Personally I quite enjoyed M. Night Shyamalan’s last two films, Old (2021) and Glass (2019), but neither of them set the box office alight or received much acclaim from critics and fans alike so it kind of feels as though Shyamalan needs something of a win. His latest endeavour Knock At The Cabin is an adaptation of Paul Tremblay’s 2018 novel ‘The Cabin At The End Of The World’ but will this one also fall flat or will we be reacquainted with the Shyamalan of old?
The film opens with a young girl, Wen catching and studying grasshoppers in the peaceful woodland surrounding the cabin in which she is vacationing with her adoptive parents, Daddy Eric and Daddy Andrew . The snap of a twig breaks the peace and she is approached by the imposing figure of a stranger who introduces himself as Leonard. Things take a sinister turn when three more figures, each carrying weapons, emerge from the trees. Wen runs back to the cabin to warn her parents and the family rush to secure the cabin from the threats outside but are unable to prevent the four strangers from forcing their way inside. Having subdued the family, Leonard and his companions, Adriane, Redmond and Sabrina, explain that they are there to help save the world from an impending apocalypse.
With a disturbing calmness, Leonard explains that the group have each been experiencing visions of earthquakes, plague and fire that sweeps the planet and plunges humanity into darkness. They reveal that the family have the power to stop this disaster but they must choose to sacrifice, and kill, one of their own. Failure to do so will unleash the foreseen horrors upon the world and, as the last people alive, the family will be forced to witness the result of their failure to act.
All in all, Knock At The Cabin is a tight, tidy tense thriller with the events of the film taking place over just a couple of days. For the most part, the film is contained to just the inside of the cabin which, despite the expanse of the woods outside, give the film something of a claustrophobic feel that is somewhat exaggerated by the physical presence of Dave Bautista.
Speaking of Bautista, rumours of his performance was one of the main reasons why I was looking forward to this film so much – particularly after the short but impressive appearance in Bladerunner 2049 that cemented this role for him – but I have to say, although I wasn’t exactly blown away, I did enjoy the juxtaposition of his hulking, heavily tattooed physique requesting the unthinkable of complete strangers in such a calm and gentle manner.
Bautista ‘s dynamic with the family unit is the main crux of the story, in fact, the other ‘Horsemen’ (played by Rupert Grint, Nikki Amuka-Bird and Abby Quinn) offered very little in the grand scheme of things and I wound up feeling as though they were there just to make up the numbers – literally.
Performance wise, Jonathan Groff and Ben Aldridge were solid enough in their respective roles as Eric and Andrew, and Kristen Chui was strong in her feature film debut as their adopted daughter Wen. There were a few well placed flashbacks that allowed for the development of their characters, as well as the family dynamic as a whole, but ultimately the writing wasn’t strong enough to make me feel particularly sympathetic to one side or the other.
Knock At The Cabin is the kind of movie where the whole story is pretty much revealed in the trailer but, unusually, that doesn’t spoil the film. No, instead you go in knowing what to expect but Shyamalan’s real question of his audience is whether they believe the threat of impending doom is real or if it is merely the plot device in some elaborate revenge mission. Maybe it is the result of a shared delusion or it could be a targeted home invasion based on homophobia and rascism…. It seems as though Shyamalan wants you to believe each option at various points within the film, leaving little breadcrumbs of coincidence, doubt and prejudice along the way to try and skew your opinion until he brings you back and steers you exactly where he wants you to go.
What this does mean though, is that there is a distinct lack of Shyamalan’s trademark twist which ultimately causes the film to suffer overall. It’s not a terrible movie, it’s not even a bad one but it’s not one that you are likely to want to watch again.
