The Cabin in the Woods (2011)

Five friends go for a break at a remote cabin, where they get more than they bargained for, discovering the truth behind the cabin in the woods.

Director:

Drew Goddard

Writers:

Joss Whedon, Drew Goddard

Stars:

Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison

20 wins & 34 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Kristen Connolly	...	Dana
Chris Hemsworth	...	Curt
Anna Hutchison	...	Jules
Fran Kranz	...	Marty
Jesse Williams	...	Holden
Richard Jenkins	...	Sitterson
Bradley Whitford	...	Hadley
Brian White	...	Truman
Amy Acker	...	Lin
Tim DeZarn	...	Mordecai
Tom Lenk	...	Ronald The Intern
Dan Payne	...	Mathew Buckner
Jodelle Ferland	...	Patience Buckner
Dan Shea	...	Father Buckner
Maya Massar	...	Mother Buckner

Storyline

Five teenagers head off for a weekend at a secluded cabin in the woods. They arrive to find they are quite isolated with no means of communicating with the outside world. When the cellar door flings itself open, they of course go down to investigate. They find an odd assortment of relics and curios, but when one of the women, Dana, reads from a book, she awakens a family of deadly zombie killers. However, there's far more going on than meets the eye.

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Plot Keywords:

cabin in the woods | lovecraftian | zombie child | 20th century | surrealism | 

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Taglines:

Quaint abandoned property... sold.

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Genres:

Horror

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong bloody horror violence and gore, language, drug use and some sexuality/nudity

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English Japanese

Release Date:

13 April 2012 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Cabin in the Woods

Filming Locations:

British Columbia Institute of Technology - Aerospace Technology Campus, Vancouver International Airport, 3800 Cessna Drive, Richmond, British Columbia, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$30,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$14,743,614, 15 April 2012

Gross USA:

$42,073,277

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$94,348,403

Company Credits

Production Co:

Lionsgate, Mutant Enemy, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital Datasat SDDS Dolby Surround 7.1 Dolby Atmos (UHD Blu-ray version)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.40 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon wrote the screenplay for themselves after both came off failed film projects. They locked themselves up in a hotel room in order to challenge themselves, and wrote almost the entire script in one weekend.

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Goofs

Bottles of beer are shown up to their necks in water in a cooler, and one bottle is shown being extracted from the cooler with water dripping from it. In the next shot when the bottle is tossed to someone, it is clearly completely dry.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Hadley: It's... hormonal. Yeah, I don't... usually fall back on, you know, it's-it's women's issues, but...
Sitterson: But child-proofed how? Gates and stuff?
Hadley: Dude, she did the drawers. We don't even know if this whole fertility thing's gonna work. She screwed in these little jobbies where you can't even open the drawers.
Sitterson: At all?
Hadley: No. They open, you know, like an inch, then you gotta dig your finger in. I mean, it's a nightmare.
Sitterson: I guess sooner or later...
Hadley: Yeah, well, a *lot* later. She did the *upper*...
[...]

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Connections

Featured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Movies That Faced MAJOR Delays (2018)

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Soundtracks

So Easy
Written and Performed by Jesse Hughes and Josh Homme
From the Eagles of Death Metal 'Peace Love Death Metal'
Courtesy of Rekords Rekords

User Reviews

An anti-horror horror movie

This film is a horror movie that is poking fun at horror movies and movies in general. So if you're looking for a film that you can cradle a scared lady-friend to, this is not the one.

To anyone who has watched Southpark's Britney Spears episode you will know the parallel that Matt Stone & Trey Parker drew between our modern culture glorifying and then using celebrities up as an ancient sacrifice to the gods to ensure a good harvest. This movie does the same- by creating a reality TV type scenario that the main characters walk into. But it takes it a step further, in showing how the horror movie clichés (joker, jock, slut, nerd and virgin) can be seen as a more elaborate version of this kind of sacrifice ; and horror is the genre that supplies an endless stream of blood to satisfy this ancient need.

But the characters are so much more than clichés- in the movie they actually are noticing how they are falling/being cast into these roles and being less and less human, less and less themselves. That in itself has me tipping my hat to the writers. Joss Whedon you clever beast!

As to it not being pure horror- that's the point of the movie. I was enjoying the commentary that the narrative made while it developed and because i didn't know where it was heading and why things were happening, it kept me on edge and interested to the very end.

At one point I was sitting there thinking - wow this movie must have been so much fun to make! It was definitely fun to watch.