Taglines: We work with what we have.
The movie opens with a pair of middle-aged men walking through some kind of facility discussing mundane details about marriage and potential children, while a younger woman in a lab coat is trying to inform them about an incident at the Stockholm facility. The two men are not particularly concerned about what she is telling them. They mention that the facility in Japan will get the job done, and that their U.S. facility usually comes in second place. As they board a golf cart and drive off, the younger of the two men invites the older one to come over to his house for the upcoming weekend.
The scene shifts to a room in a college town where Dana (Kristen Connolly) and Jules (Anna Hutchison) are talking about school. Apparently, Dana had an affair with one of her professors and it ended badly. Jules’s boyfriend Curt (Chris Hemsworth) walks in and throws a football at the girls. It flies out the window and Curt’s friend Holden (Jesse Williams), a fix-up for Dana, catches it down below. The guys are there to pick up the girls for a long weekend at a lakeside cabin that Curt’s cousin owns. Dana finishes packing and they all go downstairs to pack up the RV. They are about to leave when their friend Marty pulls up in his car smoking pot from a huge bong that converts into a travel mug.
We cut back to video screens in the previously seen facility where the two middle-aged men, Sitterson (Richard Jenkins) and Hadley (Bradley Whitford), are watching all of this happen. Apparently, they have been drugging the kids through various means (hair dye for Jules, Marty’s stash, etc.) but they don’t say why.
The group is close to the cabin when they stop for gas and directions. The attendant, Mordecai (Tim DeZarn), is old, unfriendly, and more than a little bit crazy. He tells them that they will have no problem getting to the cabin, it’s the getting back they should be worried about. The kids laugh at him, he becomes sarcastic and aggressive, and there’s almost a fight when he refers to Jules as a whore. Instead, everyone gets back into the RV and they drive away. They have to go through a u-shaped tunnel in the mountain to get to the cabin. As they pass through it, a bird tries to fly across the ravine and hits an invisible shield. It electrocutes the bird and it falls, presumably, to its death.
Meanwhile, back at the facility, the phone rings and Hadley answers. It’s Mordecai. He reports that the college kids are on their way to the cabin and tells them how the reveler almost messed it up for them and they should be careful. Then he gets mad because Hadley has put him on speakerphone; he hangs up while Hadley and Sitterson laugh.
They arrive at the cabin and unpack. It’s obvious that they are still being watched by cameras set up by the facility people. Holden is in his bedroom putting on his bathing suit when he notices an awful painting on the wall. He takes it down and underneath it there’s a window into the next room where Dana is staying. She starts to take off her clothes, unaware that the mirror in her room is revealing everything to Holden in the next room. Holden runs into Dana’s room and tells her what’s going on and they switch rooms. Now Dana can see Holden and she definitely likes what she sees.
All the people at the facility have gathered to place bets on what fate the people in the cabin will choose. Hadley really wants it to be the merman. A new agent called Truman (Brian White) is shocked by the way he sees the others behaving. A more seasoned agent, Lin (Amy Acker), tells him that she understands how he feels, but he shouldn’t judge the others for their seemingly flippant behavior. Truman, however, continues to question Hadley and Sitterson about the proceedings; Truman thinks it’s unfair, although they all seem to understand that what is going on is of the utmost importance.
At the cabin, everyone goes into the living room and starts drinking. Marty continues to smoke the pot he brought. They’re all getting pretty tanked and start to play Truth or Dare. Jules is dared to make out with a wolf head mounted on the wall. Then it’s Dana’s turn. She has just chosen dare when the door to the basement flies open, startling them all. They dare her to go down into the basement.
She does and the rest of them follow. There is a ton of really strange stuff down there. Dana picks up a diary. Curt chooses a puzzle ball and tries to open it. Jules likes a wedding dress and starts to put on the necklace that goes with it. Marty is looking at a conch shell and Holden is mesmerized by a child’s jewelry box that opens to reveal a dancing ballerina when, all of a sudden…
The Cabin in the Woods is a 2012 American horror comedy film directed by Drew Goddard in his directorial debut, produced by Joss Whedon, and written by Whedon and Goddard. The film stars Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, and Bradley Whitford. The plot follows a group of college students who retreat to a remote forest cabin where they fall victim to backwoods zombies and the technicians who manipulate events from an underground facility.
The film was originally slated for release on February 5, 2010, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and United Artists, but was indefinitely shelved due to financial difficulties. In 2011, Lionsgate picked up the distribution rights. The film premiered on March 9, 2012, at the South by Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas and was released in the United States on April 13, 2012, grossing over $66 million worldwide.
The Cabin in the Woods (2012)
Directed by: Drew Goddard
Starring: Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford, Brian White, Amy Acker, Tim DeZarn, Jodelle Ferland
Screenplay by: Joss Whedon, Drew Goddard
Production Design by: Martin Whist
Cinematography by: Peter Deming
Film Editing by: Lisa Lassek
Costume Design by: Shawna Trpcic
Set Decoration by: Hamish Purdy
Art Direction by: Michael Diner, Kendelle Elliott, Tom Reta
Music by: David Julyan
MPAA Rating: R for strong bloody horror violence and gore, language, drug use and some sexuality / nudity.
Distributed by: Lionsgate Films
Release Date: April 13, 2012
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