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The Cabin in the Woods
Technicians at a secret underground facility prepare for an annual ritual designed to save humanity from extinction. Similar operations around the world stage elaborate sacrificial scenarios based on local horror traditions. Most have already failed this year, and when a Japanese operation unexpectedly collapses, the American team finds they are humanity's last hope.
Five college students set out for a weekend getaway at an isolated cabin owned by the cousin of Curt Vaughan, a confident athlete. Accompanying him are his girlfriend Jules, Dana, Holden, and Marty, an eccentric but perceptive stoner. Although the group appears ordinary, unseen technicians are already manipulating their environment. Chemicals pumped through vents subtly alter the students' moods and behavior, nudging them into familiar horror-movie roles: the athlete, the scholar, the fool, the virgin, and the promiscuous party girl.
Once inside the cabin, hidden cameras monitor the friends as they explore, while technicians bet on which monsters the group will accidentally unleash. The students discover strange relics and artifacts in the cellar. Dana reads aloud from an old diary belonging to Patience Buckner, whose sadistic family once lived on the property. Her words awaken the Buckners as violent undead killers. Manipulated by chemicals released into the woods, Curt and Jules wander outside to have sex where Jules is brutally murdered by the zombie Buckners. Curt barely escapes. Marty discovers the surveillance equipment hidden throughout the cabin but is attacked while trying to warn the others. The survivors attempt to flee but the facility blocks their escape with collapsing tunnels and sealed roads. Curt attempts a dramatic motorcycle jump across a ravine, crashes into an invisible force field and falls to his death. Attempting to escape in an RV, Holden is killed and the vehicle crashes into the lake. Dana struggles ashore, only to be cornered by one of the Buckners.
At the facility, the technicians celebrate, believing the ritual is nearly complete. Their relief is interrupted when Marty suddenly reappears, rescues Dana, and leads her to a hidden elevator connected to the underground complex where the pair uncover the horrifying truth. The entire cabin ordeal has been orchestrated as a ritual sacrifice to appease the "Ancient Ones", colossal subterranean beings capable of destroying the world. The objects in the cellar determine which monsters are released upon the victims, and the chosen victims themselves are forced into symbolic archetypes required by the ritual.
When security forces corner Dana and Marty, they unleash imprisoned werewolves, ghosts, giant snakes, mutant killers, and countless other horrors. The technicians who coldly manipulated the victims are massacred in gruesome fashion. Dana and Marty reach an ancient temple beneath the facility, where the director explains the sacrifices must occur in sequence, with the "virgin" dying last or surviving. Since Marty, the designated fool, unexpectedly survived, the ritual remains incomplete. The director urges Dana to kill him and save humanity.
A werewolf mortally wounds Dana before she can decide. Marty kills the creature, and together they realize they no longer believe humanity deserves saving through endless cycles of ritual murder. Accepting the consequences, they share a final moment together as the temple collapses. One of the Ancient Ones rises, bringing about the end of the world.