Cabin in the Woods review

[Endar]

The world in this movie is kind of like that in The Melody of Oblivion, where humans and monsters had a war, and the monsters won.

[BunBun299]

I think this review hit upon why it is impossible for me to like Lovecraftian horror. The line about humanity being a conquered species, who can only appease our masters. If that is the case, then why is the story not about over throwing these masters? Because to me, that would be the only story worth telling in such a situation. The story of surrender and appeasement is such an anethma to how I think, I cannot see why anyone would accept it. And if you're going to tell me about why these things are so beyond us that any resistance is pointless, don't bother. That is the very problem I have with the concept. At best, I'd enjoy a fanfiction of it where a Jaegar or Voltron or Godzilla comes in and kicks Cthulhu's ass.

I can accept a story where the bad guys win. I like Saw, The Usual Suspects, Fallen, Star Trek Voyager. The bad guy winning because they're just smarter than the heroes, or even luckier, can make for a good story. But I absolutely cannot enjoy a story where there is no hope from the beginning.

I always had the headcanon that they were buying time to develop technologically to fight these things. A few thousand years ago, the best things you had to fight any of this was a sword or spear. Now we have bullets, forcefields, containment cells, and research on how to contain the monsters. A couple hundred years, and we may be able to fight them.

It's a bit Salvation War, but that's my headcanon about it.

Now that could make for a good story.

[BunBun299]

I think this review hit upon why it is impossible for me to like Lovecraftian horror. The line about humanity being a conquered species, who can only appease our masters. If that is the case, then why is the story not about over throwing these masters? Because to me, that would be the only story worth telling in such a situation. The story of surrender and appeasement is such an anethma to how I think, I cannot see why anyone would accept it. And if you're going to tell me about why these things are so beyond us that any resistance is pointless, don't bother. That is the very problem I have with the concept. At best, I'd enjoy a fanfiction of it where a Jaegar or Voltron or Godzilla comes in and kicks Cthulhu's ass.

I can accept a story where the bad guys win. I like Saw, The Usual Suspects, Fallen, Star Trek Voyager. The bad guy winning because they're just smarter than the heroes, or even luckier, can make for a good story. But I absolutely cannot enjoy a story where there is no hope from the beginning.

Hmm. You might like the webcomic Soul to Call:

It IS Eldritch Horror, but it's focus is on the survival of the main protagonist, Avril, and the mysterious kid she meets during a delivery mission named Eli.

It doesn't focus on the overthrowing of the eldritch monsters, because their mere presence and arrival broke the world. It focuses not just on how they survive, but indirectly on WHY Avril survives beyond the beginning of the story.

I don't want to spoil the reasons why, as that's one of the best parts of the comic.

Also: I get not liking "there is no hope! All is hurk bleh ded and you can't change that!". I find it depressing, and boring, most of the time.

It's books marked, I might check it out one of these days. Thanks for the recommendation.

[Morgaine]

See here's my problem with the ending.

The fact that these people made Marty and his friends suffer is a fair point.. but then... they all died. Horribly.
So who is Marty taking revenge against? Those who harmed him have already been effectively been spared the horrors of these elder gods, so he's just condemning the entire world who has no idea what's happening out of petty selfishness and misanthropy.

Also, how is it these ancient ones aren't appeased by the murder and mayhem unleashed on the facility.
If the entire point is they're bored with the rituals and they're an allegory for demanding horror audiences always wanting something new then.... wouldn't the orgy of destruction and horror keep them happy for at least a little while?

You know what? I'm just going to believe the outcome is like that one episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer with the ancient demon that couldn't be harmed by any weapon forged from his time, but was easily taken out by a rocket launcher. The moment these elder gods and their minions attack their first city, they get missiled in the face into oblivion.

[Trinary]

See here's my problem with the ending.

The fact that these people made Marty and his friends suffer is a fair point.. but then... they all died. Horribly.
So who is Marty taking revenge against? Those who harmed him have already been effectively been spared the horrors of these elder gods, so he's just condemning the entire world who has no idea what's happening out of petty selfishness and misanthropy.

Not sure that's correct. This was just a single facility. Remember, we saw that there are such facilities in Spain, Argentina, Japan and likely other countries. Not to mention the fact that Truman, the new security guard, was trained and prepped for this job--but hadn't been to the place before now. All of this says that there are other installations and people involved beyond this compound.

