The cabin in the woods conventions and subgenre

In 'the cabin in the woods' the film uses the conventions of different sub-genres. The film does this initially by introducing five stock characters seen in the horror genre – Dumb blonde, jock , fool , nerd and the virgin or final girl they distort these characters by giving them unusual traits. They synthetically made the blonde less cognitive in her thinking. The jock is also smart as is the stoner. Cross cutting is used to show the buildup of the film. One scene in which the controllers of the gamble say "they don’t transgress" "they can't be punished" suggests that the film is not about teen punishment ( this is also linked to how the 'virginal' character is not a virgin but is still the final girl). The film also uses conventional locations – a secluded cabin. Which is typical of the slasher genre, however the aggressors are at first the zombies. The zombies are also shown to be unconventional as they do not bite their victims; instead torturing them. This suggest the splatter genre due to the higher amount of blood and gore. This is used to make the section of film more interesting as the death is more drawn out. The film also uses low key lighting and close up shots of the 'monsters' this is used to create more tension and action in short takes. The use of mixed subgenres allows the film to add more conventions form the different sections. By doing this the film takes more un expected turns due to the conventions of each monster victim and location as well as type of death. The convention of zombies being : they are slow, don’t use weapons and act mindlessly. From both the book in the film and there screen time the zombies use trowels, saws, bear traps . Etc. This uses the idea that victim deaths need to be intimate to produce the horror effect.