Research cluster – ‘A Growing Global Darkness’: Dialectics of culture in Goddard’s The Cabin in the Woods

This article argues that Drew Goddard’s The Cabin in the Woods (2012) navigates between global and local strains emergent within the horror genre. Specifically, by scrutinizing the manner in which nightmares unique to American audiences are passed off as universal, the film offers a pointed critique of neo-liberalism. At the same time, Goddard’s film postulates that such fearful conditions may ultimately promote an alternative sense of community on the world stage. This shift has the potential to foster what theorists Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri label as the ‘monstrous multitude’.