The Cabin, a.k.a The Buckner House or "The Old Buckner Place", is the central location where the American version of The Ritual takes place. Supposedly, it came into the possession of a cousin of Curt Vaughan.
Curt then invited his girlfriend, Jules Louden and his friends, Dana Polk, Holden McCrea and Marty Mikalski to spend a weekend vacation there. In truth the cabin is a facade established by the The Facility allowing them to conduct the Ritual. Here, victims as well as monsters can be isolated without fear of interference or escape, and the environment itself can be carefully controlled to manipulate the victims.
The cabin along with The Facility is destroyed by The Ancient Ones once The Ritual fails.
Backstory[]
The Buckner Family portrait with the Cabin behind them.
According to the revealed story, the Cabin was once a home to the Buckner Family, a family of evil, murderous rednecks who tortured and/or killed anyone who came by the house in the early 1900s.
However, since the true purpose of the cabin is to host the sacrificial ritual, its alleged backstory presumably changes with each ritual, ultimately depending upon the specific Monster Item that a victim selects.
Layout[]
The Cabin is a single floor building not counting the cellar. It has a few rooms in it, including several bed rooms, a main living room with a fireplace, and a cellar. Despite its dilapidated state and isolated location, it is electrified.
In a separate part of the cellar is a hidden room, called "The Black Room", furnished for the Buckner family's pain rituals. It includes a bloody table, chains, and instruments of mutilation.
The Cabin and everything in it is controlled by The Facility, which is located directly underneath.
Furnishings[]
The cabin is modestly furnished. It has electrical power but its main source of heat seems to be from the stone fireplace in the living room.
It has several rooms furnished with beds, chairs and electric lights.
In at least one room -the one originally taken by Holden McCrea- is a one-way mirror hidden behind an elaborate (and gory) painting which looks directly into the adjacent room, which was taken by Dana Polk.
The most notable furnishings of the cabin are in the cellar. This is where the Monster Items are kept until the sacrifices discover them. The cellar is quite cluttered with detritus, allowing the victims to choose from a great diversity of items, and hence the potential to summon a wide variety of monsters.
The Facility has several methods of controlling the cabin remotely. These include wire-taps, hidden cameras, and vents which allow the technicians to vent mind-altering chemicals into the building to direct the actions of the sacrifices. They can also control the doors, causing the cellar door to open or lock the bedroom doors.
Trivia[]
- The Cabin bears a strong resemblance to the cabin from Evil Dead, which is probably the archetypal horror movie of this type.
- Both are isolated log cabins.
- Both have cellars accessed by trap doors which hide mysterious objects which summon the deadly antagonist(s) of the movie.
- Both have stone fireplaces and taxidermied animal heads displayed prominently.
- The disturbing portrait in Holden's room was created especially for the movie and has no real-world counterpart. It depicts a forest in which a number of dogs and deranged-looking people in antiquated clothing are mutilating an animal while a man in a wide-brimmed hat observes from the distance.
- Theoretically the hidden Buckner room could apply to several monsters, specifically the more humanoid ones. The presence of an elaborate room dedicated to the exact monsters that are ultimately selected by the victims (out of so many possibilities) stretches credulity, so in theory it would have to have some other explanation had a different monster been chosen. Alternatively, it could be made inaccessible by the Control Room remotely so that the characters do not get distracted; multiple hidden rooms exist with each constructed for a different scenario; or, given the supernatural nature of the Old Ones, the room arranges itself to conform to the type of monster that has been selected.
- The cabin, and indeed the entire film (which is itself a parody) was parodied in a 2016 short entitled The Cabinet in the Woods. The short's cover art directly imitates one of Cabin's movie posters.