The Cabin in the Woods

IMDB Ratings: 7.3/10 from 98,204 users

The Cabin in the Woods is a 2012 American horror film directed and co-written by Drew Goddard and co-written and produced by Joss Whedon. It stars Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, and Jesse Williams. The film follows five friends who travel to a remote cabin for a holiday and become victims of a seemingly stereotypical horror movie plot while being observed via hidden cameras by mysterious office workers.

Plot

Technicians Gary Sitterson and Steve Hadley prepare for an operation, one of several taking place around the world, while joking with fellow technician Wendy Lin.

College students Dana Polk, Jules Louden and her boyfriend Curt Vaughan, Holden McCrea, and Marty Mikalski go to a remote cabin in the woods for a vacation. The technicians control the local environment from afar and give them mood-altering drugs to manipulate the group into following a scenario. The drugs gradually reduce the group's intelligence and awareness, and also increase their libido. After entering the cellar, the group discovers a large assortment of items, including a diary by Patience Buckner, a girl abused by her sadistic family. Reciting an incantation from the diary, Dana inadvertently triggers the Buckner family scenario — a family of zombies who rise from their graves.

Curt and Jules go outside to have sex, encouraged by more mood-altering drugs. The Buckners attack the lovers and kill Jules, but Curt flees to the cabin. Meanwhile, Marty, who frequently smokes marijuana, becomes paranoid and believes they are being manipulated. Curt informs the group of Jules' death. Discovering a hidden camera, Marty thinks that he is on a reality television show, but is attacked and dragged away by one of the Buckners. Holden, Dana, and Curt attempt to flee in their RV, but the technicians barely trigger a tunnel collapse to block their path. Curt attempts to jump a ravine to flee only to crash into an invisible forcefield and fall to his death. Realizing that something is unusual about the environment, Dana becomes convinced that Marty's worries about their being manipulated were correct. While driving back to the cabin, Holden is killed by a Buckner who has been hiding in the RV. The RV falls into the lake and Dana swims away, only to be attacked by a Buckner on the dock.

The technicians celebrate the completion of the ritual, but a phone call from "upstairs" informs them that Marty is still alive. Arriving at the dock, Marty saves Dana. Marty reveals that he dismembered his assailant after being dragged away, stumbled upon a control box hidden in the Buckners' graves, and was able to access an underground elevator. The technicians realize that Marty is immune to their drugs because of his marijuana habit. Marty and Dana take the elevator down to the lower levels of the facility, passing a variety of imprisoned monsters. One of the monsters carries an item that Dana remembers seeing in the cabin's cellar, and she realizes that the items in the cellar determine which monster will be released. When Dana and Marty are cornered by a security team, Dana uses a control station to release the monsters, who massacre the facility staff, including Hadley and Lin. Sitterson is inadvertently stabbed by Dana while fleeing into the lower levels of the facility.

Discovering a temple adorned with large stone tablets, Dana and Marty meet the Director. They are informed that the ritual is to appease the "Ancient Ones" — beings who live beneath the facility and are kept in perpetual slumber through an annual, ritual sacrifice of five young people who embody certain archetypes: the Whore (Jules), the Athlete (Curt), the Scholar (Holden), the Fool (Marty), and the Virgin (Dana). The order in which they die does not matter, as long as the virgin is last, and her death is optional, as long as she suffers. Should the Ancient Ones awake, they will destroy the world. The Director reveals that rituals around the world have been taking place for the same purpose, but each of them failed. Dana is urged by the Director to kill Marty to complete the ritual. Dana draws a gun on Marty, but is attacked by a werewolf while the Director fights with Marty. Patience Buckner arrives and kills the Director before Marty pushes them both into the Ancient Ones' pit.

Marty forgives Dana for threatening to shoot him. The pair accept that it might be better for another species to take humanity's place if this is the price of its continued existence. Marty and Dana light a cigarette and hold hands as the gigantic hand of an Ancient One rises up, destroying the facility and the cabin.