The Cabin in the Woods

Cabin in the Woods, directed by Drew Goddard, tells the story of five friends who visit a cabin in the woods and are one-by-one killed by zombies. This is a horror film, so there is no doubt that there will be killing and torture. However, the film does some interesting things and says a lot about society’s desensitization to violence. Even in class as we were watching the film, people were laughing because it was humorous, but in a sick and twisted way.

The humor mostly comes from the fact that the audience never goes down beneath the bunker level occupied by ancient Gods, and stays with the agents as they watch the activity going on in the cabin. When the nightmare creatures are let loose in their scenarios to attack, they seem to be attacking the audience for enjoying horror films. The full implications of killing are never considered. I went ahead and finished watching the film (because we happened to end at a climax point, and I just wanted to see how the film ended), and even in the finale, it seems as if the director is asking the audience to question violence and death, beyond the film. Since the film was presented in this manner (the agents are watching people die as sport), violence has turned into something emotionally ambiguous. The end of the film, I felt strangely okay even with the signal of the end of the world. Violence was brought to us, it made us re-evaluate violence, and overall horror as a real thing.