The Cabin in the Woods (2011)

In an underground laboratory, engineers Gary Sitterson and Steve Hadley discuss preparations for a mysterious ritual. The Stockholm operation recently failed, leaving only their facility and one in Japan to undertake the process, with the latter holding a perfect record. Camera feeds reveal multiple locations around the world in ruins.

American college students Dana Polk, Jules Louden, Curt Vaughan, Holden McCrea, and Marty Mikalski are spending their weekend at Curt's cousin's cabin in the woods. From the lab, Sitterson and Hadley remotely control the cabin and manipulate the students' behavior with mind-altering drugs. They lure the group into the cabin's cellar which contains an assortment of bizarre objects. Dana finds the diary of Patience Buckner, a cabin resident abused by her sadistic family. Dana recites incantations from the diary and inadvertently awakens the whole Buckner family as zombies.

Marty, who is resistant to the facility's drugs due to his marijuana use, grows paranoid, but his concerns are dismissed by the other students. Hadley releases pheromones to induce Curt and Jules to have sex outside. The Buckners attack them, killing Jules while Curt flees. Marty discovers concealed surveillance equipment in his room before being stabbed and dragged off by a zombie. The lab workers learn that the site in Japan has also failed, meaning that the American site is "humanity's last hope".

Curt, Holden, and Dana attempt to escape in their RV, but Sitterson triggers a tunnel collapse to block them. Curt attempts to jump a ravine on his motorcycle to seek help on the other side, but crashes into a force field and falls to his death. Dana then realizes that Marty was right and their experience is staged and controlled. Holden is killed by a zombie while driving the RV, causing it to crash into the lake. Dana manages to escape and swim to the lake's dock, but a zombie corners and brutally attacks her.

The lab employees celebrate the success of the rite, believing that Dana is the last survivor. However, Marty comes to her rescue, having previously survived the ambush. He takes her to a hidden elevator, and they descend into the lab and discover an extensive collection of monsters in cages. Dana correlates them with the objects in the cellar and realizes that the objects determine which monsters are released. Cornered by security personnel, the pair release all the monsters, which wreak havoc and slaughter the staff. Hadley is killed by a merman and Dana accidentally stabs Sitterson.

Dana and Marty discover an ancient temple where the facility's director confronts them. She explains that annual human sacrifice rituals are held worldwide to appease the Ancient Ones, a group of cruel subterranean deities. Each region has its ritual, and the American ritual involves the sacrifice of five archetypes: the whore (Jules), the athlete (Curt), the scholar (Holden), the fool (Marty), and the virgin (Dana). The order is arbitrary as long as the whore dies first and the virgin dies last or survives.

The director urges Dana to kill Marty and complete the ritual, but as Dana considers it, a werewolf suddenly mauls her. Marty shoots the werewolf and scares it off, but the director attacks him. Patience Buckner arrives and kills the director before Marty kicks them into the pit below. Deciding that humanity is not worth saving, Dana and Marty apologize to each other and share a joint as the temple floor collapses. A giant hand bursts out of the ground, destroying the facility and the cabin in the process, bringing about the end of the world.