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Artist Statement:
I chose to analyze The Cabin in the Woods for this project because it’s a film I am already familiar with and one I was looking forward to watching again. Drew Goddard is the director of the movie and it was released in 2012. Since rewatching the film and further analyzing it for this project, it has become one of my favorite movies.
There is a lot I like about The Cabin in the Woods including its references to other films, the group’s awareness of their strange situation, and the ordinary characters and their roles. References to other movies are riddled throughout the film; this cabin is based on the cabin from The Evil Dead, especially with its creepy basement. Many references come from specific objects in the basement as well, such as the puzzle sphere, based off the puzzle boxes from the Hellraiser series. The way the zombies emerge is based off early zombie films where their hand shoots out of the ground, followed by the rest of the undead body. There are also many references to famous monsters and characters such as King Kong, Pennywise from It, and the twins from The Shining. In the final scenes of the film, we see events unfold through the scientists’ monitors, where more references are made to other movies, such as scenes similar to Ju-on.
The group finds out they’re part of something bigger when they find a two-way mirror and cameras hidden in objects like lamps. It’s later confirmed when Marty finds one of the elevators for the monsters and rides it back into the facility. Marty seemed to be onto something immediately when things started getting weird, but it was played off as a character trait of the stoner being suspicious of the government. This is one of the few clichés the films uses; Goddard wanted the film to have clichés because it made it seem cheesy, but then turns into something bigger and more convincing.
One thing I’m conflicted about is the ending; I like it and then I don’t. The two remaining survivors don’t kill each other, despite knowing the consequences. There was some struggle but they survive. This angered the Gods who the scientists were trying to please, resulting in them shooting out of the ground and destroying the cabin and presumably everyone on earth. It’s a unique ending I haven’t seen in other films so I like that, but nobody wins. Everyone on earth is killed and that’s it. With everyone dead, there can be no sequel because there is literally nothing left. I enjoy the unique ending, but I’d consider doing it differently. The film could have ended much differently if the other woman who was killed during the final scene, could have counted as the sacrifice. However, this alternative doesn’t fit in with the theme of the roles assigned to survivors.
There is a lot I like about The Cabin in the Woods including its references to other films, the group’s awareness of their strange situation, and the ordinary characters and their roles. References to other movies are riddled throughout the film; this cabin is based on the cabin from The Evil Dead, especially with its creepy basement. Many references come from specific objects in the basement as well, such as the puzzle sphere, based off the puzzle boxes from the Hellraiser series. The way the zombies emerge is based off early zombie films where their hand shoots out of the ground, followed by the rest of the undead body. There are also many references to famous monsters and characters such as King Kong, Pennywise from It, and the twins from The Shining. In the final scenes of the film, we see events unfold through the scientists’ monitors, where more references are made to other movies, such as scenes similar to Ju-on.
The group finds out they’re part of something bigger when they find a two-way mirror and cameras hidden in objects like lamps. It’s later confirmed when Marty finds one of the elevators for the monsters and rides it back into the facility. Marty seemed to be onto something immediately when things started getting weird, but it was played off as a character trait of the stoner being suspicious of the government. This is one of the few clichés the films uses; Goddard wanted the film to have clichés because it made it seem cheesy, but then turns into something bigger and more convincing.
One thing I’m conflicted about is the ending; I like it and then I don’t. The two remaining survivors don’t kill each other, despite knowing the consequences. There was some struggle but they survive. This angered the Gods who the scientists were trying to please, resulting in them shooting out of the ground and destroying the cabin and presumably everyone on earth. It’s a unique ending I haven’t seen in other films so I like that, but nobody wins. Everyone on earth is killed and that’s it. With everyone dead, there can be no sequel because there is literally nothing left. I enjoy the unique ending, but I’d consider doing it differently. The film could have ended much differently if the other woman who was killed during the final scene, could have counted as the sacrifice. However, this alternative doesn’t fit in with the theme of the roles assigned to survivors.
Characters:
The five major characters of the film are all assigned roles to play along in the scientists game. The scientists unleash the monsters upon the cabin and the group, but only once the group choose an item that has a predetermined monster assigned to it. The Buckner family, or as they are referred to in the movie, “redneck zombie torture family”. Dana Polk summons them when she reads the Latin diary of Patience Buckner. The main characters are Dana Polk-The Virgin, Marty Mikalski-The Fool, Jules Louden-The Whore, Curt Vaughan-The Athlete, and Holden McCrea-The Scholar.
The amount of references to other films, TV shows, and video games is staggering. Not to say the director, Drew Goddard and his team of writers are unoriginal, but every signal monster is a reference or the actual monster from other works. There are the common monsters such as zombies and the werewolf, but there is also all the “special infected” from the “Left 4 Dead” video game service. In the picture above is what is the clearest reference to other films, the cenobites from the Hellraiser film series. The character is named Fornicus, Lord of Bondsge and Pain. Literally the only difference between him and pinhead from Hellraiser is the name and the fact that Fornicus had saw blades in his head instead of pins. They even share a very similar artifact which is a glorified Rubin cube.