Jesse Williams & Chris Hemsworth's Perfect Horror Movie Is A Streaming Hit 14 Years Later

In the 1996 horror classic "Scream," the narrative takes an incredibly self-aware turn when Jamie Kennedy's character, high schooler Randy Meeks, starts explaining the "rules" of surviving a horror movie to a bunch of his friends at a party, apparently blissfully unaware that he's living in one. Not only that, but Randy points out that archetypes like "the virgin" usually survive, making everyone chuckle when he says that you can't get down and dirty and hope to survive a horror flick. Without these specific jokes, it's possible that a movie as darkly funny and creepy as "The Cabin in the Woods" might not have ever come into existence.

Directed by Drew Goddard (also known for creating "Daredevil," working on "The Good Place," and the 2018 noir film "Bad Times at the El Royale") and written by Goddard and Joss Whedon, "The Cabin in the Woods," which came out in 2011, blew audiences away with its smart, weirdly hilarious take on one potential origin of horror movie monsters. (According to this movie, they emerge from underground bunkers. Put a pin in that.) Now, the movie — which stars Chris Hemsworth, "Grey's Anatomy" star Jesse Williams, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kanz, Kristen Connolly, Richard E. Jenkins, and Bradley Whitford — is making waves on HBO Max, according to FlixPatrol.

So, whether you've never seen "The Cabin in the Woods" or you're revisiting the movie for the very first time, what's the deal with this innovative horror movie? Also, will it ever get a sequel? (I'm betting no, but you never can tell these days.)

As "The Cabin in the Woods" opens, we meet our stereotypical group of college kids: the "virgin" Dana Polk (Kristen Connolly), the "athlete" Curt Vaughan (Chris Hemsworth), the "whore" Jules Louden (Anna Hutchison), the "fool" Marty Mikalski (Fran Kanz), and the "scholar" Holden McCrea (Jesse Williams), all of whom are heading to the eponymous cabin in the woods for a getaway. What they don't know is that this cabin is actually a sort of bizarre experimentation site run by a conglomerate known only as "the Facility," and we spend quite a lot of time with two Facility technicians, Gary Sitterson (Richard E. Jenkins) and Steve Hadley (Bradley Whitford), who can control the cabin from their weird bunker. After releasing drugs into the cabin's air to make the students easier to manipulate, the group of five checks out the cabin's horrifying basement and all find different artifacts; when Dana reads aloud from a diary belonging to a long-dead girl named Patience Buckner, Gary and Steve sic the undead bodies of the Buckner family on the teens.

Holden, Jules, and Curt are then systematically murdered as Marty and Dana discover the Facility itself, including a bunch of horror movie monsters in cages that are then released by the technicians. (A personal anecdote: I saw this movie in college and was the only wimp horrified by this monster sequence while the rest of the theater was hysterically laughing. I'm still embarrassed, and I graduated from college well over a decade ago.) This all builds to a bizarre but incredibly fun reveal that Dana must die to prevent the end of the world, because she's the "virgin" and has to sacrifice herself, according to the Facility's Director (Sigourney Weaver). The world does, in fact, end, all because Dana briefly survives (well, before she and Marty get blown up at the very end of the movie).

There probably isn't going to be a sequel about this particular cabin because of that aforementioned explosion, and plus, every character you probably liked from the first (and, as of this writing, only) "Cabin in the Woods" movie is extremely dead. Also, the world ended. Is there a world where Drew Goddard figures out a way to focus on a different Facility — we do learn that there are Facilities across the world performing this same experiment to ensure that ancient deities don't destroy the world — then yeah, there could be franchise potential here. I'm not exactly holding my breath, though; there's honestly been little to no chatter about a sequel to "The Cabin in the Woods" since it first came out. 

I think this is probably a good thing, though. Any new entry into a cinematic universe centered around "The Cabin in the Woods" would either feel repetitive or flimsy, so even though it feels like every single movie is getting rebooted or getting a sequel in 2025, this one feels unlikely. At least you can watch "The Cabin in the Woods" on HBO Max, where it's a bona fide streaming sensation.