The Cabin in the Woods (2011)

Deep under the ground, in a high-tech facility, two technicians named Gary Sitterson and Steve Hadley are getting ready for an important job. They mention that similar operations in other countries have failed, and that only theirs and one in Japan are left. Meanwhile, five college friends, Dana, Curt, Jules, Marty, and Holden, set off in an RV for a weekend at a remote cabin. At a run-down gas station, a strange old man named Mordecai warns them about the place. They ignore him and drive on.

The cabin is controlled from the facility. The technicians use hidden cameras, gases, and drugs to change how the friends act, making them less careful and more like the people you see in horror films. On the first night, the cellar door flies open. In the cellar, the friends find a pile of strange objects, including a music box, a necklace, and an old diary. Dana reads a Latin line from the diary, which belonged to a girl named Patience Buckner, and the words wake up the Buckners, a family of zombie killers.

Back in the facility, the staff are thrilled. It turns out they had a betting pool on which monster the friends would choose, and the objects in the cellar each call up a different creature. The Buckners attack. Jules is killed in the woods. Marty, who smokes so much pot that the drugs do not work on him, starts to realize they are being watched, and then he is dragged away. Curt tries to jump a ravine on a motorbike to get help, but he crashes into an invisible wall and dies. Holden is killed in the RV, which goes into the lake.

Only Dana is left, fighting a zombie on the dock, and the staff celebrate with a party. Then they get a call: the ritual in Japan has failed, and their operation is now the last hope. But Marty is not dead. He saves Dana, and together they find a hidden elevator that takes them down into the facility itself.

The elevator takes Dana and Marty past hundreds of glass cubes, each holding a different monster: ghosts, clowns, a giant snake, werewolves, a merman, a unicorn, and many more. Trapped by guards, Dana sets off a "system purge" that opens every cage. The monsters flood the facility and kill almost everyone inside. Hadley, who always wanted to see the merman, is finally killed by it, and Sitterson dies too.

Dana and Marty reach a stone chamber deep below, where they meet the Director, played by Sigourney Weaver. She explains the truth. Every year, the facility must sacrifice young people to the Ancient Ones, huge old gods sleeping under the earth. Each ritual needs five types of people: the whore, the athlete, the scholar, the fool, and the virgin. The whore must die first, and the virgin may live or die last. If the ritual fails everywhere, the Ancient Ones will rise and destroy the world. Since the ritual in every other country has failed, it all depends on Marty, the fool, dying before dawn.

The Director begs Dana to kill Marty, and Dana almost does. But a werewolf attacks, and the zombie girl Patience Buckner kills the Director. Dana and Marty decide that a world that needs young people to be killed like this does not deserve to be saved. They share a joint as the ground starts to shake. In the final shot, a giant hand bursts up from the earth, destroying the cabin. The Ancient Ones have risen, and the world is ending. The film suggests the old gods stand for the audience, who demand the same deaths in every horror film.