Cabin in the Woods - Final Girl

Cabin in the woods (2012)

Cabin the woods, is a film that differentiates from the typical horror movies out there. Even though the film includes gory content and zombies it is considered to have clever plot that uses horror conventions and twists them.

The film is abut five teenagers/young adults that decided to go on a comaping trip, little did they know they were being watched and indoctrineated to go to this particular cabin site. The Story unfolds leaving the teenagers the ones who choose there ways to die. However the film upholds the typical conventions of a movie for example the cabin is sitatued in a dark isolated area, which is common in horror movies where all the happeninngs take place. However the content shown within the movie has and underlying intention as it shows the 4 college students been watched as the encounter there death. It is then later revealed that the 5 college students are being used as a sacrifice to save the world from the evil Gods.

The Cabin in the woods is unconventional in the sense that in the majority of horror movies there is always a final girl tha comes cross as innocent right from the very start and out lives all the others even when the odds were against her. However Cabin in the woods differs as the film unveils that the is a predicted timeline as to which of the 5 would die first leaving the final girl last. however within the film we see her at risk of dying when the zombie character is beating her up and then she is saved by her friend who we thought was dead. They then uncover several aspects of there death plan unveiling that there are several contained characters that kill those that are sacrificed. As well as the leaders of the sacrifice plan. Towards the end we see the Final girl left and the final boy and they battle it out at first but then they realise that they'd rather die together meaning that there is a final girl as well as a final boy. 

According to Carol L Clover, The final girl is typically sexually unavailable ( Dana is the only one in the house that doesn't seem sexual in comparison to her friends who are dating. She also shyed away when her friend was undressing in his room and she could see him and quickly covered the window area up portraying her innocence and uninterested state of mind ), she avoids immoral things such as drug use, and commonly has a unisex name. This applies to 'Dana' she is a female yet her name is unisex. The final girl theory states the the final girl is no longer portrayed as the damsel in distress but being the one to drive the narrative forward,with out the final girl the audience wouldn't know who to route for to stay alive. Also the Fianl girl helps to build tension as it is a necessary factor for the surviving character to be female due to the fact that she is prone to terror and Clover states that the audience would reject the final boy rather than final girl. 

Cabin in the woods plays on this idea as most horror movies ends in the final girl serving however the Cabin in the woods theory leaves the audience stunned by the fact that they survive together before the ground breaking beneath them this divides the audiences reactions as some feel pleased that they didn't kill each other and others feel frustrated by the fact that they let the rest of the world be killed.