Cabin in the Woods

I hate scary movies, but I let my friends bully me into watching Cabin in the Woods (although I spent almost the entire thing under the blanket).  However, after watching I noticed several connections to what we have discussed in class.

The film is about a group of teenagers who think they are going on a fun weekend camping trip, but little do they know they are being trapped into an alternate, programmed, evil world controlled by other humans as a sacrifice to satisfy evil gods.  There are people who construct this world and control it for the sacrifice, but also for their own entertainment (they watch it as a movie).  They can control everything from creatures that come up, to the actions of the teenagers, to their very personalities.  This concept reminded me of our discussions of storytelling.  The people running the show are manipulating every detail.  These details all seem very real to the characters and audience, and in a way they are “real.”  They just aren’t authentic or natural—they are completely constructed by the filmmakers in the movie, and by extension the moviemakers in actuality.

            (**spoiler alert if you care:) Furthermore, the last lines of the movie are:

DANA: Nahh, you were right.  Humanity… (blows out smoke in a cynical ‘Pfft’)  It’s time to give someone else a chance.

MARTY: Giant evil gods.

DANA: Wish I coulda seen ‘em.

MARTY: I know!  That would be a fun weekend.

When Dana says “It’s time to give someone else a chance” I thought of Cat’s Cradle—a story of human stupidity.  Additionally, there is a metatextual component in the sense that we were watching a movie being made within a film, with the characters referring indirectly referring to the movie they are in.