College students Dana, Holden, Marty, Jules, and Curt spend their weekend at a remote cabin in the woods. In the cellar, they find strange objects, including the diary of Patience Buckner, a cabin resident abused by her sadistic family. Dana recites incantations from the diary, inadvertently summoning the zombified Buckner family.
Dana and Marty find the temple of the Ancient Ones and meet the Director, who explains the ritual. She urges Dana to kill Marty to complete the ritual and save humanity. Dana is interrupted by a werewolf, and Patience Buckner kills the Director. Marty and Dana decide that humanity is not worth saving and share a final joint as a giant hand emerges from the ground, destroying the cabin and the facility.
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three out of four stars, saying, "The Cabin in the Woods is a puzzle that horror fans must solve for themselves." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film three and a half out of four stars, calling it "a blast of a movie" and praising the performances of the cast.
Goddard and Whedon, having worked together on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, wrote the screenplay in three days, describing it as an attempt to "revitalize" the slasher film genre and as a critical satire on torture porn. Filming took place in Vancouver, British Columbia from March to May 2009 on an estimated budget of $30 million.
