** Mordecai is meant to be a homage to the "crazy old loner" archetype like the gas station attendant from ''Film/TheHillsHaveEyes'' or Ralph Neeley from the early ''Franchise/FridayThe13th'' movies. Speaking of, the lake near the cabin in the woods does strongly harken back to Camp Crystal Lake.
** ''Franchise/{{Hellraiser}}'': The pale guy in black bondage gear, holding a puzzlebox, with sharp metal things embedded in his head. They even use the franchise's iconic music to show him and the other monsters.
** ''Film/{{Halloween}}'': One of the Buckners does a sideways head tilt a few times, just like Michael Meyers.
** ''Film/{{Alien}}'': On a monitor during "The Carnage" you can see [[FeetFirstIntroduction the foot of a Xenomorph]] advance towards a cowering woman, the same way the shot happened in the first ''Alien'' film. Additionally the long-tailed alien monster that leaps onto a security soldier's head is similar to the Facehugger.
** ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'': A Boomer, a Hunter, a Tank and a Witch are seen among the various monsters. The production team even went so far as to use the in-game models in the film itself.
** The third act is full of shout outs to a bevy of horror films from recent years, among the more generic zombies and {{Giant Spider}}s are some doll-masked [[Film/TheStrangers strangers]], a torturer in a mask and leather apron straight from ''Film/{{Hostel}}'' and the scarecrows that tear apart [[spoiler: Truman]] are actually from the 80's B-movie [[Film/{{Scarecrows}} of the same name]], they even get taken out the same way.
** ''Film/{{Carrie|1976}}'': The very end, [[spoiler: with the hand coming out of the ground, might be a reference to the ending of ''Carrie''.]]
** The shifting square containment cells might be a shout out to ''Film/{{Cube}}''.
** ''Film/TheRing'': The StringyHairedGhostGirl that attacks the Japanese class resembles Sadako.
** ''Film/TheShining'': The twin girls can be seen when all the containment cells are shown. Later a pair of elevator doors open to reveal a flood of blood.
** ''VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon'': A formerly heavily armed SWAT member crawls away from a CreepyChild.
** ''Film/TheStrangers'': 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 and lighting them offscreen.
** ''Film/FunnyGames'': The rather jarring title card at the beginning is the same effect (red block letters, sudden sound, quiet conversation leadup) in both films.
** ''VideoGame/SilentHill1'': [[spoiler: The Vampire Bat bursting through the plate glass window toward the end is pretty much exactly how the first fight in the first ''Silent Hill'' game begins.]]
** ''ComicBook/SinCity'': The unseen but unspeakably horrible [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_%28Sin_City%29 Kevin]].
*** Or maybe [[Film/WeNeedToTalkAboutKevin this Kevin]].
*** It could even be [[Film/HomeAlone this Kevin]][[note]]The Wet/Sticky Bandits could tell you that he may ''look'' sweet and innocent, but....[[/note]]
** Dana and Marty sitting next to each other for OneLastSmoke after accepting their death is straight from ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead''.
** The Scarecrows attacking Truman may have been a reference to [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E9TheFamilyOfBlood Doctor Who]].
** Jules's dance may strike some viewers as familiar. [[spoiler: It's from the original ''Film/TheWickerMan1973''.]]
** Given TheReveal, Truman's name is likely a reference to ''Film/TheTrumanShow''.
** The Doctors are highly reminiscent of the Splicers from ''VideoGame/BioShock''.
** The "Giant Snake" appears to be a reference to ''Film/{{King Cobra|1999}}'', given that it's a cobra-rattlesnake hybrid.
** The amplified female voice attempting to reason with Marty and Dana as they enter the laboratory ([[spoiler:even if it's merely a distraction]]) recalls the final level of ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}''
** The first kill [[spoiler:in the facility]] goes to [[Film/TheCrawlingHand a crawling hand.]]
** In a RewatchBonus, the first massacre of security guards includes one getting harpooned and dragged into buzzsaw range by the Killer Robot. One of the berserk security bots in ''Film/ChoppingMall'' fired a similar grapple to take out an unsuspecting victim.
** [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E08Ice "We are not who we are."]]
** The original ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968'' famously involved someone getting dismembered with a trowel, by a zombie.
*** And [[spoiler: Truman]]'s death recalls Rhodes' death in ''Film/DayOfTheDead1985''
** And of course, the '''true''' antagonists: [[spoiler: Creator/HPLovecraft's Ancient Ones]].
** One of the locations on the monitors that show the other [[spoiler:failed]] rituals around the world is Stockholm: a helicopter flies over ruined buildings in a snowy terrain, which is very similar to the destroyed Norwegian Base from ''Film/TheThing1982''.
*** Of course this happens in Stockholm. That's the home country of those damned Swedes ([[RunningJoke Norwegians]]).
** Another [[spoiler: failed]] ritual in Buenos Aires shows a giant horned gorilla laying dead, which is a nod to ''Film/KingKong''.

