Cabin in the Woods Creature Feature
So you’ve watched Cabin In The Wood’s and every great horror film of the past 5 decades?
Here’s the be all and end all of The Cabin In The Woods reference guide whether it was on the board, in the chambers or hidden somewhere else within the film if it's there, it's here...
The Board
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(1) Werewolf (The Wolfman) – One of the leading beasts in the end, the werewolf has been a reference throughout film starting with ‘The Wolfman’ and has been on film ever since.
(2) Alien Beast (Alien) - Seen on the board and later this facehugger jumps out of an elevator to attack a guard.
And unbeknownst on screen was an actual Alien as seen below featured in the accompanying Visual Companion.
(3) Mutants – These could be zombies, hillbillies, swamp things and the sort, possibly seen in the chaos but we found it hard to differentiate between the dead, undead and deformed in the crimson closure.
(4) Wraiths (Firefly) One of Joss Whedon’s babies, the Wraiths played a main part in the Firefly TV series as the flying beasts.
(5) Zombies – Well, what can we say, one of the most recognisable monsters created and used. Romero’s Living Dead saga to 28 days later, zombies have grown bigger and bigger over the years and now have their own genre within horror. Seen as different characteristics and in several boxes within the ‘Cabin..’ chambers down below showing an everflowing release of the undead.
(6) Reptilius – Reptilian creatures, not seen in the film
(7) Clowns (It) We see a clown on a few camera’s throughout the 2nd part of the film but it’s not until we see him stab a man and resist several shots while laughing that we see more of a resemblance to Tim Curry’s nightmare creating clown.
(8) Witches -We get a quick glimpse of a witch throwing a man over a balcony, sharing more of a resemblance to the gypsy of ‘Drag Me To Hell’ it’s evident that no witch is a good one. We also see a witch like creature take the soul of one of the guards in the first wave of blood. Seen in (32)
(9) Sexy Witches (Night of the Demon) – We don’t see any sexy witches throughout the bloodbath but we have no doubt that these relate to the demon’s in Night of the Demon, surely it’s no reference to ‘Charmed’
(10) Demons – Name a film over the last 40 years that has not had a demon. We see a few glimpses in the cages of the lower chambers but nothing is seen in the battle the ascends at the end.
(11) Hell Lord (Hellraiser) – One of the more referenced characters throughout the film. When the motley crew head down to the basement, Curt picks up a sphere that shares mare than a resemblance to the cube. When Marty and Dana get mixed up in the elevator, we see a man holding the sphere in exactly the same way as Douglas Bradey did in Clive Barkers classic and sharing no emotion towards the captives.
Later there is a shot on the CCTV showing ‘Sawhead’ and a ‘friend’ torturing a man wrapped in chains, another reference to the 1987 film.
(12) Angry Molesting Tree (Evil Dead) – NB. see ‘Evil UnDead’
(13) Giant Snake – Prominent throughout the big fight the giant snake is not a force to be reconned with. Anyone remember Anaconda? This snake is worse.
(14) Deadites (Evil Dead) – NB. see ‘Evil UnDead’
(15) Kevin – This could be one of many. So many serial killers of the past with simple names, Freddy, Jason, Michael just to name a few of the big and famous but in the Visual Companion to the film, Drew Goddard said that Kevin is "a sweet-looking guy who seemed like he might work at Best Buy until he dismembers people." Showing a lot of similarities to Kevin (Elijah Wood) from Sin City…
(16) Mummy – This creature is seen on the ceiling when the CCTV rolls with a creepy upside down head.
(17) The Bride – Surely a reference to The Bride of Frankenstein or Uma Therman’s revengeful sword wielding anti-hero from Kill Bill?
(18) The Scarecrow Folk – Seen ripping the shreds from one of the guards near the end of the film, these straw filled monsters are the creatures of nightmares.
(19) Snowman (Jack Frost) – We only know one killer snowman and we don’t refer to the Michael Keaton sop, we’re talking the wisecracking snowman who kills for a living and goes to the tropics for the sequel (?)
(20) Dragonbat – Along with the snake, this is one of the creatures which gets a fair bit of airtime showing creature features still rule.
(21) Vampires – Who doesn’t know what a Vampire is? Not actually seen in the film but we’ve all seen what they look like.
(22) Dismemberment Goblins and (23) Sugarplumb Fairies – Two of the most curious creatures on the board and probably the most interesting, we couldn't see either in the big showdown however their scenes were shot and here's the concept art.
(24) Merman – Steve is gutted when the Merman isn’t chosen by the teens but finds his ironic demise at the hands of the rather gross looking Merman draining him of his crimson fluid.
(25) The Reanimated (Re-Animator) – when escaping, Marty shoots a zombie like creature in a hospital gown and green goo pours from his head, and we only know one film where the green goo is so luminous, Dr West must be hiding around somewhere.
(26) Unicorn (WTF?) – One of the most bizarre moments is when a beautiful Unicorn goes running down the corridor, only to repeatedly pierce a doctor with its horn.
(27) Huron – Nothing is known about the ‘Huron’ but on Wikipedia this refers to native tribesmen, could this be a group of native hunters or something more sinister?