Granted, Marty didn't directly know about this. But if he's smart enough to figure out this whole mess and tamper with the electricity, I think he can conclude that this isn't some rogue group all of whom are conveniently located in one single building. So he'd likely know there were more people out there involved with this horror.

But let's assume for the moment that he didn't come to that conclusion, that he thought that everyone involved WAS in that building and is now dead. What would him killing himself accomplish? If this is an annual thing, all he'd be accomplishing through his suicide would be to push doomsday back for one year. Because everyone, to his knowledge, who knows about the elder gods and can work to prevent their rise is dead already. So him killing himself isn't really going to change anything besides giving humanity 365 more days before they're right back to where they were before, only without anyone knowing what's coming or how to stop it. So what's the point?

[Morgaine]

See here's my problem with the ending.

The fact that these people made Marty and his friends suffer is a fair point.. but then... they all died. Horribly.
So who is Marty taking revenge against? Those who harmed him have already been effectively been spared the horrors of these elder gods, so he's just condemning the entire world who has no idea what's happening out of petty selfishness and misanthropy.

Not sure that's correct. This was just a single facility. Remember, we saw that there are such facilities in Spain, Argentina, Japan and likely other countries. Not to mention the fact that Truman, the new security guard, was trained and prepped for this job--but hadn't been to the place before now. All of this says that there are other installations and people involved beyond this compound.

Granted, Marty didn't directly know about this. But if he's smart enough to figure out this whole mess and tamper with the electricity, I think he can conclude that this isn't some rogue group all of whom are conveniently located in one single building. So he'd likely know there were more people out there involved with this horror.

But let's assume for the moment that he didn't come to that conclusion, that he thought that everyone involved WAS in that building and is now dead. What would him killing himself accomplish? If this is an annual thing, all he'd be accomplishing through his suicide would be to push doomsday back for one year. Because everyone, to his knowledge, who knows about the elder gods and can work to prevent their rise is dead already. So him killing himself isn't really going to change anything besides giving humanity 365 more days before they're right back to where they were before, only without anyone knowing what's coming or how to stop it. So what's the point?

The point is he's dead either way, and those directly responsible have paid for their crimes with their lives. So why not do at least one noble thing with his miserable life for the 99.9% of humans who aren't complicit in this?

Even if he's figured out that there are other facilities doing this, nothing says they're as blasé about it as the Americans were.
I simply dislike a story where a misanthrope is able to selfishly enact summary judgement on the entire planet. The only reaction I get from this ending is that the zombie rednecks should've done a better job.

[Trinary]

The point is he's dead either way, and those directly responsible have paid for their crimes with their lives. So why not do at least one noble thing with his miserable life for the 99.9% of humans who aren't complicit in this?

Even if he's figured out that there are other facilities doing this, nothing says they're as blasé about it as the Americans were.
I simply dislike a story where a misanthrope is able to selfishly enact summary judgement on the entire planet. The only reaction I get from this ending is that the zombie rednecks should've done a better job.

The point is he's dead either way, and those directly responsible have paid for their crimes with their lives. So why not do at least one noble thing with his miserable life for the 99.9% of humans who aren't complicit in this?

Even if he's figured out that there are other facilities doing this, nothing says they're as blasé about it as the Americans were.
I simply dislike a story where a misanthrope is able to selfishly enact summary judgement on the entire planet. The only reaction I get from this ending is that the zombie rednecks should've done a better job.

All I can say is that, yes, intellectually it's far better for Marty to die or kill himself rather than have all +7 billion human beings (plus animals and likely all life) die. But try as I might, I really can't get behind the idea that this should be just the common sense thing for Marty to do, that he shouldn't have to think twice about this, etc. Because, it's really not. If some gunman stormed into my room and said "Don't move! I have to kill you in the next two minutes or else you'll destroy the world!" I'm not going to just nod and go "Yeah, sounds right. Go ahead." Even if he had a magic wand or a pet demon on a leash, I'm not just going to accept that the world's existence hinges on my gruesome death. And I'm willing to best that 90% of people wouldn't either.

