#buzzhead

Here are pictures taken from “The Cabin in the Woods: The Official Visual Companion”

Quick descriptions of the pictures :

Picture 1 and 2: Picture of the Basement. In it we can see the pile of old-fashionned dolls and Venitian/carnival masks (among which is the specific mask that invokes the “Dolls” or the “Doll family”) ; all the film suit-cases and the projector which invoke Kevin, a box shape like a heart, and a strange lampe-like objects that I can’t quite identify. 

Picture 3: Picture of the Merman about to devour Steve Hadley. 

Pictures 4 and 5: Pictures of the Werewolf

Picture 6: A picture of the Basement. We can see Jules looking at the wedding dress on which is found the necklace (which could invoke the Bride), and in the background other elements such as a fan on the wall and a record player. 

Pictures 7 to 9 : Pictures of the “Tarp Man” or “Man in Transparent Tarp”

Picture 10 is a concept art for a Mutant.

Fun facts and infos the book reveals:

# The book mentions the existence of the “vomitting mutants”, of the “kraken”, of the “evil clown”, of a “short version of a Reaver” and of zombies (mentionned with the “zombie stairwell feeding frenzy” scene). Are also mentionned the Killer Robot, the Giant Snake, Vampires (interestingly it is pointed out that vampires actually look “just like people” because they have a “Lost Boy” and “Goth” vibe to them), the Werewolf, the Unicorn, the Merman and the Ballerina. 

# The Cabin in the Woods is a movie that was made and designed not to be watched but to be “rewatched” again and again, each time revealing a new detail, a new monster, a new clue hidden somewhere.

# Among the monsters, there is “The Huron”, which is “just an Indian”. The presence of this character was explained by him being the embodiment of the “fear of the early settlers. It was the thing they were scared of in the woods, the people to which the woods belonged”. It is also explained that the presence of the Huron was to highlight the evolution of this ancient ritual, “before the movies came”. A quite interesting mention when you remember that, in the movie, it is mentionned that the monsters are the things “nightmares come from”, aka the source of humanity’s fears - but in the interviews, it seems the filmmakers rather claim the monsters are born from humanity’s fears and culture.

# A very interesting piece of info : in the very early stages of development, the Merman was absent. The monster Hadley wanted so desperatly to see was going to be a Wendigo. However, this idea was abandonned when our filmmaking duo realized no one exactly knew what a Wendigo looked like - or rather no one could agree on a specific iconic look, or on a uniform description. So, they ditched it, and decided to go with something which had a more “iconic” look and that everyone could visualize just by name : a Merman. 

# Hellraiser was a big influence on the movie, and “Buzzhead” (aka the Hell Lord) was a clear reference to Pinhead. 

Let’s talk about tongue.

More pictures from “The Cabin in the Woods: The Official Visual Companion”

Quick description of the pictures:

Pictures 1 to 4: Pictures of the Basement. We can see on them several dolls and toys near the fortune teller’s machine, with also animal horns (I guess they are bull horns?). There is the “clown section” which has clown dolls, several honkers around a children’s drum, a mini-theater, as well as a freakshow/circus poster for “Roberto the Limbless Man”. There is also a bowler hat casually put on top of blue boxes near the “clown section”. Another bowler hat can be seen near “Patience’s Vanity”, on a small wooden chair. Of course there is Patience’s Vanity (the one that contains her diary, located near her portrait). There are several black and white pictures of horses on the wall. There is a strange map/board showing an very old representation of the universe (the kind where the Sun rotates around the Earth), as well as a thick eagle statue

Picture 5: The spheric puzzle that invokes the “Hell Lord”, an hommage to the Lament Configuration of Hellraiser.

Picture 6: The White Board of the bettings. We get to see it better in the movie so I won’t spell out everything on it.

Picture 7: Close-up of the Ballerina.

Picture 8: Close-up of the Hell Lord/Buzzhead

Picture 9: The Werewolf jumping against the walls of his cube

Picture 10: A zoom on the screens when the Facility Staff are looking for the missing “sacrifices”. We can see our heroes, right next to the cube containing the Nosferatu and the one containing the Twins. 

A look at the original script of Cabin in the Woods (present in the Visual Companion):

# The script already mentionned among the departments of the Facility “Engineering”, “R&D”, “Electrical”, “Chemical”, “Security”, “Maintenance” and “Zoology”.In the scene of the “office party”, Ronald the Intern is seen discussing with “a military liaison and a werewolf wrangler”. 

# The script mentions in the basement the presence of “old rusty tools”, an “old record player”, a “child’s toy chest”, a “dressmaker’s mannequin”, the daguerrotype of Prudnce, the music box (located among “child’s toys on the floor”, the conch, the wooden sphere, the amulet around the neck of the mannequin, the “old super 8 projector with film reel” and the “old leather bound” found on the vantiy next to an old hairbrush and a silver mirror. 

# Note that in the original script, the “dressmaker’s mannequin” was merely a mannequin - there is no mention of being on it any dress or any particular wedding dress, it seems to have been a late addition. The amulet was always the key item causing the invocation. 

# The script describes the Buckners as such : “Father” with a scythe and his jaw “worked on”. Mother, armed with a “broken saw” and with “coals” in her belly. Judas, as “skinny” with a “broken shear”. Matthew as “enormous”. And Anna Patience as “little” and “one-armed”. “Zombies not-so decomposed, from the 1900s, and armed with farm implements”. Later Matthew’s weapon is described as a “chain with a broken bear trap at the hand”.

# The script mentions already some of the monster names on the “white betting board” : Zombie Redneck Torture Family, Vampires, Werewolves, Floating Witches, Aliens, Zombies, Kevin, Clowns, Wraiths, Scarecrows, Angry Molesting Tree, Mutants. Of course the Merman is also present.