History Fridge / TheCabinInTheWoods

* There could also be another reason Dana and Marty decide to let the world crumble at the Ancient Gods. Even if they did complete the sacrifice, humanity and the rest of the world would probably die anyway, because those monsters are eventually going to find a way out of the building.

*** The archetypes for the ''American'' branch, as described by the ''American'' Director, need not conform with the ''Japanese'' archetypes, and vice versa. The archetypes for J-Horror are very different from those in American film -- other than the kids having sex in a car in ''Literature/TheRing'', NONE of the five archetypes described at the end of this film are found in ''Literature/TheRing'' or ''Film/{{Juon}}'' or ''Film/ChakushinAri'', for instance.

* Meta-example: In the commentary, Joss Whedon mentions that when they wrote the script for the ending, they simply put a single line in for all the various horror movie kills that would be shown on close-circuit: "There's chaos on every screen." Only much later did they realise that not only would they have to ''shoot'' all this chaos, but those five words would eat up a very substantial portion of their budget.

*** Also, another thing that makes ''Film/TheFaculty'' the film that's being referenced is that unlike all the other references which are parodies of monsters and horrors of actual horror movies, ''The Faculty'' is a sci-fi thriller teen drama with minor horror aspects. The others mentioned have horror as the primary genre or the first genre in focus while ''The Faculty'' has sci-fi, thriller and teen drama ahead of the horror. ''The Faculty'' wasn't a horror movie, thus not applicable to the rules of horror like ''Scream'' or other horror movies of the time.

* Not only did the Controllers radically alter the students' personalities, in doing so they actively took away any skills the heroes could use against them. Jules was the TeamMom, responsible and pragmatic. She's turned into TheDitz, taking away an intellectual element. Similarly, Curt goes from a GeniusBruiser who MinoredInAssKicking into just a JerkJock DumbMuscle; most evident when his natural personality tells them to stick together, but the Controllers make him change his mind. Holden is the most physically capable of the group and a full badass, so the Controllers turn him into a HollywoodNerd to prevent him from fighting back. Dana, the artist who has flings with professors and has an unpredictable nature is turned into [[FinalGirl The Virgin]] to make her demure and not assertive. And Marty, who also MinoredInAsskicking with Curt and is just as smart, was intended to have his drug use altered. But since his drugs were untouched, he's more cautious and able to fight back. He refuses to drink, instead of turning into a hedonist. The Controllers weren't just "working with what [they] have" to fit the ritual, they were handicapping the students.

* Why did the Kyoto incident fail? Remember that most of the "victims" were about nine years old. This could be a reference to InfantImmortality. However, this could also be a reference to DefangedHorrors; watch the scene where they turn the StringyHairedGhostGirl into a frog apparently with the PowerOfFriendship, note that there were [[EverybodyLives no casualties]], and then watch your typical scary movie directed at children. In other words? While they invoked J-horror tropes, the scenario turned into a LighterAndSofter DefangedHorrors version instead!

* Not only did the Controllers radically alter the students' personalities, in doing so they actively took away any skills the heroes could use against them. Jules was the TeamMom, responsible and pragmatic. She's turned into TheDitz, taking away an intellectual element. Similarly, Curt goes from a GeniusBruiser who MinoredInAssKicking into just a JerkJock DumbMuscle; most evident when his natural personality tells them to stick together, but the Controllers make him change his mind. Holden is the most physically capable of the group and a full badass, so the Controllers turn him into a HollywoodNerd to prevent him from fighting back. Dana, the artist who has flings with professors and has an unpredictable nature is turned into TheVirgin to make her demure and not assertive. And Marty, who also MinoredInAsskicking with Curt and is just as smart, was intended to have his drug use altered. But since his drugs were untouched, he's more cautious and able to fight back. He refuses to drink, instead of turning into a hedonist. The Controllers weren't just "working with what [they] have" to fit the ritual, they were handicapping the students.

* Why a unicorn? Because it doesn't have to be specially trained to leave TheVirgin unharmed -- popular depiction is that only a virgin can tame and ride unicorns.

