History Film / TheCabinInTheWoods

* AmbiguousEnding: [[spoiler: the ending sees mankind plunged into war with the Hellgods which they may not win but Joss Whedon commented he liked the world and characters he created so he would "never say never" for a sequel]].

* EndIsNighEnding: The film ends with the Ancient One's gigantic hand ripping its way out of the ground, as it emerges from below to destroy humanity... an event we don't get to see.

''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, Creator/FranKranz, Creator/KristenConnolly, [[Series/PowerRangersJungleFury Anna]] [[Series/{{Underbelly}} Hutchison]], Creator/JesseWilliams, 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.

* DeconstructiveParody: Parodies the slasher genre and deconstructs a lot of the tropes - FinalGirl, SexSignalsDeath, TheScourgeOfGod etc. It also deconstructs the production of said films in a way too.

* NeverTrustATrailer: It's a DeconstructiveParody of horror films. It's advertised as a straight horror film. [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools 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.
** There's also a straight example: The trailer shows Marty rolling a joint in the RV over a clean table, but in the film proper the tabletop is covered by his stash of pot, rolling papers and finished blunts.

* JustAFleshWound: Several characters are beaten and stabbed yet manage to run and dart around just fine afterwards.

* OnlyAFleshWound: Marty and Curtis are both stabbed in the back, yet show no effects from their injuries in later scenes.

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Marty and Dana survive The Facility'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, because every single worldwide ritual flopped (especially since the States' was the "last hope of humanity" when Marty and Dana are hunted down), the enraged Ancient Ones finally go on the warpath, causing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.]]

** Dana is cast as the FinalGirl and Jules as [[DeathBySex The Whore by the Controllers.]] At the beginning of the film, Dana has just gotten out of an affair with her professor while Jules is the TeamMom in a stable, loving relationship with her boyfriend. Dana likewise opens the film providing more overt {{Fanservice}} in her underwear, while Jules provides the tamer variety by just wearing short shorts. This proves ironic when [[spoiler: the Controllers have to use pheromones to get Jules to show her breasts in the first place.]] Further irony if you go meta - Kristen Connolly (Dana) is a natural blonde portraying a redhead FinalGirl, while Anna Hutchinson is a natural blonde portraying someone who has just dyed her hair.

** 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 are eager to see some action]]. They only leave (with plenty of Awwws of disappointment) when Hadley shoos them out of the room.
** And when Lin has to increase the drug dosage.

** But subverted when Jules is doing a sexy dance. Holden and Dana look uncomfortable, and Marty is put off.
* AlmostDeadGuy: [[spoiler: Dana]] at the very end. [[spoiler: Of course, the world ends before she actually has time to expire.]]
-->'''[[spoiler: Marty]]''': How are you?\\
'''[[spoiler: Dana]]''': Going away...

[[caption-width-right:300:That's one complicated Rubik's Cube.]]

** Hadley's disappointment at never getting to see a merman reads as a critique of the lack of new, different, unusual horror monsters, instead relying on variations of a fee stock archetypes: slashers, vampires, zombies, and such. The facility has a very large stock of very creative and different monsters. . . who have apparently never been selected to take part in the sacrifice.

* SeriesEstablishingMoment: For a while it plays out like a typical horror film except with a bunch weird scenes with two guys at some kind of workplace, [[spoiler:then the two guys get a call from the CreepyGasStationAttendant and start {{Corpsing}} at his corny way of speaking until he [[SophisticatedAsHell drops the accent and tells them to take him of speaker phone.]]]]

* Hunk: Curt and Holden are both conventionally attractive muscular athletes, one of which becomes part of a Fanservice sex scene and the other of which gets a MrFanservice shirtless scene.

** To whit: [[spoiler: Dana (the Virgin) is introduced dancing around in a T-shirt and panties, and is quickly revealed to have just gotten out of a torrid (or at least highly unethical) affair with one of her professors, Jules (the Whore) chastises her for it and is revealed to be a pre-med student, Curtis (the Athlete) actually recommends to Dana a better book to read for a specific class to impress that professor and is later revealed to be a sociology major, Holden (the Scholar) is the more stereotypically jock-type, and Marty (the Fool), while indeed a stoner, is shown to be rather intelligent and very philosophical in his initial appearance (and could be a downright genius if he built the massive collapsing coffee-mug bong himself).]]

