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| ==Plot== | ==Plot== | ||
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| In |
In the opening scene of the film, two technicians in a sophisticated industrial facility—Richard Sitterson (]) and Steve Hadley (])—are getting ready for an unknown operation. | ||
| Meanwhile, five |
Meanwhile, five college students—Dana (]), Curt (]), Jules (]), Marty (]), and Holden (])—drive out for a vacation to a remote cabin in the woods that was recently purchased by Curt's cousin. As they near the cabin, several ominous events occur. They stop for gas and meet a mysterious and aggressive man, Mordecai, who owns the gas station and warns them of the dangers of the cabin. Once they have left, he calls the technicians to inform them of the visitors' arrival. When they get to the cabin, the technicians, including Wendy Lin (]), as well as other workers, get ready to initiate their as-yet-unexplained operation. | ||
| In the rustic cabin, the friends begin to party by swimming in a nearby lake, drinking, smoking pot, and playing ]. While playing, a cellar slams open and, on various pretexts, the five of them enter the cellar, which is full of mysterious old artifacts. Meanwhile, the technicians excitedly bet on what actions the teens will take. When Dana reads from an old diary, she inadvertently causes zombies to rise from the grave, and it is also seen that the technicians were betting on which of a long list of different monsters would attack, with those betting on Redneck Zombie Family winning due to Dana's actions. | |||
| The technicians then alter the teens' behavior by administering hormones through |
The technicians then alter the teens' behavior by administering hormones through vents inside and outside. Curt and Jules go outside to have sex while the technicians eagerly watch in anticipation. In the midst of the sex act, Curt and Jules are attacked by ] and Jules is killed. In the cabin, the paranoid Marty begins to feel as if they are being controlled by '']s" and goes outside, where he runs into the fleeing Curt and a zombie. The friends attempt to barricade the cabin against the zombies while the technicians attempt to bring about their deaths with various manipulations. Marty finds a surveillance camera in his room, confirming his paranoid fantasies, but he is attacked and presumably killed off-screen. Holden, Dana, and Curt escape the cabin and flee in their RV. | ||
| They get as far as a long mountain tunnel and the technicians worry they will escape when they see that their planned tunnel-blocking explosion has not happened due to a "glitch". Sitterson is able to fix the problem, blowing up the tunnel and cutting off the escape route. Curt uses his motorbike to jump the gap in the exit road but as he jumps, he runs into an enormous force field that causes him to fall and die, and Holden and Dana realize something much greater is happening than they had believed. | |||
| Holden and Dana |
Holden and Dana search for another escape route, with Dana now believing Marty's talk of "puppeteers." As they are driving, a zombie kills Holden and they crash into the lake. The technicians drink in celebration that they have completed the "ritual," while the screens in the background show Dana fighting for her life with the zombie. The party soon stops when a phone call from "upstairs" informs them that Marty survived and caused the glitch. Just as Dana is about to be killed, Marty rescues her by attacking the zombie. | ||
| It turns out that while the others were trying to escape, Marty came across a hidden control box in the cabin from which he was able to access an elevator with glass walls. He and Dana take it down to the facility where the technicians are, and as they do so, they pass by a number of monsters and Dana realizes that the artifacts in the cellar were set up by the "puppeteers" to let them decide their method of death. Their glass elevator is but one of many pods, each containing its own monster. Dana and Marty escape the elevator but are cornered by a SWAT team. In a last effort to escape, they release all the monsters in all the pods, which kills off all the SWAT teams and then proceeds to kill everyone in the facility. Sitterson stays alive and escapes via a secret trap door but is stabbed accidentally by Dana. His dying words are that she must kill "him"—a reference to Marty. It has become clear that the ritual seeks to appease some ancient power, and four must be sacrificed each year, with the death of the fifth—"the Virgin", i.e. Dana—being last and optional. | |||
| Dana and Marty find a large crypt with strange tablets and then meet the "Director" (]). She then tells them the reason for the ritual is to appease gods called "The Ancient Ones" who live beneath the facility and want the sacrifice of five young people |
