What monster comes from the film?
April 14, 2012 11:43 AM Subscribe
Cabin in the Woods question SPOILERS!
OK, so each of the trinkets in the basement gives rise to a monster. Diary = Redneck Torture Zombies, Locket = Many-mouthed Ballerina, Conch Shell = Merman, Puzzlebox = Pinhead Knockoff.
We know that everything in the basement leads to something. Even the doll-mask that no one picked up will lead to the dollmask people that later come out of the elevator *DING* in the basement charnelhouse.
But what about the film reels? The ones that attract our erstwhile protagonist? They're the only one that doesn't appear to correspond to a monster. Thoughts?
OK, so each of the trinkets in the basement gives rise to a monster. Diary = Redneck Torture Zombies, Locket = Many-mouthed Ballerina, Conch Shell = Merman, Puzzlebox = Pinhead Knockoff.
We know that everything in the basement leads to something. Even the doll-mask that no one picked up will lead to the dollmask people that later come out of the elevator *DING* in the basement charnelhouse.
But what about the film reels? The ones that attract our erstwhile protagonist? They're the only one that doesn't appear to correspond to a monster. Thoughts?
I wondered the same thing! I'm seeing the movie for the second time tonight and I'm going to keep an eye out for it.
Btw, I think that the many-mouthed ballerina was the "Sugar Plum Fairy" mentioned on the massive white board during the betting scene, and I think it was tied to the musical jewelry box, not the locket. Did the locket have a unicorn on it, perhaps?
posted by lizzicide at 12:52 PM on April 14, 2012 [1 favorite]
Btw, I think that the many-mouthed ballerina was the "Sugar Plum Fairy" mentioned on the massive white board during the betting scene, and I think it was tied to the musical jewelry box, not the locket. Did the locket have a unicorn on it, perhaps?
posted by lizzicide at 12:52 PM on April 14, 2012 [1 favorite]
Mr. Fence here. Just seen it, and I noticed two haunting little girls (identical twins, I think) holding hands in one of the fancy shifting boxes. A possible reference to Mr. Kubrick's take on The Shining...?
posted by Fence at 1:23 PM on April 14, 2012
posted by Fence at 1:23 PM on April 14, 2012
Response by poster: Not every monster is tied to a basement item we see, BUT every basement item is clearly tied to a monster.
I'm wondering if either:
1. Protagonist is proxy for Whedon himself, and thus captivation with film
2. It's some sort of variation on The Ring, with film instead of video.
...also, Unicorn, heh.
posted by leotrotsky at 1:37 PM on April 14, 2012
I'm wondering if either:
1. Protagonist is proxy for Whedon himself, and thus captivation with film
2. It's some sort of variation on The Ring, with film instead of video.
...also, Unicorn, heh.
posted by leotrotsky at 1:37 PM on April 14, 2012
themoviespoiler.com claims that the film would have brought Werewolves to life. But I don't buy that. I prefer to think that the film he looks at... is a print of The Cabin in the Woods.
posted by eschatfische at 1:44 PM on April 14, 2012 [5 favorites]
posted by eschatfische at 1:44 PM on April 14, 2012 [5 favorites]
Right, I was going to say what eschatfische said. Maybe the film reels activate the meta-disaster we watch.
posted by gerryblog at 2:29 PM on April 14, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by gerryblog at 2:29 PM on April 14, 2012 [1 favorite]
I like and generally agree with what eschatfische and gerryblog came up with.