** That, and the Virgin dies last... even if she's a pain-worshiping zombie, apparently.

** In addition, how could the controllers possibly make the mistake of thinking that Marty died when it is clearly shown that they are monitoring the vital signs of all the participants? It is demonstrated that the victims are not aware their vitals are being monitored (topless Jules is clearly not wearing a heart monitor or a blood pressure cuff) meaning it would have to be some kind of implant or imbibed device. Therefore, when Marty is dragged into the woods and stabbed by one of the Buckners, his injuries (which are numerous) must have damaged the device enough that the controllers read him as dead.
** Or possibly the five of them were tricked into ''ingesting'' tiny monitoring/tracking devices shortly before their trip, and Marty puked his up from his injuries and/or the ickiness of having to dismember a zombie. Dana barfs when she's getting the snot kicked out of her at the dock as well, after which the facility's personnel seem unable to keep tabs on the location of either of them.

** Or Patience knows if Dana didn't die from her werewolf mauling, she's now going to turn into one.

** Is the unicorn really that evil? After all, there are also myths about unicorns being good but ultimately wild creatures who only kill evil people -- and the facility was certainly full of those. It could also be set on the 'sinful' teenagers. Thanks to the EnforcedTrope that's going on, who knows how it would have worked.
** Old-school unicorns were killers of anybody who got near them ''but'' virgins, though. For the Facility's purposes, they'd make sure to use an old-school one, because there's no guarantee that ''all'' the Sacrifices would be 'sinful' enough to merit death, e.g. one might prefer to heed the Harbinger's words and avoid the cabin but get out-voted four to one, then linger upstairs rather than enter the cellar with the others.
** FridgeLogic hits here, though: If The Organization has to resort to using fake virgins these days, then a unicorn is not a great choice of monster to keep around. Presumably, the unicorn, unlike the Ancient Ones, knows the difference between a fake virgin and the genuine article. If that monster had been released, things might have gone south much faster.
* In the opening scene, Hadley complains to Sitterson that his wife is over-preparing for their planned pregnancy, which has yet to occur. He says that the more prepared you are to have a child, the less likely you are to have one. This foreshadows how being CrazyPrepared will make you vulnerable to the tiniest deviations that slip through all your perfectly-crafted plans. The agency prepared for everything -- except for the "ineffectual comic relief" just barely escaping what, a few inches to the side, would have been a fatal wound, which snowballed into worse and worse consequences later on.
** It's also very subtle foreshadowing: Hadley's wife has gone so far as to put childproof latches on all the kitchen cupboards, but Hadley is tired of the inconvenience and is planning to "liberate" his shelves by taking off the latches. The Facility itself has a ''lot'' of carefully-latched cupboards full of monsters, and by the end of the night, Dana's and Marty's frustrations will see the contents of all of ''those'' liberated...

** But, the Ancient Ones rose specifically BECAUSE they didn't get their cliched and formulaic movie...
** The voyeuristic, first-person view that is part of slasher movies and dumb actions of the victims has caused audiences to want the clueless leads to die in many of them. The more this movie goes along, the more you want the leads to die for a different reason.
** At the very end, when the Ancient Ones' hand comes down and engulfs the screen, it could be a representation of the audience facepalming at the film.
** It could also represent the fact that, when the movie is over and the audience stops watching, the world in which the story takes place essentially ends.

** Or... as mentioned in the main wiki, Rodriguez' ''Film/TheFaculty'' was released, where everybody survives because of homemade drugs (it's mentioned that the only failure, in '98, was the Chem department's fault).

** Excuse me-"zombie redneck torture family", not "zombie'. They're two different species.
*** BUT! "redneck torture family" is an important distinction! The movie is at least in part a reaction to TorturePorn in horror and a voyeuristic that enjoys seeing things through the monster's eyes. What better monster than one who gets a "husband bulge" from "cutting the flesh"?

* Many of the problems the evil organization suffers are heavily implied to be caused by the gods themselves. Presumably they are getting bored with the old formula. And what happens when a horror franchise gets tired? Aliens vs Predators, Freddy vs Jason, CROSSOVERS, such as every monster getting loose at once. The gods deliberately caused a situation where everything would be released.

