Questions about movie Cabin in the Woods

I just saw the movie and would like to ask some questions, i'm hoping anyone that has seen the movie can answer them.

1) Why would 'they' go to so much trouble to create an elaborate cabin in the woods, just to experiment (?) on a bunch of young people, what's the point?? Why go to all that trouble and spend so much money and employ so many people?

2) What is with all the zombies, are they part of the experiment, created by the scientists?

How in the *** did the stoner guy survive let alone be moving around freely in the scene by the lake when he saves the girl, when he got stabbed in the back earlier? Was this done to show how there are plot holes in scary movies.

3) Wouldnt the movie have made a thousand times more sense if instead of them just randomly going to a cabin in the middle of nowhere, they go there in answer to an add to be part of an experiment and in so doing get paid lots of money? I feel that would have made a lot more sense, as they would decide to do it as a group and get paid heaps of money.

Finally did anyone else think the ending was completely over the top?

It was not just an experiment. The Director explains what it was at the end. If you re-watch, you can see it in progress and understand why the "scientists" behave the way they do.
Youngsters have to choose their demise, otherwise it doesn't work.
It's a movie and horror one at that.
What's the difference? The important thing is that the beginning is funny.
Yes, it was, but I consider that part of "The Cabin in the Woods" identity and therefore not a huge negative.

Tugg did a very good job of answering the questions already (especially since a couple of the questions are explained away by the movie itself).

In short, no. Part of what makes the horror side so effective is that the kids are oblivious to what's really going on and that there's this whole company whose job it is to make sure that kids get killed off year after year (especially considering the reasons why they have such an elaborate set-up in place). The whole "mad scientist pays people to be guinea pigs" would needlessly complicate things without adding anything of worth - if anything, such a familiar set-up would just seem boring.

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uhh… are you sure you watched the movie? I'm baffled as to how you came away thinking this was an experiment, it suggests you missed the entire plot of the film.

There was no experiment in the film. Where did get that idea from?
The whole thing is a RITUAL not an experiment.

Honestly you have such a fundamental misunderstanding of this whole film I don't think anyone on a message board will be able to shine light on it. Maybe it's concept is just too complex for you.

In short the entire film is a ritual to appease satan, but the ritual fails so satan unleashes his fury on the world. Nothing about the ending is over the top, it's firmly grounded in the plot.