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Multiple critics have interpreted the 2012 horror film The Cabin in the Woods, written by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard and directed by the latter, as a playful, postmodern critique of the horror genre. Drawing on the ideas of Daniel Frampton, this article seeks to trouble that reading, and argue instead that the text itself views cinematic horror in a more unequivocally favourable light than either of its creators intended. More precisely, I argue that beneath its self-reflexive, compulsively intertextual veneer, The Cabin in the Woods is in fact articulating a rather passionate affirmation of horror cinema’s often controversial generic heritage, and a potent defence of its social value and utility.

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