Dana and Marty find a large crypt with strange tablets and then meet the "Director" (]). She then tells them the reason for the ritual is to appease gods called "The Ancient Ones" who live beneath the facility and want the sacrifice of five young people who comprise certain archetypes: The Athlete, The Whore, The Scholar, The Fool, and The Virgin. If the ritual is not completed, the Ancient Ones will rise and destroy the world. To complete it, Marty must die before sunrise, and Dana may live or die, but at least must outlive Marty for the ritual to be complete. | ||
| Dana |
Dana aims her gun at Marty but hesitates. The Director attacks Marty and tries to kill him while Dana is attacked by a ]. Marty saves her, but the Director gets the upper hand and steals the gun from him. Before she can shoot, though, a zombie attacks her and Marty knocks them both off the platform and into the abode of the Ancient Ones. | ||
| Marty sits and comforts Dana while also lighting a joint. He then remarks that this course of action might be for the best, that it might be better for someone else to get a chance at life. Morning comes and Marty and Dana hold each other as a hand from one of the Ancient Ones rises up and destroys the facility and cabin |
Marty sits and comforts Dana while also lighting a joint. He then remarks that this course of action might be for the best, that it might be better for someone else to get a chance at life. Morning comes and Marty and Dana hold each other as a gigantic hand from one of the Ancient Ones rises up and destroys the facility and cabin. | ||
| <!-- Please review ] before adding material. --> | <!-- Please review ] before adding material. --> | ||
Revision as of 02:40, 15 April 2012
2012 Template:Film US film| The Cabin in the Woods | |
|---|---|
_theatrical_poster.jpg) Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Drew Goddard |
| Written by | Drew Goddard Joss Whedon |
| Produced by | Joss Whedon |
| Starring | Kristen Connolly Chris Hemsworth Anna Hutchison Fran Kranz Jesse Williams Richard Jenkins Bradley Whitford |
| Cinematography | Peter Deming |
| Edited by | Lisa Lassek |
| Music by | David Julyan |
| Production company | Mutant Enemy Productions |
| Distributed by | Lionsgate |
| Release date |
|
| Running time | 95 minutes |
| Country | Template:Film US |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $30 million |
The Cabin in the Woods is a 2012 horror film co-written and directed by Drew Goddard and co-written and produced by Joss Whedon. It stars Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford, Jesse Williams, Anna Hutchison, and Fran Kranz. The film was released on April 13, 2012.
Plot
In the opening scene of the film, two technicians in a sophisticated industrial facility—Richard Sitterson (Richard Jenkins) and Steve Hadley (Bradley Whitford)—are getting ready for an unknown operation.
Meanwhile, five college students—Dana (Kristen Connolly), Curt (Chris Hemsworth), Jules (Anna Hutchison), Marty (Fran Kranz), and Holden (Jesse Williams)—drive out for a vacation to a remote cabin in the woods that was recently purchased by Curt's cousin. As they near the cabin, several ominous events occur. They stop for gas and meet a mysterious and aggressive man, Mordecai, who owns the gas station and warns them of the dangers of the cabin. Once they have left, he calls the technicians to inform them of the visitors' arrival. When they get to the cabin, the technicians, including Wendy Lin (Amy Acker), as well as other workers, get ready to initiate their as-yet-unexplained operation.
In the rustic cabin, the friends begin to party by swimming in a nearby lake, drinking, smoking pot, and playing Truth or Dare. While playing, a cellar slams open and, on various pretexts, the five of them enter the cellar, which is full of mysterious old artifacts. Meanwhile, the technicians excitedly bet on what actions the teens will take. When Dana reads from an old diary, she inadvertently causes zombies to rise from the grave, and it is also seen that the technicians were betting on which of a long list of different monsters would attack, with those betting on Redneck Zombie Family winning due to Dana's actions.
The technicians then alter the teens' behavior by administering hormones through vents inside and outside. Curt and Jules go outside to have sex while the technicians eagerly watch in anticipation. In the midst of the sex act, Curt and Jules are attacked by Zombies and Jules is killed. In the cabin, the paranoid Marty begins to feel as if they are being controlled by puppeteers" and goes outside, where he runs into the fleeing Curt and a zombie. The friends attempt to barricade the cabin against the zombies while the technicians attempt to bring about their deaths with various manipulations. Marty finds a surveillance camera in his room, confirming his paranoid fantasies, but he is attacked and presumably killed off-screen. Holden, Dana, and Curt escape the cabin and flee in their RV.