* When Marty "dies", the whole operation is interrupted by an earthquake, which Sitterson attributes to the enjoyment of someone "downstairs." However, it never happens when anyone else is killed because they're NOT actually happy. The earthquake comes after Hadley tells the EldritchAbomination that "the fool" is dead when he had really survived.

** At the very end, when the Ancient Ones' hand comes down and engulfs the screen, It could be a representation of the audience facepalming at the film.

* Amongst the monsters are special infected from ''VideoGame/Left4Dead''. Now what does the director do in that game again?

* There is an offhand statement of "Where's the gas?" when the System Purge is initiated, therefor what is supposed to probably happen, is the cubes are filled with a knockout/killing gas, then open, allowing a prepped team to take the creature out of the cube safely, but another misfire happens because Dana pressed just a bunch of buttons, she didn't know (and probably wouldn't have cared if she did) the right order to press the buttons to "safely" release the monsters.

[[AC:FridgeBrilliance]

[[AC:FridgeHorror]]: The Harbinger and Patience's diary corresponding to the Black Room both imply that the titular cabin is the place where the Bruckners did their killings. Moreover, Patience's diary refers specifically to the killings they performed on strangers that came across them, despite the cabin being as remote as we see. It's possible the Bruckners weren't just random murderers, they were part of the same conspiracy sacrificing people to the Elder Gods.

[[AC:FridgeLogic]]:

[[AC:FridgeBrilliance]]:

* Why was [[spoiler:the zombie girl the only one able to go from the cabin in the upper level to the lowest one in the Purge scene, when every monster has the goal of simply killing humans? Because her mission is to go for the main characters, and to accomplish that, she has a lot of ''Patience''.]]
** That, and [[spoiler: the Virgin dies last... even if she's a pain-worshiping zombie, apparently.]]

* When Marty "dies", the whole operation is interrupted by an earthquake, which Sitterson attributes to the enjoyment of someone "downstairs." However, it never happens when anyone else [[spoiler:is killed because they're NOT actually happy. The earthquake comes after Hadley tells the EldritchAbomination that "the fool" is dead when he had really survived.]]

* The tunnel [[spoiler: fails to collapse, and the demolitions expert claim it was "a power glitch from upstairs."]] It's easy to assume they're referring to the unseen directors, considering the controller's references to "upstairs" meaning management and "downstairs" meaning [[spoiler: The Ancient Ones]], but what it really was is [[spoiler: Marty, who survived the zombie, found the maintenance panel, and had since been fooling around with the wires from ''literally'' upstairs!]]

* The [[spoiler: Ancient God's]] arm looks strangely human-like for an EldritchAbomination. However it makes sense considering [[spoiler: the Gods are actually a representation of the audience.]]
* This film is actually a metaphor... for itself. The controllers have been going through the monotony of a [[spoiler: ritualistic sacrifice to assuage the "Gods"]] (read: audience), until things don't go according to the formula and then it changes the world forever. [[spoiler: The giant hand at the end]] is a symbol for the audience rebelling against the cliched and formulaic horror movie genre.
** But, [[spoiler:the Ancient Ones rose specifically BECAUSE they didn't get their cliched and formulaic movie...]]

** At the very end, when [[spoiler: the Ancient Ones' hand comes down and engulfs the screen,]] It could be a representation of [[spoiler: the audience facepalming at the film.]]

** Or... as mentioned in the main wiki, Rodriguez' ''Film/TheFaculty'' was released, where [[spoiler: everybody survives]] because of homemade drugs (it's mentioned that the only failure, in '98, was the Chem department's fault).
* As the finale shows, the Controllers have [[spoiler:all sorts of cool and exotic critters at their disposal to terrorize and kill a bunch of kids]]. But in a film that's all about deconstructing the horror genre, it's only natural that the film would use something as cliche-ridden and commonplace as the humble zombie just to further get its point across.