* TargetedHumanSacrifice: The sacrifices have to fit certain archetypes for the ritual to work.

* HotScientist: Lin, head of the chem department, is younger and more attractive than the rest of the staff - by virtue of being played by Creator/AmyAcker (who subverts the ImprobableAge associated with this trope by being in her early thirties).

''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, Creator/FranKranz, 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.

* DeathBySex: [[PlayingWithATrope Invoked, lampshaded, discussed, and justified]], not all in that order.

* DeconstructiveParody: Parodies the slasher genre and deconstructs a lot of the tropes - FinalGirl, DeathBySex, TheScourgeOfGod etc. It also deconstructs the production of said films in a way too.

''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.

* NestedMouths / LampreyMouth: [[spoiler: The Sugarplum Fairy's face is... well, one that only has a mouth with lost of teeth.]]

* NestedMouths / LampreyMouth: [[spoiler: The Sugarplum Fairy]]

* EverybodyDiesEnding: [[spoiler: No, not just everyone in the movie. [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt EVE-RY-ONE.]]]]
* EverybodyLives: [[spoiler:The Japanese scenario. At least until the failure of the US branch leads to the end of the world...]]

* FaceDeathWithDignity: Dana and Marty smoke a joint together as [[spoiler:the evil gods start to destroy the world.]]
* FacelessGoons: "Internal Security"
* FaceRevealingTurn: The ballerina girl/"Sugarplum Fairy". [[spoiler: Though it would be generous to call it a "face".]]

* RampJump: The motorbike jump. [[spoiler: It doesn't end well.]]

* SchmuckBait: The cellar isn't just this, it's ''filled'' with these.

* SoundTrackDissonance: The big office party with cheerful Music/REOSpeedwagon music playing while Dana gets savaged by a zombie in the background.

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

* TurnedAgainstTheirMasters: "The Carnage"

** There are [[UpToEleven even more monsters]] not glimpsed in the film or named on the whiteboard, but who show up in behind-the-scenes features on the DVD. These include a {{Cyclops}}, the "[[WakingUpAtTheMorgue Man in Transparent Tarp]]", a spook who [[FacialHorror peels his own face away]], someone with a [[EldritchAbomination jellyfish-like head]], a [[CreepyCentipedes giant centipede]], a BlobMonster, a [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever Giantess]] to go with the whiteboard's Giant, [[{{Hellhound}} vicious dogs]], and a [[OurGnomesAreWeirder killer garden gnome]] played hilariously by an angry-looking little kid. Oh yes, and a FlyingFace which is [[CreatorCameo actually]] the CGI-disembodied head of makeup effects artist David Leroy Anderson. A comment on one of the "making of" features reveals that there were about a ''hundred'' monsters involved, not even counting the hordes of zombies and such (another seventy).

* SealedEvilInACan: PlayedStraight, taken UpToEleven, then [[SubvertedTrope subverted]]. It's made clear early on that [[spoiler: the facility has a stockpile of NightmareFuel. Eventually, it is revealed that their stockpile is a well organized collection of ''every'' type of horror movie monster one can think of, including a few one would ''never'' have expected (e.g. unicorns, mermen, ''trees''[[note]]unless you've seen an ''Franchise/EvilDead'' film, of course[[/note]]). But it's then revealed that even this encyclopedia of terror is just a part of a [[AlwaysABiggerFish bigger can]] that holds back [[EldritchAbomination even bigger evils]].]]

* LovableJock: Curt and Holden. [[spoiler: At first, anyway. The controllers use mind-altering chemicals to turn Curt into a JerkJock, and Holden into a HollywoodNerd to fulfill their roles in the ritual.]]

* PantyShot: Dana's introduction in the movie shows her dancing in her room in a T-shirt and panties. [[SarcasmMode 'The Virgin' indeed.]]

* KillEmAll: [[spoiler: No, not just everyone in the movie. [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt EVE-RY-ONE.]]]]

* EpicFail: 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, it STOPS him mid-jump and he falls down to the bottom of the canyon.]]

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Marty and Dana survive The Facility'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, because every single worldwide ritual flopped, the enraged Ancient Ones finally go on the warpath, causing TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.]]

** [[spoiler: The merman.]] "Oh, come ''on''..."

** Patience lives up to her name [[spoiler: in the end.]]

%%* CollapsingLair: At the end.