Cabin in the Woods discussion questions
1) What is this film attempting to say about the nature of the horror genre?
2) Who has agency (free will to make choices) in the film? How is that agency limited? Discuss both the puppeteers and the four main characters in the film. What might this be saying about agency within in the horror genre itself as well as in US society more broadly?
3) How does the film implicate the viewer in the horrors they are witnessing? (To implicate means to make them partially responsible for the horrors).
4) What role do screens play in the film? What does this reflect about our cultural condition? *Consider the scene when Marty finds the small camera in his bedroom.
5) How does the game-like nature of the film reflect our cultural condition?
6) What do the ancient gods represent?
7) What are the four main characters horror film archetypes? What does the film seem to be suggesting as far as where these archetypes come from?
8) Do you see any tropes of other horror books/films we have encountered this Jan Term in this film?
9) What is meaningful about the fact that the main characters are college students?
10) What might be meaningful about the way the physical structure of the corporation operates? The cabin is on the top, then the monsters, then the corporation, then the ancient gods below.
11) As Hadley states: "If you want good product you have to buy American." What particular aspects of American horror and the American horror industry might the film be critiquing?
12) When Richard says, "We gotta keep the customers happy," when he and the other characters are attempting to get Jules to take her shirt off, who is he referring to? And why do you think the film occasionally uses terms like products, customers, and other consumer-capitalist terminology to describe appeasing the ancient gods?
13) Marty states: "Society is binding. Right? It’s filling in the cracks with concrete. Everything’s filed or reported, logged, right? Chips in our kids heads so they won’t get lost. Society needs to crumble. We’re all just too chicken shit to let it." How does this statement reflect the broader themes the film is exploring?
14) What is the true horror in the film? The horror behind the horrors?
2) Who has agency (free will to make choices) in the film? How is that agency limited? Discuss both the puppeteers and the four main characters in the film. What might this be saying about agency within in the horror genre itself as well as in US society more broadly?
3) How does the film implicate the viewer in the horrors they are witnessing? (To implicate means to make them partially responsible for the horrors).
4) What role do screens play in the film? What does this reflect about our cultural condition? *Consider the scene when Marty finds the small camera in his bedroom.
5) How does the game-like nature of the film reflect our cultural condition?
6) What do the ancient gods represent?
7) What are the four main characters horror film archetypes? What does the film seem to be suggesting as far as where these archetypes come from?
8) Do you see any tropes of other horror books/films we have encountered this Jan Term in this film?
9) What is meaningful about the fact that the main characters are college students?
10) What might be meaningful about the way the physical structure of the corporation operates? The cabin is on the top, then the monsters, then the corporation, then the ancient gods below.
11) As Hadley states: "If you want good product you have to buy American." What particular aspects of American horror and the American horror industry might the film be critiquing?
12) When Richard says, "We gotta keep the customers happy," when he and the other characters are attempting to get Jules to take her shirt off, who is he referring to? And why do you think the film occasionally uses terms like products, customers, and other consumer-capitalist terminology to describe appeasing the ancient gods?
13) Marty states: "Society is binding. Right? It’s filling in the cracks with concrete. Everything’s filed or reported, logged, right? Chips in our kids heads so they won’t get lost. Society needs to crumble. We’re all just too chicken shit to let it." How does this statement reflect the broader themes the film is exploring?
14) What is the true horror in the film? The horror behind the horrors?
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