59 Fun Facts About The Cabin in the Woods

Which creature does one technician long to see all night, only to be killed by it?

A merman. He sighs 'I'm never gonna see a merman' early in the night, and gets his wish in the worst possible way in the final act.

Goddard and Whedon wrote The Cabin in the Woods screenplay in about how long?

Three days. The two shut themselves in a hotel room and challenged each other to finish a full draft before the weekend was over.

Which party game are the friends playing when the cabin's cellar door bursts open?

Truth or Dare. The control room pops the cellar hatch mid-game, and the others promptly dare Dana to climb down and look.

In The Cabin in the Woods, Marty is slotted into which archetype?

The Fool. At the gas station he mouths off to the creepy attendant, who later grumbles that 'the Fool nearly derailed the invocation'.

One student shocks her friends by making out with which piece of cabin decor?

A mounted wolf's head. Marty picks it out as 'that moose' and has to be corrected, and the prop's tongue was dusted with powdered sugar for the actress's sake.

Holden McCrea, 'The Scholar', is introduced as Curt's what?

Football teammate. Curt and his girlfriend bring him along as a blind date for Dana, and the facility files the athletic newcomer as its 'Scholar'.

Which actor, not yet a Marvel star when The Cabin in the Woods was shot, plays Curt?

Chris Hemsworth. He landed Thor just as Cabin wrapped in 2009, yet the horror film sat shelved so long that Thor reached cinemas a year before it.

Which screen icon appears in the final act as the facility's Director?

Sigourney Weaver. Her Director steps out only at the end to explain the ritual, and is promptly killed by one of the facility's own zombies.

Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford play which pair of facility technicians?

Sitterson and Hadley. The film opens on the pair making everyday small talk about marriage and children, before any student or cabin appears.

What are the technicians doing while Dana is beaten by a zombie on the dock?

Throwing an office party. They believe four students are dead, which completes the ritual whether the last one lives or dies, so the drinks come out while she suffers on the monitors.

Mordecai, the gas station owner who works for the facility, has which designation?

The Harbinger. He phones the control room with a solemn warning about the Ancient Ones, then spoils it by asking whether he is on speakerphone.

Tom Lenk, Andrew from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, plays which character in The Cabin in the Woods?

Ronald the Intern. In the final act he is glimpsed on a monitor holding handwritten pleas for rescue up to a security camera.

In The Cabin in the Woods, Dana summons the killers by reading aloud from whose diary?

Patience Buckner. Her diary describes the abuse she suffered at her family's hands, and Marty alone begs Dana not to read its closing lines aloud.

Which student is the first to die, attacked by zombies in the woods outside the cabin?

Jules Louden. The ritual demands that the 'Whore' dies first; after her the order is free, so long as the 'Virgin' is left until last.

How does Curt die?

His motorcycle jump hits an invisible force field. He guns it across the ravine to fetch help, smacks into the barrier in mid-air and drops into the gorge.

Holden is killed while the survivors try to flee in what vehicle?

An RV. A zombie hiding aboard kills him at the wheel, and it plunges into the lake, leaving Dana to swim for the dock alone.

What are the 'Ancient Ones' the ritual is meant to appease?

Colossal beings living beneath the earth. The Director explains that every region of the world stages its own sacrifice each year to keep them asleep.

Which country's operation unexpectedly collapses, leaving the American team as humanity's last hope?

Japan. Its team had a perfect record, yet a classroom of nine-year-old schoolgirls defeated the ghost sent to kill them.

What decides which monsters get unleashed on the students?

The relics they handle in the cellar. Each object is bait for a different creature, and the students must choose freely or the ritual doesn't count.

While the friends explore the cabin, what do the technicians do among themselves?

Bet on which monster will be released. The whole facility runs an office pool on a whiteboard of creatures, and Maintenance shares the winnings.

How does the facility nudge the students into their horror-movie roles?

Chemicals pumped through the vents. The chemistry team also doctors one student's hair dye, yet misses a hidden marijuana stash that leaves its smoker clear-headed.