They get as far as a long mountain tunnel and the technicians worry they will escape when they see that their planned tunnel-blocking explosion has not happened due to a "glitch". Sitterson is able to fix the problem, blowing up the tunnel and cutting off the escape route. Curt uses his motorbike to jump the gap in the exit road but as he jumps, he runs into an enormous force field that causes him to fall and die, and Holden and Dana realize something much greater is happening than they had believed.
Holden and Dana search for another escape route, with Dana now believing Marty's talk of "puppeteers." As they are driving, a zombie kills Holden and they crash into the lake. The technicians drink in celebration that they have completed the "ritual," while the screens in the background show Dana fighting for her life with the zombie. The party soon stops when a phone call from "upstairs" informs them that Marty survived and caused the glitch. Just as Dana is about to be killed, Marty rescues her by attacking the zombie.
It turns out that while the others were trying to escape, Marty came across a hidden control box in the cabin from which he was able to access an elevator with glass walls. He and Dana take it down to the facility where the technicians are, and as they do so, they pass by a number of monsters and Dana realizes that the artifacts in the cellar were set up by the "puppeteers" to let them decide their method of death. Their glass elevator is but one of many pods, each containing its own monster. Dana and Marty escape the elevator but are cornered by a SWAT team. In a last effort to escape, they release all the monsters in all the pods, which kills off all the SWAT teams and then proceeds to kill everyone in the facility. Sitterson stays alive and escapes via a secret trap door but is stabbed accidentally by Dana. His dying words are that she must kill "him"—a reference to Marty. It has become clear that the ritual seeks to appease some ancient power, and four must be sacrificed each year, with the death of the fifth—"the Virgin", i.e. Dana—being last and optional.
Dana and Marty find a large crypt with strange tablets and then meet the "Director" (Sigourney Weaver). She then tells them the reason for the ritual is to appease gods called "The Ancient Ones" who live beneath the facility and want the sacrifice of five young people who comprise certain archetypes: The Athlete, The Whore, The Scholar, The Fool, and The Virgin. If the ritual is not completed, the Ancient Ones will rise and destroy the world. To complete it, Marty must die before sunrise, and Dana may live or die, but at least must outlive Marty for the ritual to be complete.
Dana aims her gun at Marty but hesitates. The Director attacks Marty and tries to kill him while Dana is attacked by a werewolf. Marty saves her, but the Director gets the upper hand and steals the gun from him. Before she can shoot, though, a zombie attacks her and Marty knocks them both off the platform and into the abode of the Ancient Ones.
Marty sits and comforts Dana while also lighting a joint. He then remarks that this course of action might be for the best, that it might be better for someone else to get a chance at life. Morning comes and Marty and Dana hold each other as a gigantic hand from one of the Ancient Ones rises up and destroys the facility and cabin.
Cast
- Kristen Connolly as Dana Polk
- Chris Hemsworth as Curt Vaughan
- Anna Hutchison as Jules Louden
- Fran Kranz as Marty Mikalski
- Jesse Williams as Holden McCrea
- Richard Jenkins as Richard Sitterson
- Bradley Whitford as Steve Hadley
- Brian White as Truman
- Amy Acker as Wendy Lin
- Sigourney Weaver as The Director
- Tim de Zarn as Mordecai
- Jodelle Ferland as Patience Buckner
- Matt Drake as Judah Buckner
- Dan Payne as Mathew Buckner
- Dan Shea as Father Buckner
- Maya Massar as Mother Buckner
Production
The project began filming in March 2009 and completed on May 29, 2009, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Joss Whedon co-wrote the script with Cloverfield screenwriter Drew Goddard, who also directed the film, marking his directorial debut. Goddard previously worked with Whedon on both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel as a writer.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy on November 3, 2010, but the film was still released as one of MGM's last pre-Spyglass films in development.
Whedon described the film as an attempt to revitalize the horror genre which he, along with director/co-writer Goddard, felt had "devolved" with the introduction of "torture porn". He called it a "loving hate letter" to the genre continuing
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 all right 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 torture porn 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.