My take on it, upon some reflection last night after seeing the movie, was that the film reels are there to symbolically tie all the monsters to the medium of film. Something I'm still sort of unclear on is why the giant Gods deep underground all WANT these sacrifices? Why are they interested in standard horror tropes? So, I thought the film reels served as some sort of connection between the sacrifices made to the Gods and the reason those sacrifices somehow need to follow the human nightmares we see in horror movies.
posted by ORthey at 3:50 PM on April 14, 2012
My take on it, upon some reflection last night after seeing the movie, was that the film reels are there to symbolically tie all the monsters to the medium of film. Something I'm still sort of unclear on is why the giant Gods deep underground all WANT these sacrifices? Why are they interested in standard horror tropes? So, I thought the film reels served as some sort of connection between the sacrifices made to the Gods and the reason those sacrifices somehow need to follow the human nightmares we see in horror movies.
posted by ORthey at 3:50 PM on April 14, 2012
I wondered this too. I think the locket would summon "The Bride" which is referenced on the whiteboard, it was round the neck of a dressmaker's dummy in a white dress. But I can't think of a monster that applies, unless it's the smoky ghosty one.
posted by featherboa at 3:54 PM on April 14, 2012
posted by featherboa at 3:54 PM on April 14, 2012
Well, I'm back and disappointed to report that a second viewing (while great!) did not help me come up with an answer to this question. Nor did the locket feature a unicorn, which I realize now makes sense - One of the office workers submits his bet to Hadley, who replies "I don't think we have one of those." "Zoology says we do." "Well, they'd know."
posted by lizzicide at 4:58 PM on April 14, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by lizzicide at 4:58 PM on April 14, 2012 [1 favorite]
Wouldn't the film reels represent Scream? So the scenario would be some kind of self-referential horror movie about horror movies, and One of Our Main Characters In Disguise Would Have Been the Killer All Along (induced to kill by the Directors using pheromones or magical hair dye or just a few good fake-outs).
As to why the Ancient Gods were interested in horror tropes, I would assume it's the other way around—we only have horror tropes because of the subconscious desires of the Ancient Gods or because of sneaky leaked information from generations of Directors blah blah blah hand-wavey whatever.
posted by bcwinters at 5:01 PM on April 14, 2012 [2 favorites]
As to why the Ancient Gods were interested in horror tropes, I would assume it's the other way around—we only have horror tropes because of the subconscious desires of the Ancient Gods or because of sneaky leaked information from generations of Directors blah blah blah hand-wavey whatever.
posted by bcwinters at 5:01 PM on April 14, 2012 [2 favorites]
IMDB has a list of monsters seen in the movie and I found a pic of the whiteboard. I like ORthey's theory! Now excuse me while I daydream about the telescoping, weaponized bong.
posted by beekept at 5:41 PM on April 14, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by beekept at 5:41 PM on April 14, 2012 [2 favorites]
My husband and I cannot wait to get a video copy of this so we can frame-by-frame through the elevator/cube scenes. He claims he saw a baby Alien; I did not see that. Twins were definitely Shining Twins.
Two things I never want to be corrected on: 1) "Snowman" on the whiteboard is the Snowman from This American Life, the one that can bench press 400 pounds. 2) The Hellraiser-homage Sawface was played, uncredited, by Jason Statham.
On topic, there was a moment where something made me think "oh, that's the film-reel thing," but I can't remember what it was now. I'll need the DVD to figure it out.
And "Kevin" is going to plague me to the end of my days. Which is fine.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:52 PM on April 14, 2012
Two things I never want to be corrected on: 1) "Snowman" on the whiteboard is the Snowman from This American Life, the one that can bench press 400 pounds. 2) The Hellraiser-homage Sawface was played, uncredited, by Jason Statham.
On topic, there was a moment where something made me think "oh, that's the film-reel thing," but I can't remember what it was now. I'll need the DVD to figure it out.
And "Kevin" is going to plague me to the end of my days. Which is fine.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:52 PM on April 14, 2012
I kinda thought that "Kevin" was a stand in for "Jason."
posted by anansi at 5:26 AM on April 15, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by anansi at 5:26 AM on April 15, 2012 [2 favorites]
The film reels represent us, the audience. We're paying money to see people killed, to see a a bit of tits and ass, to live though our archetypes and then putter home to our safe houses.
We want to watch horror films and feel smug and superior as we yell at the screen and pretend we're better than the poor fools on screen. We are an audience in a modern day lion pit, cackling as people are torn apart.
