The Top 10 Best Cabin in the Woods Movies
5. Dead Snow
What’s worse than zombie beavers? How about zombie Nazis (nazi zombies?) Straight out of Norway comes one of the strangest zombie movies I’ve ever seen. Dead Snow is less a cabin in the woods and more a cabin in the mountains flick. Either way, it still shows exactly what happens when you travel outside the range of cell phone service. That’s right, SS officers will rise and try to kill you. It’s up to a group of boozed-up Norwegians to remind these undead fascists that the Reich will never rise again. That’s easier said than done since zombies tend to be durable little buggers. In case I haven’t made it clear, Dead Snow is a horror-comedy. It’s got plenty of blood and gore though, and still proves that if you’re going to spend a weekend at a cabin in the woods, you better get your affairs in order first.
4. Friday the 13th
Before Jason Vorhees massacred his way into history as one of the greatest big-screen slashers of all time, his mama was showing him how it was done. For those of you that don’t know the story, Mrs. Vorhees suffered the loss of her son because camp counselors were too busy shtooping to pay attention to him out in the lake. Needless to say, she wasn’t super cool with that and went about getting revenge for her poor, little, baby boy. That’s right, the original Firday the 13th killer was Mama Vorhees. She set upon those horny teens like an angel of death in the name of poor baby Jason. Thing is, she didn’t do too hot when it came to finishing them all off. Fortunately, her beloved son was more than happy to pick up where she left off.
3. Evil Dead 2
There’s some controversy when it comes to the Evil Dead movies. While I admire the scrappy attitude of the original, the sequel (remake) is superior when it comes to cabin in the woods movies. So far on this list, we’ve had zombies, aliens, and deadly diseases. Well, it’s time to add demons to the roster, because Evil Dead features a slew of them. Turns out that the only thing worse than spending the weekend at a decrepit cabin is being dumb enough to read aloud from the book bound in human flesh that you find in the basement. Luckily for audiences (and not for the people in the cabin), Ash does exactly that. Evil Dead is a cult classic series and no list of cabin in the woods movies would be complete without it.
2. The Cabin in the Woods
You didn’t seriously think I wouldn’t include this one on here, did you? I mean, the name of the movie is The Cabin in the Woods. In all seriousness, this delightfully twisted Lovecraftian horror flick embodies everything I’ve been talking about. A group of college kids heads off to enjoy a weekend of fun in the sun up at a cabin on the lake only to find themselves in the middle of a nightmare. Turns out the nightmare is being masterfully controlled by an organization that has to appease a set of slumbering ancient gods by following a very specific ritual in order to avoid the end of the world. Now, I get that no one wants to be a ritual sacrifice, but this all could have been easily avoided by going to the beach instead.
1. Tucker and Dale vs Evil
This might be a controversial choice, but in my mind, one of the best horror-comedies of all time also happens to be the penultimate cabin in the woods movie. Two good-natured… I want to say “hill gentlemen…” Well, they set out to fix up a shabby cabin and turn it into a beautiful vacation spot that they can enjoy together. Their do-it-yourself weekend is ruined when a bunch of college kids show up and assume that the two are a couple of inbred hicks. A series of deadly miscommunications puts the duo in quite a pickle when the college kids decided that Tucker and Dale are actually redneck killers and set out to stop them. While cabin in the woods movies tend to be horrifying and twisted, Tucker and Dale vs Evil is actually one of the funniest films I’ve ever seen. Making it the perfect pick for the top spot on this list.
When it comes to cabin in the woods movies, these 10 films are the best of the best. However, there are certainly more than 10 cabins in the woods and definitely more than 10 movies that tell their twisted tales. Let me know what some of your favorite cabin in the woods movies are in the comments below as well as what you think of the ones that earned a spot on this list. As always, I’ll be updating this list as new movies hit theaters. So, be sure to check back in the future to see how the rankings might change!