On the surface, The Cabin in the Woods and This is The End are unrelated, but one theory suggests that This is The End might actually be a Cabin in the Woods sequel. 2012 horror-comedy Cabin in the Woods bends the horror genre in a way that hasn’t been done since Wes Craven’s original Scream movie. First-time director Drew Goddard masterfully blends equal amounts of scary and funny, following a group of college friends who take a road trip to a remote cabin lifted directly out of The Evil Dead, and no one survives. The film offers self-aware, meta-commentary as it begins to offer explanations for just about every horror movie trope.
Meanwhile, 2013’s This is The End, based on a short by Seth Rogen and Jay Baruchel, is a comedy about a group of celebrities who are playing themselves at a house party thrown by James Franco. The apocalypse begins during the party, trapping a handful of survivors inside the house and following them as they struggle to survive as the world ends and realize they have no idea how. While This is The End is a hard comedy film about an apocalypse of biblical proportions and not a horror movie like Cabin in the Woods, it’s also self-aware, skewering conventional tropes and offering meta-humor.
In fact, these themes are so similar that one theory (via Reddit) suggests that This is The End is a sequel to Cabin in the Woods. Everyone is set to die in an apocalypse started by The Ancient Ones in Cabin in the Woods, which ends with the image of a giant hand bursting through the ground. According to the theory, the apocalypse in This is The End is brought about by The Ancient Ones in Cabin in the Woods. The theory points out that the monstrous, humanoid giant attacking the characters in This is The End could easily be the hand of the gigantic creature audiences see in Cabin in the Woods.
There are several other plot points that lend themselves to the theory. Before the monster (the devil) appears in This is The End, smaller demons attack the characters. In the Wes Craven-style movie Cabin in the Woods, a group known as The Organization uses monsters in order to sacrifice a group of young adults every year are supplied by The Ancient Ones, who desire to punish humanity. It makes sense The Ancient Ones would continue sending monsters to attack humans before their arrival the way the devil does in This is The End. In both films, large beings are intent on punishing the characters for their transgressions. The Organization claims that unless the characters transgress, they cannot be punished. In This is The End, the “good” characters are sent to heaven, and the “bad” characters are attacked by the monsters.
There are a couple of things that poke holes in this theory (not the least of which is that multiple apocalypse movies, such as Ghostbusters, feature giant monsters). While both apocalypses are religiously symbolic, This is The End presents a blatantly Christian apocalypse, whereas Cabin in the Woods’ apocalypse is approached from the perspective that there are ancient beings that humans have been sacrificing each other to since the dawn of time. Sacrifices have been made in the name of religion all throughout human history, and one character even remarks that it was easier when they could just throw people into volcanos, but the overtly Christian nature of This is The End means that it doesn’t make sense there was no Christian imagery in Cabin in the Woods if they are connected. Secondly, the monsters in Cabin in the Woods are directly inspired by monsters from other horror movies, including a Pinhead-like Hell Lord, a mummy, Deadites, a clown similar to Tim Curry’s Pennywise, and Grady-like twins. Demons are another type of monster listed on the whiteboard in Cabin in the Woods, and the Hell Lord is, presumably, from Hell, but there are nothing but demons in This is The End. If the devil in This is The End had hundreds of varying types of monsters at its disposal, it doesn’t make sense that it would only use demons. Ultimately, i’s a fun little theory disproven by the stark difference in the religious symbolism of This is The End.
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