The Ancient Ones are obviously the studio execs who keep feeding us this crap.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:14 PM on April 15, 2012 [1 favorite]
We want to watch horror films and feel smug and superior as we yell at the screen and pretend we're better than the poor fools on screen. We are an audience in a modern day lion pit, cackling as people are torn apart.
The Ancient Ones are obviously the studio execs who keep feeding us this crap.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:14 PM on April 15, 2012 [1 favorite]
Something I'm still sort of unclear on is why the giant Gods deep underground all WANT these sacrifices? Why are they interested in standard horror tropes? So, I thought the film reels served as some sort of connection between the sacrifices made to the Gods and the reason those sacrifices somehow need to follow the human nightmares we see in horror movies.
bcwinters is right: it's the other way round. They actually say this specifically in the control room, early on.
I kinda thought that "Kevin" was a stand in for "Jason."
That makes sense. My first reaction was that it's a reference to 'We Need to Talk About Kevin', but I haven't seen or read that, so I don't know.
posted by Infinite Jest at 1:52 PM on April 18, 2012
bcwinters is right: it's the other way round. They actually say this specifically in the control room, early on.
I kinda thought that "Kevin" was a stand in for "Jason."
That makes sense. My first reaction was that it's a reference to 'We Need to Talk About Kevin', but I haven't seen or read that, so I don't know.
posted by Infinite Jest at 1:52 PM on April 18, 2012
But what about the film reels? The ones that attract our erstwhile protagonist? They're the only one that doesn't appear to correspond to a monster. Thoughts?
[Some spoilers for Evil Dead]
OK, complete coincidence here. I watched Cabin in the Woods on Wednesday. That got me thinking I should watch some more classic horror, and Evil Dead was available for streaming, so that's what I went with.
CITW is a total, loving tribute to Evil Dead! Pretty much every scene in the first 20 minutes of ED (and many in the rest of the film) is referenced in some way in CITW. Including the bit with the film reel - except in Evil Dead it's an audio reel-to-reel tape, which they play and which summons the monsters. (And then later in the film there's a scene where a film projector starts playing, for no apparent reason).
So I'd go with the interpretation that it represents film, specifically horror film, on a meta level.
posted by Infinite Jest at 5:33 AM on April 20, 2012 [3 favorites]
[Some spoilers for Evil Dead]
OK, complete coincidence here. I watched Cabin in the Woods on Wednesday. That got me thinking I should watch some more classic horror, and Evil Dead was available for streaming, so that's what I went with.
CITW is a total, loving tribute to Evil Dead! Pretty much every scene in the first 20 minutes of ED (and many in the rest of the film) is referenced in some way in CITW. Including the bit with the film reel - except in Evil Dead it's an audio reel-to-reel tape, which they play and which summons the monsters. (And then later in the film there's a scene where a film projector starts playing, for no apparent reason).
So I'd go with the interpretation that it represents film, specifically horror film, on a meta level.
posted by Infinite Jest at 5:33 AM on April 20, 2012 [3 favorites]
IMDb says Kevin is an unassuming-looking serial killer.
posted by lilac girl at 9:26 PM on April 20, 2012
posted by lilac girl at 9:26 PM on April 20, 2012
Infinite Jest: "CITW is a total, loving tribute to Evil Dead!"
Yeah, I noticed there was "Angry Molesting Tree" on the whiteboard...
You might find your answer in The Cabin in the Woods: The Official Visual Companion
posted by the_artificer at 3:29 PM on May 10, 2012
Yeah, I noticed there was "Angry Molesting Tree" on the whiteboard...
You might find your answer in The Cabin in the Woods: The Official Visual Companion
posted by the_artificer at 3:29 PM on May 10, 2012
according to the official wiki, in the novelization the film reels summon Kevin.
posted by luvcraft at 11:07 AM on November 24, 2012
posted by luvcraft at 11:07 AM on November 24, 2012
« Older My girlfriend's moving in... and so is her cat! | Is the lion broken or are we just incompatible?? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
So basically I don't know :)
posted by Fence at 11:45 AM on April 14, 2012