7. Cabin In The Woods (2012)
Aside from the fact that it was written by Joss Whedon, there was no real way to know what, exactly, C
abin In The Woods had set out to do. Its obviously meta-inspired name aside, this might've just been another parody of the genre akin to Eli Roth's
Cabin Fever. Unlike that movie, though,
Woods didn't blur the line between homage and straight-up horror movie to the point that it was unclear as to what it was supposed to be saying about the genre. The great thing about Whedon's movie, which was co-written and directed by Drew Goddard based on an idea by both men, is how it starts out like any other teenage slasher movie - anybody who had walked into the movie theatre on a whim to see this likely had no idea what they were in store for. The fact that, at what feels like the end of the movie,
Cabin In The Woods unveils a secret third act that pits our surviving "stereotypes" against an onslaught of nightmarish creatures in a hidden laboratory came as a most shocking revelation. After all, the trailer and marketing campaign barely made but a few subtle references to this.