Release
The Cabin in the Woods was slated for wide release on February 5, 2010 and then delayed until January 14, 2011 so the film could be converted to 3D. However, on June 17, 2010, MGM announced that the film would be delayed indefinitely due to ongoing financial difficulties at the studio.
On March 16, 2011, the Los Angeles Times reported the following: "New (MGM) chief executives Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum are seeking to sell both (a) Red Dawn (remake) and the horror film The Cabin in the Woods, the last two pictures produced under a previous regime, as they try to reshape the 87-year-old company." A distribution sale to Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation was announced on April 28, 2011, with some industry news outlets reporting plans for a Halloween 2011 release. On July 20, 2011, Lionsgate announced that they had acquired the distribution rights to the film and set a release date of April 13, 2012.
The film had its world premiere at the South by Southwest film festival on Friday, March 9, 2012.
Reception
The Cabin in the Woods has received a positive critical reception; based on 140 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, the film currently holds a 93% approval rating from critics, with an average score of 7.9/10. The reviewers for Spill.com praised the film, calling it a "game-changer" and saying it was on par with classic genre-bending horror films like Evil Dead II.
Film critic Roger Ebert gave The Cabin in the Woods three stars out of four, and commented "The Cabin in the Woods has been constructed almost as a puzzle for horror fans to solve. Which conventions are being toyed with? Which authors and films are being referred to? Is the film itself an act of criticism?"
References
- ^ "Lionsgate Schedules THE CABIN IN THE WOODS for April 13, 2012". Collider. Retrieved July 21, 2011.
- "THE CABIN IN THE WOODS (15)". British Board of Film Classification. 2012-03-22. Retrieved 2012-04-13.
- "Joss Whedon's The Cabin in the Woods to Feature Creatures?". Dreadcentral.com. Retrieved 2010-10-04.
- Barnes, Brooks. "The Cabin in the Woods". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
- ^ Reynolds, Simon (10 March 2009). "Five more go to 'Cabin In The Woods'". Digital Spy. Retrieved 10 March 2009.
- Kit, Borys (21 January 2009). "Two feel Joss Whedon's 'Cabin' pressure". The Hollywood Reporter. Nielsen Business Media. Retrieved 21 January 2009.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - Fernandez, Jay A. (22 March 2009). "'Stomp the Yard' actor lands two film roles". The Hollywood Reporter. Nielsen Business Media. Retrieved 23 March 2009.
- "'The Cabin in the Woods' a Creature Feature?!". Bloody-disgusting.com. Retrieved 2010-10-04.
- http://www.totalfilm.com/news/joss-whedon-talks-the-cabin-in-the-woods
- Lee, Patrick (7 January 2009). "Joss Whedon is now working with Tom Cruise. Horrors? Yes!". Sci Fi Wire. SCI FI. Retrieved 13 January 2009.
- "Whedon's Cabin in the Woods Going 3D in '11". Comingsoon.net. 9 October 2009. Retrieved 9 October 2009.
- "Whedon's CABIN moves ahead a year…into the third dimension". Fangoria.
- "Joss Whedon's Cabin in the Woods may be MGM's next casualty". Cinemablend.com. 2010-06-17. Retrieved 2010-10-04.
- "MGM To Morph Into A Pure Production Play?". Deadline.com.
- Fritz, Ben; Horn, John (16 March 2011). "Reel China: Hollywood tries to stay on China's good side". Los Angeles Times.
- "Joss Whedon's 'Cabin In The Woods' With 'Thor's Chris Hemsworth Going To Lionsgate". Retrieved 6 May 2011.
- "The Cabin in the Woods Coming October 28?". Retrieved 15 May 2011.
- "SXSW: 'Cabin in the Woods' kills at premiere. Just don't talk about it!". Retrieved 2 April 2012.
- http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_cabin_in_the_woods/
- http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120411/REVIEWS/120419993/
External links
- Official website
- The Cabin in the Woods at IMDb
- Template:Allrovi movie
- The Cabin in the Woods at Box Office Mojo
- The Cabin in the Woods at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Cabin in the Woods at Metacritic
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