20 best badass women of horror movies
5. Dana Polk (The Cabin in the Woods)
To be successful, most current horror has to take a postmodern approach to really engage its audience. Like some of the best horror films in recent years, The Cabin in the Woods delights in playing with the conventions of the genre. It delves so deep into horror standards that its self-focused attention flips the whole story inside-out and changes it completely.
At first, The Cabin in the Woods sounds pretty standard. Five friends go to a rural — you guessed it — cabin in the woods. But these apparent stock characters — like the jock or the goody-goody in a twinset and sensible shoes — aren’t what they seem. Neither is their classic horror movie cabin.
You see, this cabin sits on top of an extensive underground facility. Said facility is there to ritually sacrifice a group of young people. Yes, it’s a brutal sacrifice. But, far better to pick off a few kinds than anger the semi-slumbering Ancient Ones who could destroy the world otherwise.
These young people are selected according to five different archetypes. They inadvertently choose their own death, which could come about in the form of ghosts, basilisks, zombies, robots, evil clowns, and even a slimy merman.
Dana, the “virgin” of the group, isn’t like her filmic predecessors. She manages to survive, which is partially ordained by the ritual, thanks to the “final girl” trope. She also works with Marty, the “fool”, whose heavy marijuana use has partially shielded him. Together, they wreck the facility and ultimately decide that humanity just might not be worth saving. Dana calmly sits down with Marty and, in a unique show of badassery, watches the end of the world.