In the temple beneath the facility, what is Dana urged to do to complete the ritual?

Kill Marty. The Director says his death alone will complete the ritual and save the world, and Dana gets as far as pointing a gun at him.

Which creature mauls Dana in the temple before she can decide whether to complete the ritual?

A werewolf. It strikes just as she raises a gun, and Marty snatches up the weapon to shoot the beast and drive it away.

How does The Cabin in the Woods end?

One of the Ancient Ones rises and the world ends. Dana and Marty decide that a humanity kept alive by ritual murder isn't worth saving, and wait for it together.

Where was The Cabin in the Woods shot?

Vancouver. Cameras rolled there on March 9, 2009; MGM's collapse then kept the finished film out of cinemas for three more years.

Which finished MGM remake was shelved alongside Cabin until 2012?

Red Dawn. It was shot months after Cabin in 2009, and MGM's new bosses put both up for sale as the last films made under the old regime.

In The Cabin in the Woods, what does the stoner conclude on finding a hidden camera?

He's on a reality TV show. 'My parents are gonna think I'm such a burn-out,' he groans, moments before a zombie drags him out through the window.

Cornered by armed guards inside the facility, how do the last two students fight back?

They release every caged monster. Dana hits a button marked for a system purge, every cell opens at once, and the creatures slaughter the staff.

Which studio eventually picked up The Cabin in the Woods after MGM shelved it?

Lionsgate. It picked up the orphaned film in 2011 and, Goddard said, 'didn't make us change a frame'.

How do the technicians stop the survivors from driving out of the valley?

They collapse the road tunnel. The charges fail to blow on cue, so the control room has to bring it down at the last second with the vehicle already inside.

MGM pushed The Cabin in the Woods back almost a year, to January 2011, to convert it to what?

3D. MGM wanted six months for the conversion; the plan was scrapped, and the film finally opened flat.

The Cabin in the Woods finally opened in US cinemas on which horror-friendly date?

Friday the 13th. April 13, 2012 came more than two years after MGM's first planned date, and suited a film that borrows freely from the slasher series.

The Cabin in the Woods was first shown, in the small hours, at which Austin film event?

Butt-Numb-A-Thon. Harry Knowles's 24-hour birthday marathon ran it ninth, around four in the morning, and it still fired up the crowd.

Monsters from which video game fill some cells in The Cabin in the Woods, after a cancelled tie-in?

Left 4 Dead 2. The tie-in level died with MGM's bankruptcy, but Valve still lent its Tank, Witch, Boomer and Hunter to fill the background cells.

With zombies at the door, which classic horror blunder does Curt suddenly propose?

Splitting up. Seconds earlier he had insisted they stay together no matter what; the control room changes his mind, then locks them in their rooms.

Whedon and Goddard wrote The Cabin in the Woods partly as a critique of which horror trend?

Torture porn. Whedon said he hated horror's slide into 'a long series of sadistic comeuppances' and felt the pendulum had swung too far.

The Cabin in the Woods' cinematographer, Peter Deming, had earlier shot a sequel in which backwoods horror series?

The Evil Dead. Deming shot Evil Dead II in 1987, and Cabin tips its hat: 'Deadites' are among the monsters listed on the control-room whiteboard.

A 2015 lawsuit accused Whedon and Goddard of lifting The Cabin in the Woods from what?

A self-published novel. Peter Gallagher said he had hawked The Little White Trip on the Venice Beach boardwalk; a judge threw out his $10 million claim within months.

Behind a gruesome painting in his bedroom, Holden discovers what?

A one-way mirror. It looks into Dana's room as she starts to undress; Holden tells her at once and the two swap rooms.

The incantation Dana reads aloud from the diary is written in which language?

Latin. Marty draws 'a line in the sand' and begs the others not to read it; Dana does, and the dead start digging out of their graves.

Which prize did Whedon and Goddard win in 2013 for The Cabin in the Woods screenplay?

