Every week at SiftPop.com, we challenge our writers to come up with their favorite answer to a movie-related prompt tied to a recent release. This week, with the release of The Strangers: Chapter 1, we’re discussing some of our favorite cabins in the woods! Let us know your favorites @SiftPop!
Back in the fall of 1993, we were introduced to a cabin in the woods that would leave the protagonist disturbed beyond reason. It isn’t often that a sequel delivers in such a way as this particular film did. After spending a mere eight ours alone in this cabin, our protagonist emerged and committed an act so terrifying that to this day it lingers on my thoughts. She would then go on to reenact a massacre that would leave all that witnessed traumatized and all those involved forever changed by the experience. If you listen, you can still hear the screams coming from that cabin even today… Of course, I’m referring to the cabin in the woods from The Addams Family Values, where Wednesday (Christina Ricci) was subjected to 8 hours of Disney movies at her perky, preppy, snob-filled summer camp. This is one of those rare sequels that is as good as, if not better than, the original. The way that it turns the idea of a haunted camp in the woods on its head by having the Addams children experience fear in their own way is creative and hilarious. And the conclusion is ever so satisfying when Wednesday enacts her revenge at the end of summer Thanksgiving Pageant. (Nick Ferro)
Have you ever been hanging around with friends scrolling for something to watch at the end of the night when you stumble across a movie that makes you go, “There’s no way that can be good, right?” only to hit play and find an hour and change later that you’ve shockingly, somehow not only made it all the way to the end, but enjoyed yourself in the process? That was Dead Snow for my friends and I. Produced at the height of Nazi zombie popularity (thanks, Call of Duty franchise), this Norwegian film finds a group of college students looking to unwind, so they take a trip to a secluded cabin deep in the mountains. Once there, they are regaled by a local with the tale of a Nazi battalion routed by the local resistance, before stumbling onto some of the Nazis’ gold and finding themselves in a fight for their lives. It sounds like a film written using horror cliché Mad Libs. Cabin in the woods? Check. Group of college kids in peril? Check. Creepy foreshadowing by a grizzled local? Check. Cursed treasure? Check. The important factor is that the people making the film know what movie they’re making and have a blast doing it. Is it some paragon of modern cinema? Hell no, but it sure is a fun watch. (Jake Bourgeois)
I mean, this is the Cabin in the Woods, yeah? Like, the one. The creaking wood floorboards and doors, tree branches scratching against the windows under the pressure of bellowing winds, a haunting presence in the basement, and the eerie woods surrounding the cabin — it’s all here. It may not be the innovator of the trope and setting, but it is the one that created the definitive profile of what they should look and feel like. So much so that other films have directly copied its aesthetic… including a little film called Cabin in the Woods. So it would be absolutely ridiculous to not include the iconic Evil Dead cabin in a list about the best ever Cabins in the Woods in film. From the campy and fun vibes of the original films, to the very metal, blood rain-soaked finale of the remake, it’s the best to have ever done the damn thing. Period. (Heath Lynch)
Growing up in Minnesota, there was little that I looked forward to more than our excursions up north to the cabin every summer. As such, when this BEC topic came up, how could I not write about the most Minnesotan film of all time: Fargo? A “true” crime story of a man (William H. Macy) hiring two criminals (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare) to kidnap his wife (Kristin Rudrüd), Fargo is not actually set in the North Dakota city it’s named after, but rather in the Twin Cities (where I grew up) and the area around Brainerd, Minnesota (where our cabin was). In the film, the cabin is the hideaway of the criminals Carl and Gaear, where they had the privacy needed to pass time, hide their captives, and use their wood chipper. It isn’t one of the big, fancy log cabins you’d find studding the shores of some of the wealthier lakes, but rather a quaint, unassuming home with a nice lot of property and a lakeside view that I spent so much time at as a kid. In fact, the real life cabin that the Coen brothers filmed at was on a lake only 30 minutes from where I grew up! It may not be one of the most iconic movie cabins of all time, but to me it will always be one of the purest representations of what Minnesota cabin culture really is. (Jake Hjort)
As we’re nearing Summer, you may be asking yourself what the pinnacle Summer feature is and while there are many answers that could fall in this category, there is only one answer for me: the 1995 classic Heavyweights. Unfamiliar? Here’s the plot: Gerry is headed for the first time to Camp Hope, a summer camp safe haven for overweight kids, but when he arrives, the camp finds out that the owners had to file for bankruptcy and the camp is now owned by Tony Perkins, played by Ben Stiller. When Perkins turns the summer into an exercise camp and uses cruel methods to “help” the kids, it is up to the kids and a handful of legacy counselors to take back the place they hold dear. Usually all I have to tell people is the plot for them to to give the film a shot, but for extra convincing, it has some of the best comedic writers and actors involved in it: Judd Apatow, Ben Stiller, Tim Blake Nelson, Kenan Thompson, and Goldberg the Goalie himself: Shaun Weiss. (Aaron Schweitzer)
What if you were an artist who got a chance to meet your biggest fan? Picture it: You are driving down a snowy road then… BAM. Car accident. You are unconscious and wake up with a broken leg, but you are in a cozy bed in a nice cabin out in the woods. Sounds like a tranquil and relaxing way to get yourself back to 100%. But then you realize your bed nurse is a complete psychopath who is mad at you for doing something bad to a fictional character you created, but this person loves. Yeah… not a great situation. That is Misery, a film directed by Rob Reiner (as part of his historic string of classics in the ‘80s through the early ‘90s), but based on a Stephen King novel. You start to realize that this could go terribly wrong once that fact comes across the credits. James Caan gives a strong performance as our author, but it is Kathy Bates who delivers a towering and layered performance that even got her Oscar recognition. Misery is the cabin visit from hell, and is topped off by one of the most disturbing mutilations in all of film. Your leg might never be the same again afterwards. (Shane Conto)
Cabins in movies aren’t generally a place we picture for lighthearted hijinx and forming the bonds of lifelong friendships, but while they are few and far between, they do actually exist. In the 1961 version of The Parent Trap, during their stay at Miss Inch’s Summer Camp for Girls, Susan Evers (Hayley Mills) and Sharon McKendrick (also Hayley Mills), following some less than cordial camp capers, are relegated to the Serendipity Cabin to spend the rest of their summer in isolation. While the isolation is meant as a punishment to give the girls time to reflect on their poor behavior, a gust of wind blowing through an open window changes their lives forever. If that rickety cabin window hadn’t blown open, tearing pictures and posters off the cabin walls, the girls wouldn’t have started actively engaging in a conversation. While talking about themselves and their families, they ultimately discover that they are in fact twin sisters separated by divorce. Sharon and Susan spend the rest of their summer together in Serendipity Cabin, planning, plotting, and learning about each other with the end goal of bringing their parents back together. (Patrice Downing)
