10 Horror Movies That Forced You To Answer Impossible Questions

The Cabin in the Woods ends with protagonists Dana (Kristen Connolly) and Marty (Fran Kranz) learning that their horrendous ordeal has been part of a ritual intended to appease the Ancient Ones, a collective of malevolent underground deities who require sacrifices in order to remain underground.

At the very end, Dana and Marty are told that, in order to complete the ritual, Dana would need to kill Marty, in turn saving the world.

But ultimately the pair decide to spark up a joint instead and have a front row seat to an Ancient One bursting through the Earth, effectively causing the apocalypse.

There's certainly nothing more noble than laying down your life to save the world - you would be a saviour, albeit one who, per the secret nature of the rituals, would never have their sacrifice recognised.

But on the other hand, it's important to remember that this ritual isn't a one-time thing: they're required around the world each and every year, which makes the Ultimate Sacrifice decidedly less appealing.

After all, it's incredibly easy to rationalise that, on a long enough timeline, somebody else will eventually cause the Ancient Ones to emerge, so why lay your life down at all, especially when you didn't exactly take part voluntarily?

Then again, agreeing to be sacrificed would ensure that all your friends and family are spared, at least for a good while, which is a pretty compelling motivation to go ahead with it. It's a tricky one.