Verbal Diorama
The Cabin in the Woods
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Episode notes
So, you have this girl, probably a virgin but always beautiful and occasionally really stupid. She's in a slasher movie, so you know she's going to run towards danger, ignore all the signs of the monster and probably witness all her friends being slaughtered. She's the final girl. She'll probably survive to star in your sequel.
But what if there was a movie that wanted to deconstruct all the tropes of slasher movies? What if it's all a big reality TV show, where the "reality stars" are just the pawns of the corporate bigwigs who manufacture the arena? What if all those horror tropes are subverted? What if we take these tropes and satirise them, and essentially make fun of the whole genre whilst also paying homage to the genre?
It's really rather marvellous that The Cabin in the Woods actually manages to achieve all those things!
The Cabin in the Woods is brilliant at subverting those tropes. The characters are never who they seem to be, and neither are the monsters. Written by Joss Whedon (he who already successfully subverted the classic blonde girl in a horror movie who always dies first in Buffy the Vampire Slayer!) and Drew Goddard who also directed, they don't skimp on the horror, comedy or the classic horror Easter eggs. You think you know the story? Think again!
I would love to hear your thoughts (and theories!) on The Cabin in the Woods! You can get in touch on
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Special thanks to the following people for their contributions to this episode:
Harrie from Show Me The Podcast - make sure you follow them @smtpcast on Twitter and subscribe at https://anchor.fm/show-me-the-podcast for more from Harrie & Lorraine!
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