''The Cabin in the Woods'' is a 2012 horror movie that sets itself apart from ''other'' horror movies by virtue of its co-writers[[note]]Creator/JossWhedon and Drew Goddard (''{{Film/Cloverfield}}''), who also directed this film[[/note]] and by deconstructing both the "cabin in the woods" setting and the {{horror}} genre. The film stars Creator/ChrisHemsworth, Fran Kranz, Kristen Connolly, [[Series/PowerRangersJungleFury Anna]] [[Series/{{Underbelly}} Hutchison]], Jesse Williams, Creator/AmyAcker, Creator/RichardJenkins and Creator/BradleyWhitford. In 2013, Ride/UniversalStudios Orlando's ''Theatre/HalloweenHorrorNights'' event featured a haunted attraction based on the film. A more permanent attraction based on the film is planned...in South Korea, as part of the Jeju Shinhwa World resort's upcoming Creator/{{Lionsgate}} Movie World theme park opening in 2019.

** Another [[spoiler: failed]] ritual in Buenos Aires shows a giant horned gorilla lying dead, which is a nod to ''Film/KingKong''.

** On one of the television monitors, we can see a ''Film/KingKong'' expy lying on the ground dead.

** Another [[spoiler: failed]] ritual in Buenos Aires shows a giant horned gorilla lying dead, which could be a nod to ''Film/KingKong''.

** ''Film/{{Alien}}'': On a monitor during "The Carnage" you can see [[FeetFirstIntroduction the foot of a Xenomorph]] advance towards a cowering woman, the same way the shot happened in the first ''Alien'' film.

** And of course, the '''true''' antagonists: [[spoiler:H.P Lovecraft's Ancient Ones]].
** One of the locations on the monitors that show the other [[spoiler:failed]] rituals around the world is Stockholm: a helicopter flies over ruined buildings in a snowy terrain. It's either a nod to the final minutes of ''Film/TheThing2011'' or a direct reference to ''Film/TheThing1982''.

* CollapsingLair: At the end.

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: The world ends.]]

* EnforcedTrope: [[spoiler: This is most of the plot.]]

* IronicEcho: [[RuleOfThree Three times...]] by Curt, [[spoiler:Dana, and Sitterson.]]
-->'''''Curt:''' [[spoiler:Let's get this party started!]]''

->''"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 TorturePorn 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."''

** The third act is full of shout outs to a bevy of horror films from recent years, among the more generic zombies and GiantSpiders are some doll-masked [[Film/TheStrangers strangers]], a torturer in a mask and leather apron straight from ''Film/{{Hostel}}'' and the scarecrows that tear apart [[spoiler: Truman]] are actually from the 80's B-movie [[Film/{{Scarecrows}} of the same name]], they even get taken out the same way.

* InfantImmortality: We see a classroom of Japanese schoolgirls (all age nine) being terrorized by an angry spirit. Later, they are seen subduing the ghost with a ritual song. We are then told that there were ''zero'' fatalities. [[spoiler:Later, the end implies that they're doomed anyway, as is the rest of humanity.]]

** The entire controller's compound is reminiscent of The Initiative from ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. [[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E21Primeval Which got wiped out when all the demons escaped from their cells]].
*** Not to mention that the whole facility (as well as what's happening to it) is ''very'' [[VideoGame/HalfLife Black Mesa-ish]].

** Dana (The Virgin): The first time we see her she is dancing in front of her open windows with no pants on, without a care in the world, and Jules points out she is just out of an affair with her [[StudentTeacherRomance Professor]], hardly the usual demure prudish behaviour that characterises "Virgin".

* PlayingAgainstType: In-universe. The characters are all forced into neat little brackets. Even worse, almost all of them are forced into the ''wrong'' brackets. Jules, "The Whore," is pre-med, and criticizes the "virginal" Dana for [[HotForTeacher sleeping with her professor]]. Holden, "The Scholar," is more athletically-inclined, described as a Big Man On Campus, while Curt, "The Athlete," is an academically-minded Sociology major. Only Marty gets typecast correctly... and he ''still'' manages to be a SpannerInTheWorks.
* PlotArmor: DiscussedTrope. [[spoiler: According to the ritual Dana, as the [[FinalGirl Virgin]], is allowed a chance to live -- as long as she's the last one left standing. As such, when Facility security guards are dispatched, they are ordered to make sure that Marty dies before her, which would fulfil the ritual.]]