* Why did the Kyoto incident fail? Remember that most of the "victims" were about nine years old. This could be a reference to InfantImmortality. However, this could also be a reference to DefangedHorrors; watch the scene where they [[spoiler:turn the StringyHairedGhostGirl into a frog apparently with the PowerOfFriendship]], note that there were [[EverybodyLives no casualties]], and then watch your typical scary movie directed at children. In other words? While they invoked J-horror tropes, the scenario turned into a LighterAndSofter DefangedHorrors version instead!

*** Except that the [[spoiler:Ancient Ones]] demand that the five archetypes be fulfilled. At first, it could be FridgeHorror by assuming that one of the 9-year-olds must be a whore. However, children are taught by someone but there wasn't a teacher in the classroom. [[spoiler:The teacher must be the whore!]] It is possible to have an athlete, a class clown (fool), a scholar and (hopefully!) virgins in a group of 9-year-olds, so the archetypes would be fulfilled.
*** The archetypes for the ''American'' branch, as described by the ''American'' Director, need not conform with the ''Japanese'' archetypes, and vice versa. The archetypes for J-Horror are very different from those in American film -- other than the [[spoiler:kids having sex in a car]] in ''Literature/TheRing'', NONE of the five archetypes described at the end of this film are found in ''Literature/TheRing'' or ''Film/{{Juon}}'' or ''Film/ChakushinAri'', for instance.

* Why do the monsters only attack humans and not each other? [[spoiler: Lin says that the monsters were provided to the company by the Ancient Ones for the sacrifices. The monsters all only exist for one purpose: to kill human beings. They don't attack each other because they recognize each other as nonhuman.]]

* The Harbinger wasn't calling about the kids. [[spoiler: He was warning the crew about the end of the world. They ignored him, and that's why they were punished in the end, just like the kids they've sent to their deaths for years.]]
** [[spoiler: The Controllers even follow the phone call with a smug assertion that the victims are complicit in their deaths because they choose to ignore him!]]
** [[spoiler:The Harbinger specifically brings up the fact that "The Fool" was coherent enough to outsmart him, pointing out the clue to the flaw that would bring down the whole operation.]]
** Another subtle hint that the Harbinger wasn't just talking about the kids? [[spoiler: His name ''wasn't on the betting board''. Why bet, if it doesn't matter what monster gets picked because the operation is doomed to fail?]]

** Lin works for the Chem department, which screwed up on drugging Marty's weed and thus invited disaster. [[spoiler: Like Jules, who ''got'' screwed and invited disaster upon herself, Lin is grappled and dragged to her death by the Kraken, same as the Whore was snared and dragged by the bear trap.]]
** Truman is the most physically-fit of the named Facility characters. [[spoiler: He dies by his own hand when he pulls a grenade to take the Scarecrow Folk with him, same as Curt the Athlete dies by his own hand, in trying to save the day by jumping his bike over the canyon.]]
** Hadley is the comic relief of the Control staff, drinks on the job, backtalks the Harbinger, slips into philosophical asides interspersed with goofiness, and even hangs a lampshade with his last words. [[spoiler: He's mauled by the Merman in a fountain of blood, much as Marty gets dragged off-camera by Judah Buckner with a splash of gore; all that sets Hadley apart from the Fool is that he doesn't survive that encounter.]]
** Sitterson is the knowledgeable, nerdy professional of Control. [[spoiler: Like his fellow glasses-wearer, Holden the Scholar, he's fatally impaled by a rusty blade in the hands of an attacker he didn't even realize was there.]]
** The Director, the likely FinalGirl of the Facility staff, [[spoiler: gets attacked by a werewolf and Patience, then plummets to her presumed death in the Ancient Ones' pit. Dana likewise gets were-chomped and menaced by the undead girl, and presumably dies when the Ancient One's arm emerges ''from'' said pit: small wonder that many fans suspect the Director is a surviving Virgin as well.]]
** Note, also, that the sequence of these five deaths [[spoiler: is just as wrong as it is for the intended sacrifices. Lin dies ''after'' Truman and Hadley, whereas the Whore-figure is supposed to die first. The co-eds' death order is messed up at the closing end, with the Virgin failing to out-live the Fool; the Facility staff's deaths mess up the sequence at its beginning.]]