(28) Suasquatch/Wendigo/Yeti (Wendigo) The furry monster stays anonymous as he does in real life. Only creeping up in the Visual Companion.
(29) Dolls (The Strangers) – We see these masks in the basement and later on we see a group of young people wearing these featureless masks leaving an elevator only to torture a couple as seen on the CCTV screens, anyone remember what happened in ‘The Strangers’
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(30) The Doctors (House of 1,000 Corpses) – There are two sets of doctors seen in the closing section of the film. The first are a group of medical people who are seen in doctors cloaks eating the remains of dead guards but later we see on the CCTV screens some more distorted doctors operating on a man. The last time we remember that happening, Dr Satan had his hands on some flesh in Rob Zombie’s cult classic.
(31) The Redneck Torture Family – The villains of choice for the film getting more screen time than the rest of the crew put together, The Bruckner family, while rising from the dead, share more in common with the redneck hillbillies from films such as ‘The Hills Have Eyes’ and ‘Wrong Turn’ NB. see 'Family Portrait'
(32) Jack O’ Lantern – One of the characters we wish we'd seen more as the potential of a pumkin headed beast would have set the place on fire. But it's a blink and you'll miss it moment as we see the fire breather on one of the cameras.
(33) Giant – Another monster not seen in the climax. We do see a huge zombie creature in the chambers but this shares more resemblance to the Boomer from the ‘House of the Dead’ games. You can make it out in "The Chambers and the Others" image by the scorpion.
(34) Twins – Seen a few times, the twins don’t seem to do much but they look very similar to the twins in ‘The Shining’ and ‘Tale of Two Sisters’. You can't miss them at the centre of "The Chamber and the Others Image".
Family Portrait
The Chambers and the Others
Spider (Tarantula) – Held in the cage next to Dana and Marty in the chambers, this would bring fear to anyone with Aracnophobia, you can make out the eight legged creature in the middle of the image under the above image.
Scorpion - In the image below above, to the middle right you can make out a gigantic scorpion with a killer sting.
Killer Robot (Chopping Mall) – Who doesn’t like it when technology goes wrong? This blade wielding robot shares most of its destructive prowess with the security robots of 80's classic 'Chopping Mall'
Ghost – This spooky ghost could be from any ghost film of the past 100 years but gets its fair share of airtime throughout the film.
Blood Filled Elevator – While not a monster, this is another reference to ‘The Shining’ as after the first wave of monsters dispatch their attack, one elevator opens to merely fill the room with blood.
Man with Axe – This could be ‘Jack’ from ‘The Shining’ or any number of axe wielding fiends in the wave of horror but we like to think that eventually, he’d break through the cage and scream “Here’s Johnny” To the left you can see the Giant or as we noticed, the Boomer from The House of the Dead videogame
Dogs – When the camera zooms out from Marty and Dana’s enclosure, the first cage behind them shows two dogs barking, could this be a reference to Stephen King’s ‘Cujo’
Genie – In the box next to the dogs is a red man in a blink and you’ll miss it moment, we think it looks a lot like the Genie from the Wishmaster series.
Ballerina – We see this eerie girl who we see referenced in the basement with the musical box and we later see her face to reveal her facial features replaced with razor sharp teeth. We think the ballerina wouldn’t be a stranger to the world of Guillermero Del Toro.
Suffocation Killer – Screen 7. This Serial Killer is seen on CCTV suffocating his victim with a plastic bag, reminiscent of the 1990 film Fear and other shock films and video nasties of the 70’s and 80’s
Man on Fire - You can see in screen 9. There have been many films where the monster or killer has been set on fire. Maniac Cop and Jason are the top of the melted iceberg.
Octopus – Near the end a giant tentacle swoops in to grab one of the maintenance crew
Japanese Spooks - We all know that J-Horror focuses on a huge speciality and TCITW does not ignore this with the Japanese "Team" banishing a ghost that could be in one of 1,000 films
And when all is said and done, there is only one beast that is feared by all… the Gods!
Evil UnDead
It seems that the Cabin In The Woods doesn’t only share a cabin but also a lot more in common with the 80’s horror classic The Evil Dead.
1) The Cabin In The Woods. When we first see the cabin we get a heads on view as the camera heads towards it. The last time that happened Ash and company had the weekend of their lives.
2) The basement door opens in exactly the same as the film.
3) The book that Dana picks up may have only been a diary but as she nears the end the scribe becomes latin, more than a nod to the Necronomicon.
4) When the Bruckners rise, they so did in exactly the same way as Linda after Ash’s burial.
5) When the board is up for the key players to place bets there are “Deadites” to choose from, the enemy of choice in Sam Raimi’s classic. Not only that but also “The Molesting Tree” another ode to its idol.
6) Zombie Hand. You must have lived under a shell if you didn’t get this, when Marty advises he dismembered one of the zombies with a trowel, a hand from the part live mess appears and helps them escape.
Cyclops - Or Mikey from Monsters Inc, either way we can't find him anywhere on film but found this image in the Visual Companion, we'd love this to be a reference to Mikeyalong with the selection of monsters....
Gladiator Demon - This devilish looking character seems to share a familiarity to any beast but has a striking resemblance to the demonic statue found in 'The Exorcist'