Bram Stoker Award. The horror writers' prize went their way, but the Hugo they were also up for that year went to The Avengers, which Whedon wrote and directed.

Bradley Whitford, a lead technician in The Cabin in the Woods, won an Emmy as Josh Lyman in which series?

The West Wing. Whitford spent seven seasons as idealistic White House aide Josh Lyman; in Cabin he cheerfully engineers the deaths of five students.

Jesse Williams, who plays Holden, is best known as surgeon Jackson Avery in which medical drama?

Grey's Anatomy. Williams joined it months after shooting Cabin in 2009, so audiences knew him as a surgeon long before they saw him as Holden.

Before The Cabin in the Woods, Goddard's first produced film script was which monster movie?

Cloverfield. Its first teaser ran with no title at all, and the production hid behind fake names such as 'Slusho' and 'Cheese'.

Goddard earned a 2016 Oscar nomination for adapting which Andy Weir novel?

The Martian. Goddard was set to direct it too, but left for a Spider-Man spin-off that was never made, and Ridley Scott took over.

Kristen Connolly went on to play Christina Gallagher in which Netflix series?

House of Cards. Because Cabin sat shelved for three years, her horror lead and her Netflix role reached audiences less than a year apart.

Anna Hutchison, Cabin's Jules, was a regular in which series shot in New Zealand?

Power Rangers. Hutchison was the Yellow Ranger of its Jungle Fury season in 2008, a children's TV hero just a year before she shot this R-rated horror.

Fran Kranz was already known as Topher Brink in which Whedon TV series?

Dollhouse. Whedon kept him close: Kranz went on to play Claudio in his Much Ado About Nothing, filmed at the director's own house.

Jodelle Ferland, a zombie girl in The Cabin in the Woods, found fame as Alessa in which 2006 horror film?

Silent Hill. There she played a girl burned as a witch by a doomsday cult; Cabin turns her into one of the monsters doing the killing.

Heather Langenkamp, who helped build the monsters for The Cabin in the Woods, starred in which horror series?

A Nightmare on Elm Street. The actress who fought Freddy Krueger as Nancy now runs a make-up effects studio with her husband, and worked on Cabin as Heather L. Anderson.

Which blockbuster topped the US box office when Cabin opened?

The Hunger Games. Cabin opened third, behind The Three Stooges too, and audiences polled by CinemaScore handed the critics' favourite a C.

Which everyday first name appears among the monsters listed on the control-room whiteboard?

Kevin. He never appears on screen; the makers imagined him as a sweet, ordinary-looking man who is as deadly as anything else in the cells.

The remote cabin supposedly belongs to which relative of Curt's?

His cousin. The 'cousin's place' is really a stage wired with hidden cameras and run from a control room underneath it.

Goddard and Whedon had previously worked together as writers on which shows?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Goddard joined each as a staff writer for its final season, then left Whedon's stable for J.J. Abrams's before the two reunited for Cabin.

In The Cabin in the Woods, the stoner's enormous bong collapses to look like what?

A travel coffee mug. The prop department built it to work for real as both mug and bong, and the prototype reportedly cost $5,000.

One student, presumed dead, returns claiming to have dismembered a zombie with which garden tool?

A trowel. He had been stabbed and dragged off by that zombie, so the control room had already counted him among the dead.

As The Cabin in the Woods opens, the technicians hear that which city's operation has just failed?

Stockholm. That leaves only two sites still running, and the technicians shrug it off, sure that one of them will deliver as usual.

Which festival hosted the official premiere of The Cabin in the Woods on March 9, 2012?

South by Southwest. It was billed as the world premiere after more than two years on the shelf, though one Austin audience had been shown it in secret three months earlier.

How did Joss Whedon describe The Cabin in the Woods' relationship to the horror genre?

A 'loving hate letter'. Whedon said he loves being scared but can't stand 'kids acting like idiots', and called the film a serious critique of both sides of horror.