Dark Gods Below: The Cabin in the Woods

The distinct cheesiness of a horror film is intentionally created in The Cabin in the Woods as a distinct subplot of a much larger story arc. Beneath the Earth, demons sleep, and governments across the world manipulate staged deaths in a ritual to keep the dark gods asleep. The classic horror film plays out, as the teenagers are hormonally manipulated into the typical stereotypes associated with a truly awful horror flick, and then are killed by a combination of chemically induced bad-decision making, and any of a random assortment of supernatural monsters donated courtesy of said dark gods. While the horror movie style, and the complete lack of ethics on the part of the governments are sickening, they do pose an important philosophical question. If the world is indeed supernatural, do the ethics of the past really apply? If the government does not conduct these rituals, will the world really burn? Its also a question of whether the primitive beliefs that these sacrifices are necessary or not that drives this. It appears the demons are real, which makes the whole thing seem like a sickening, but important process. But how powerful are they? Could humans challenge them and win? Or are they just a figment of our imagination, a relic of a bygone age?