*SPOILERS* If you haven’t seen this movie yet, go watch it, then come back and read this. Or, if you don’t care, keep reading anyway.
Cabin in the Woods has gotten a lot of attention since it came out, and with good reason.
Watching horror movies has become such a different experience for me these days. I watch them in an almost clinical or academic way, and for that exact reason Cabin in the Woods was a perfect movie for me. It took my detached mode of watching a horror movie, deconstructed it and reflected it back at me.
First lets talk about the types of horror present in this movie.
Horror by Reduction: Yes this type of horror is very present in this movie, but not in the typical way. We are not shown humans transforming into zombies, vampires, or demons. However the true horror comes along with what is implied by the Facility and the Controllers. The horror by reduction comes from the idea that we can be reduced to machines controlled completely by our environment. Adjust the temperature, release pheromones reduce “cognition” through hair dye, and we become helpless puppets on a string. All of these ideas are based on the real-life work of B.F. Skinner, the father of Operational Conditioning,as a matter of fact the technology he created was the Skinner box. Which might look familiar.
Now imagine it with a “monster dispenser” and holographic glass
The other type of horror in this movie is of course, what I am feeling is becoming a site favorite, Cosmicism. A universe filled with ancient slumbering gods who will destroy the world if they awake, sound familiar? This is one of the better Lovecraftian movies that I have seen in a long time and for good reason. Our heroes come to the knowledge that they are part of a ritual sacrifice, and not just an isolated ritual, but one run on a global scale filled with redundancies. Unlike the typical trope of horror movies, the sacrifice in Cabin in the Woods is not to gain the favor of some nameless god, but rather to keep him inert, to simply maintain the status quo. Those who work at the Facility seem to see themselves beyond good and evil, a hallmark of Cosmicism, the Facility is simply trying to keep our pathetic little sphere rolling. And like all good Lovecraft stories it shows us that despite all of our best intentions and attempts, humanity is just not up to the task.
What about the horror psychology of this movie? This movie is very explicitly about agency. Choice is the central theme to the movie, we learn that it is only by their willingness to proceed that the characters can fulfill their role as sacrifices. They choose which of the monster will kill them, and in the end it was a choice to let the Old Gods awaken. But was there ever really any choice? Or rather, is there any meaning to the choices they make? I think the answer to that question is, Maybe, if they chose to find it.
If we were to follow the line of existential thought put forth by Victor Frankl we might arrive at some interesting places. Frankl had some thought provoking ideas when it came to finding meaning in life. He posited that Life always has meaning, even in the most dire of circumstances, our will to find the meaning is our main motivation in this life, and finally that we are free to find meaning in what we do and experience or at the very least in the stand you take when faced with unchangeable horror and suffering.
Ring a bell? Yeah this is exactly how our two heroes play out the ending of the movie. Knowing that their actions are going to be damning no matter their choice, either the insanity of the sacrifices will continue because of them, or the world will burn and will have to face a truth it had long ago buried in an attempt to forget, and take responsibility for it. They make a choice and stand for what they believe to be right, whether it was right or not is a matter of personal opinion, but either way they have made a decision that makes sense for them and their lives, however short they are going to be.
Frankl was no stranger to this kind of horror, and suffering, remember he was a survivor of the Auschwitz death camps of WWII. He often saw these kind of damning choice made and watched as people struggled to find meaning and die with purpose or, like the friends of Job suggest, curse God and die miserable and alone. Freedom and responsibility were key to Frankl and to agency, but being truly free can be enough to leave you horror struck.
What do you think? Was the choice the characters in the film make the right one? Do you think Frankl’s ideas apply to this film or not?
Horror Struck 