Remember, Marty was told all this by someone who, by her own admission, had been trying to murder him and his friends all night. He had maybe, what, three minutes to come to grips with the idea to casually accept his own death after barely escaping a night full of terror and slaughter? That's like being told that your parents/siblings/children have died and you one minute to go through all seven stages of grief and reach acceptance. It's just not going to happen for most people. Even if it's a wrong choice, I can't really hold it against him for having made it. After a night like that, being exposed to all the worst things in the world, seeing my friends die, being brutalized and an inch away from death myself, then finding out that other people deliberately and knowingly set it all up ... I wouldn't go along with a thing they said, even if the upshot was that the world would enter a golden age.

But I have a question: would you feel the same way if Marty hadn't had that pretentious line in the beginning about the world needing to fall apart? Or if, instead of the Dark Gods destroying everything, it would result in the world being wiped clean and humanity starting again from scratch. Would that make a difference?

Now, keep in mind, I'm just playing Devil's Advocate (no pun intended here).

If anyone's interested in how I thought the movie should've ended ... why not have them kill Marty, but the world ends anyway? After all, Marty wasn't really the Fool, now was he? He figured everything out.

Dana wasn't even really a Virgin. And at the risk of being jerky, I didn't get a good impression of her intelligence at the start by forgetting she wasn't wearing any pants and just loitering around a big open window. And hey, does anyone actually know if Marty is a virgin or not? Wouldn't that be a kind of interesting twist? That Marty was the Virgin who needed to live/survive last and Dana was the Fool?

[Morgaine]

The thing is Marty seems to completely believe the story about the elder gods awakening if he doesn't die.
If he were incredulous about it then that would be understandable - I would be too.

Now, if Marty wasn't a pretentious misanthrope I might find the ending a little more understandable, taking one's own life based on spurious claims by what appear to be raving psychopaths would be a very hard thing to do, and presenting Marty as being indecisive instead of judgemental would help me accept it more.
As for the world being wiped clean, personally I detest any sort of story where that happens. The population at large should not be killed off for the percieved crimes of some, even if their society is inherently corrupt.
To use a real world example, I think the societies of North Korea and Saudi Arabia are loathesome. But if I had a button I could press to erase them from existence and start again, I wouldn't do it. Because whatever the crimes of their society, and however many there perpetuate it, they are not all guilty, and they don't deserve to die for it.

[Deledrius]

There's also the question, taking that road, of whether Marty sacrificing himself altruistically would even count for the ritual.

Meanwhile, if the reading of this film as being the Facility's horror story is true, then the ritual actually succeeded as they were all punished for their hubris and there will be a lot of blood running down those stairs very soon.

[FaxModem1]

If anyone's interested in how I thought the movie should've ended ... why not have them kill Marty, but the world ends anyway? After all, Marty wasn't really the Fool, now was he? He figured everything out.

Dana wasn't even really a Virgin. And at the risk of being jerky, I didn't get a good impression of her intelligence at the start by forgetting she wasn't wearing any pants and just loitering around a big open window. And hey, does anyone actually know if Marty is a virgin or not? Wouldn't that be a kind of interesting twist? That Marty was the Virgin who needed to live/survive last and Dana was the Fool?

I think that's part of the point. The Company has gotten lazy and isn't putting their full effort into their annual sacrifice that they should be.

Dana is clearly not a virgin, as she was sleeping with her professor, Curt is athletic, but is also a very smart intellectual. Jules is a pre-med sweetheart, but since she dyed her hair blond, and is dating someone on the football team, they're making her the 'whore'. It seems more like the Company didn't really delve into their backstories as much as they should have and assigned them roles based on the smallest of criteria.

Marty acts foolish, but as he's the only one without a date for their trip, he could possibly be the virgin. Ash from Evil Dead survived after all, so maybe he was the virgin when they went camping? That's one of my headcanons, anyway.

Holden as the Athlete/Warrior would work fine, as while he's a nice guy, he's also clearly interested in Dana and is primarily known for his football arm.
Dana could work as the 'whore', as while she is grieving over her relationship with the professor, she is clearly doing what is considered a culturally inappropriate relationship.
Curt can work as the scholar, as he is clearly knowledgeable about the course curriculum and his chosen major.
Jules or Marty can work as the Virgin and/or the Fool, depending on how you would want to spin it.

However, the Company works off old criteria, and doesn't seem to delve into the individuals they have for the sacrifice. Whether this is because it's too unpleasant to do so or they have gotten lazy(or both), it's probably why they had so many failures, as they have gotten complacent in solving the world. Which is human nature, if something becomes regular, it becomes routine.