12 Fan Theories About 'The Cabin in the Woods' That Could Anger The Ancient Ones

In what might be considered more of a deconstruction of plot and symbolism than an outright theory, Redditor /u/Grievus breaks down how the archetypes assigned to each of the five main characters are actually incorrect. By going through each character and providing detailed reasoning, the Redditor shows (for example) that Marty was never meant to be the Fool, but rather the Virgin. This assesment helps explain why he was able to survive as long as he did, as the Virgin is often the last character standing and is considered an "optional" kill. And if you don't believe the theorist, then just listen to Marty himself: "We are not who we are."

"Think about it." That's how Redditor /u/Ragnrok opens up their theory on the big red "Purge" button, and when you do "think about it," it makes a lot of sense. This theory simply states that the button Dana hits isn't meant to release all the monsters into the facility, because why on Earth would such a mechanism exist?! The button must have glitched or been tampered with, because otherwise we'd have to believe that the secretive agency installed a button that anyone can access, and when pushed releases killer monsters into the elevator foyer without warning. Not a great design choice.

It's not often that the world of fan theories touches on heavy social issues like prejudice, but this one from Redditor /u/callmesurely does just that by taking a bold stance for some of most misunderstood characters in The Cabin in the Woods - the Buckners. While on the surface they appear to be your run-of-the-mill killer zombies, the Redditor points out that they are actually much more nuanced. They're a pain-obsessed redneck zombie family, and Sitterson even refers to them as an entirely different species when referencing the betting draft board. Furthermore, Patience Buckner might be the most misunderstood of them all. She doesn't even seem to like torture and killing (per her diary), and the only person she kills is the Director, who was attacking Marty.

According to Redditor /u/ForNoRaeson, it sure seems like a lot of things had to go wrong for things at the end of The Cabin in the Woods to go, well, so horribly wrong. This theorist proposes that there is actually a larger group pulling strings at the facility to ensure their ritual goes haywire, thus provoking the Ancient Ones to emerge and bring on Armageddon. If you look at the facts, it does seem there might be some foul play from the outside. The bridge doesn't collapse when it's supposed to. A bunch of Japanese schoolgirls manage to thwart the efforts of a Ring-esque ghoul. Heck, to that end, every country on Earth fails! The only way this could be, the Redditor says, is a cabal of some kind made it happen.

Fans of both CITW and The Evil Dead will tell you there are no shortage of similarites between the two. Five teens fighting off monsters in a cabin... in the woods. Discovering old relics. Reading from a cursed book that awakens the dead. This list goes on. In a theory brought to us from Redditor /u/The_Jackkle, though, their connection goes even deeper. CITW is actually a sequel to The Evil Dead, the key difference being that in the former the audience gets to see things from the persepective of the facility. When it's Ash and company in the original, all we get is the scary cabin POV. The Redditor also points out that when the crew is taking bets at the facility, one ghoul available to bet on is "Angry Molesting Tree," which is most definitely featured in The Evil Dead.

If you think about it, the students in The Cabin in the Woods aren't the only ones going through a ritual; the people in the facility are, as well. As pointed out by Redditor /u/Mynock33, Hadley and Sitterson are warned early on that something seems off with the way things are unfolding, which they dismiss as crazy. We also know that the victims of the ritual are meant to choose their slayer. The cabin crew ends up selecting the Buckner family. The employees at the facility, however, choose every monster. They do so by making their picks in the betting pool, and while Sitterson technically "wins," he and everyone at the facility end up losing in a big way.