With Halloween just around the corner, it’s a good time to get in the mood with some great horror movies. While some people prefer straight scares with their horror, others like to add in some laughs as well. If that’s what you’re looking for, the brilliant horror-comedy Cabin in the Wood is a perfect choice.
Cabin in the Woods seems like the simple and well-worn horror tale about a group of teens on a getaway to an isolated cabin who become targets for evil forces. However, the movie has a lot more going on beneath the surface. It’s a wildly fun thrill ride we can’t believe actually got made. Here are some of the crazy facts behind the making of Cabin in the Woods.
The Opening
This was a difficult movie to market as so much of the success of the film relies on knowing as little as possible. The trailers did a good job selling the movie as a pretty straight-forward horror film, but the opening moments of the film show that something else is at work here.
The movie opens with Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford as two seemingly mundane office workers, preparing for their day of work. Little do we know, they are the puppet masters behind the whole horror show we’re about to see. The filmmakers deliberately started the movie with this scene to throw audiences off and have them questioning if they walked into the wrong theater.
The Writing Process
Given the inventive, hilarious and brilliant nature of the script, it might not be shocking to learn that the movie was written by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard. The two extremely talented filmmakers came together for this collaboration after both coming off failed projects.
According to the men, they sought to challenge themselves with writing a movie as fast as possible. They reportedly sealed themselves in a hotel room for three days, went on an epic writing marathon, and when they emerged, they had a first draft of the script.
Path To Thor
Aside from being a great genre film, Cabin in the Woods is also known for being one of Chris Hemsworth’s earliest Hollywood projects. Though Hemsworth is not the lead of the film, it did help springboard him into bigger projects, including the MCU.
After seeing his performance in the film, MGM hired Hemsworth for the remake of Red Dawn. Joss Whedon even chose him as the perfect actor for Thor, encouraging Marvel to audition him again. Ironically, because of MGM going out of business, Cabin in the Woods and Red Dawn were released after Thor.
Unseen Monsters
Cabin in the Woods is such a fun movie to revisit because it allows viewers to dive deeper into the many horror monsters that populate the movie. The scene in that shows the office betting pool for these monsters gives a hint at just how many creatures are in play here.
While many of the monsters listed in this scene are seen in action during the climax, there are some that don’t get their time to shine. Some of the creatures include demons, the bride, snowman and something named “Kevin”.
Left 4 Dead
Another scene that is great to explore on repeat viewings is the big shot of all the cages which house the monsters. We get to see some of these cages up close and some of the monsters appear later, but there’s a lot of interesting creatures hidden in this massive shot.
Many fans have been able to catch the fact that some characters from the video game Left 4 Dead appear in these cages. The original plan was for there to be a tie-in between the game and the movie, but those plans were abandoned after MGM went out of business.
Killer Inspiration
Though Cabin in the Woods is certainly an original film, it does pay loving homage to a number of horror classics. Even the title of the film is a nod to The Evil Dead. But while the filmmakers some of the most entertaining references involve the monsters and the various films they draw inspiration from.
There are the “Hell Lords” which are inspired by Pinhead from Hellraiser. There’s the alien beast from Alien. There’s the killer clown from It. And some fans have speculated that Kevin is a nod to the sadistic character of the same name from Sin City.
Whedon References
Joss Whedon is something of a geek icon. Even before he brought the Avengers together on the big screen, Whedon was known for his wildly popular Buffy the Vampire Slayer series as well as the short-lived but beloved Firefly series.
Clearly Whedon knows something about fan service and is willing to throw in a few nods to his fans in his other films. During the climax of Cabin in the Woods, fans have pointed out the appearance of “Reavers”, the mutant creatures that serve as villains in the Firefly show.
The Artifacts
As part of the ritual for the supposed doomed teens in the cabin, they need to summon whichever monster will be stalking them. This ultimately leads to them summoning the “Redneck Zombies” after reading a disturbing diary.
As we see in the movie, there are plenty of other artifacts in the cabin’s basement which could have summoned a variety of creatures. However, there are even more possibilities than you might have realized. According to the filmmakers, there was an artifact created for each individual monster in the film, which they estimate is around sixty.
Failed Rituals
We learn as the movie progresses that the rituals at work in the movie are meant to appease the angry gods who watch for entertainment. With the fate of the world on the line, they are not taking any chances and we see other rituals happening at the same time as the main cabin ritual.
Though the movie really only focuses on the ritual happening in Japan with school children battling a ghost, we do get quick glimpses at some of the other events. In Buenos Aires, we see a massive rampaging gorilla was defeated, in Stockholm, we see a snow-covered facility similar to The Thing, and in Madrid, there is a castle burning, perhaps a nod to Dracula.
The Horror Genre
Cabin in the Woods walks a fine line between being a loving homage to the horror genre while relentlessly mocking it. The filmmakers have described the film as a loving hate letter to the horror genre, especially as it exists now.
The movie plays around a lot with the tired clichés, bad writing and boring old concepts that populated horror movies at the time. But it also uses these tropes to have a lot of fun. And in the end, it is hard to look at a cliched horror film the same after seeing Cabin in the Woods.
