Cabin in the Woods review

[Dînadan]

But if the monsters are allies or servitors of the Ancient Ones, then why do we have a biology department? The monster diversity in the film keeps butting heads with too many logistical questions about their nature and origins in context.

I don't have the link but Joss said they're the dreams of the Great Old Ones, so literally the act of having them murder people is a sweet dream for them.

Which questions why we have the biology department, etc.

Are the Bio Department stayed to specifically work on the monsters? Maybe they’re the ones that cook up the gas and stuff that makes the victims act in the stereotypical manner (or at least are tasked with monitoring how much is administered and if more is needed; the actual chemistry involved in manufacturing the gas is probably the work of the Chem Dept.).

[Morgaine]

Again I feel that the issue with the bored audience allegory is, isn't the monster mayhem on the facility something new?
Wouldn't that sufficiently entertain the great old ones for at least another year? Or are Resident Evil style breakouts more common than we're led to believe?

Also, Joss Whedon really has this annoying trait where his protagonists must always be in the right no matter if they even deserve to be.
The entire background with the company and what they're doing reminds me a great deal of the Initiative arc in Buffy, which of course inevitably ends with the high security facility containing monsters breaking down so the monsters can kill everyone, and has an epilogue which consists of "No no, the entire U.S. government and all it's resources has no place defending itself from or researching vampires and eldritch creatures, leave it all to the cheerleader, a band of college misfits and an ex-librarian."

Of course that outcome is not the same here.. mainly because there are no superheroes. Nonetheless Marty is presented as "right" in his judgement to let humanity die for the sins of a few.

[CharlesPhipps]

Like I said, taking the purely Watsonian view, I find the idea of condemning the two teenagers who just found out their friends were horribly murdered as part of a blood sacrifice then asked them to not only be willingly part of it--but that they should continue to allow it to happen forever after to be something I can't condemn out of hand even if it results in human extinction.

Someone mentioned "Those who walk away from Olmos."

Well, there's an independent space opera series called ANGEL IN THE WHIRLWIND (which I consider a rival for my own Lucifer's Star since Amazon recommends alongside mine and vice versa), they had one of the main characters hate his brother who was a smuggler. The brother had abandoned their world because his girlfriend was given as a sex slave to a group of pirates who attacked them regularly in order to get them to spare the colony.

The main character still stands by the decision as the needs of the money while others are (justifiably) appalled by it.

[Dominus_Pisces]

Review page

One of my favorite horror films.

Personally, I'm on the Director's side. Better a few dozen die a year than all of humanity suffers.

Intellectually, yeah the whole "needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" but I have a hard time holding it against Marty for his choice. If a mass shooter came into the school where I worked, tormented me, hunted me, and butchered everyone around me ... I would probably flip out if the cops came by to argue that the mass shooter was in the right and everything would be better for everyone else if I just stood there and let him kill me too. I'd probably let them all burn out of sheer spite, rather than giving those asshats the satisfaction.

Well, yeah. No one is really acting unreasonably here. Unreasonable defined as outside normal human behavior. Obviously Murder Inc isn't 'wrong' with what they do from a preservation of the majority, but Marty's standpoint is pretty justified from a traumatized victim pov. It's like stopping a rape victim's father from murdering the bastard and letting him stand trial. We know society requires us to defend the law and give the scum his court date. On the other hand, we know how we'd feel if it was our daughter, and how we'd find the dad if he suddenly appeared in court for the murder.

[Dominus_Pisces]

I'd volunteer to die to keep the Great Old Ones/Cthulhu from killing the human race.

However, the company was taking severe sadistic evil joy from their job and using innocents for seemingly no other reason than they're awful awful people.

I also am of their mind their system was destined to fail to begin with because the Great Old Ones are probably going to get sick of things anyway.

Actually, it's established they don't like their job and the betting and celebrations are more of a coping mechanism. Plus the kinds of people choosen' are decided by 'the boss'

[JL_Stinger]

Even though dying to save the world is usually the morally correct choice, I think Marty's decision not to die is the correct one. Not because the world deserves to be destroyed. It's simply that effectively being enslaved to the Ancient Ones is an unacceptable condition of existence and the complete extinguishing of life is preferable to perpetuating that enslavement. The sacrificial system has only ever been perpetuated in the first place because most humans are obsessed with perpetuating life, at any cost, regardless of the quality of life.

[Madner Kami]

Even though dying to save the world is usually the morally correct choice, I think Marty's decision not to die is the correct one. Not because the world deserves to be destroyed. It's simply that effectively being enslaved to the Ancient Ones is an unacceptable condition of existence and the complete extinguishing of life is preferable to perpetuating that enslavement. The sacrificial system has only ever been perpetuated in the first place because most humans are obsessed with perpetuating life, at any cost, regardless of the quality of life.

At first, humans were helpless against the Ancient Ones and monsters. Gradually, humanity got better at fighting the monsters to the point, that humanity is in clear control over Earth, the monsters are extinguished outside of some captive ones that are under tight control. It's clearly a matter of time till humanity can fuck over the Ancient Ones as easily. The moral choice is not and never has been in any situation, to fight to the death. That choice is the stupid choice. The moral and right choice is to find a way to survive, fight back and set things right again.

[CharlesPhipps]

There's a weird bit of headcanon that the monsters have been "beaten."

That's a strange attitude to have when it's clear they're in complete cooperation with the Great Old Ones. They're cultists, not resistance fighters.

[Madner Kami]

There's a weird bit of headcanon that the monsters have been "beaten."

That's a strange attitude to have when it's clear they're in complete cooperation with the Great Old Ones. They're cultists, not resistance fighters.

The movie makes it pretty clear, that monsters outside of the boundries of the area the movie plays in are, at the worst, a rarity. The group reacts shocked to their reveal and the logical involment of magic, for an example. Then there's the "all the monsters in those boxes"-scene and the scenes with the force field. It's pretty clear, that humanity has the monsters under control and, if you are looking for a subtle hint: The very fact that the Ancient Ones are bored out of their mind by the ritual sacrifice, makes it clear as day, that they barely get any blood and violence from other sources, something which wouldn't happen if they were in complete control of the situation.

[CharlesPhipps]

I think that's a charitable reading versus the Great Old Ones let the cultists give them regular feedings than feeding in the wild.

Man didn't beat the monsters, man was husbanded and ranched instead of hunted....and voluntarily so.