(Almost) every horror reference in The Cabin In The Woods, explained
Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon’s 2012 film The Cabin In The Woods has been both revered and reviled by movie fans. For its supporters, the metatextual approach to examining tropes of the horror film genre was a unique way of discussing both the need for scary movies in audiences’ lives and the problems with a stagnant subculture that seems to churn out the same product on a regular basis. For its detractors, the film is a pretentious and ridiculous attempt to overexplain something while not providing any real scares of its own. But no matter what side of the divide you fall on, there is something most can agree on: The film is stuffed with references to well-known horror icons and film conventions that Goddard and Whedon use to further their meditation on the role and status of horror movies.