Knock At The Cabin (2023)

By: Mike Ward on Thursday, February 02

R Running Time: 100 mins

SHOULD I SEE IT?

YES

  • Dave Bautista. He’s tremendous here.

  • M. Night Shyamalan has his devotees and there is just enough here to please his strongest fans and those who have occasionally liked his work.

  • A clever, suspenseful premise and Shyamalan’s return to R-rated fare will likely draw a nice audience.

NO

  • Fans of the Paul Tremblay book may take issue with some of the changes Shyamalan has made to the source material.

  • A movie that presents as important and deep-thinking. In reality, I’m not sure this movie is saying much of anything of consequence or substance.

  • Are we sure we are cool with this movie’s ultimate depiction of its LGBTQ+ characters? There’s progress here, sure - but also, one could argue this feels a tad bit regressive on some level.


OUR REVIEW

Weaponizing faith, both physically and psychologically, lies at the heart of Knock at the Cabin, the latest suspense/thriller from writer/director M. Night Shyamalan. Notorious for adding twists and turns in nearly all of his films, with varying degrees of success, the 15th outing for Shyamalan uses the all-too-familiar trope of “the cabin in the woods” and brings us a frightening premise that, for awhile, has us clenching with anticipation and fascinated at what may come next.

Almost instantly our heart leaps into our throat as 7-year-old Wen (Kristen Cui) is playing outside the vacation rental cabin booked by her dads - Eric (Jonathan Groff) and Andrew (Ben Aldridge). The idea is to unplug for a while and reconnect as a family. So imagine Wen’s surprise when her tranquil practice of catching grasshoppers is interrupted by a man who appears at a distance in her sightline. 

Inside the cabin, her dads are unaware of what’s happening outside as a man named Leonard (Dave Bautista) calmly and kindly chats up the young girl. They bond a bit over grasshoppers and Wen starts to warm up to his kindness until he asks Wen if he can talk to her parents about something of grave importance. As three other individuals emerge from the woods, Wen panics and rushes into the house to alert her dads. 

Bautista’s gentle soul is a bit of a canard that Shyamalan hangs his film’s thrills on. For those who remember his WWE days as “Batista,” he’s a giant, enigmatic presence, which makes his eyeglass wearing, button-up shirt, whispery dialogue demeanor all the more confounding and captivating. His performance here is truly terrific.

As Eric and Andrew refuse to allow Leonard and his friends to enter, they force the issue with a varying array of menacing weaponry. Anvils, mallets, and axes are brandished and soon the four invaders are in the cabin, bounding and tying up Wen’s parents while Leonard calmly and reasonably explains why they are in their home.

Leonard, a second-grade teacher and occasional bartender (which drew laughter in our screening), is joined by triage nurse Sabrina (Nikki Amuka-Bird), line cook and single mother Adriane (Abby Quinn), and Redmond (Rupert Grint), a gas company employee trying to leave a troubled past behind. Leonard eventually lays it out as simply as he can. 

Shared visions have brought the four of them together to descend upon this particular cabin. To ward off an impending apocalypse, the family must choose who among the three of them will be willingly sacrificed to save the world. 

“For every no you give us,” Leonard shares with a somber, defeated tone. “Thousands of people are going to die.”

Based on Paul Tremblay’s bleak, polarizing novel, “The Cabin at the End of the World,” those who have read the book should know, at least in part, where this is all heading. Shyamalan, adapting the work of first-time screenwriters Michael Sherman and Steve Desmond, has gone out of his way to mention in multiple interviews that his film differs from the book’s gut-wrenching final pages. (I mean, if you know - you know.)

That’s a key point I suppose because Knock at the Cabin is a movie that feels like it is racing towards some extremely dark and terrifying places and really never quite gets there. While it’s unfair to say Shyamalan is toying with his audience, he kind of is. Jarin Blaschke and Lowell A. Meyer’s camera work definitely is. At times, they lock in tight on faces forcing characters to talk directly into the camera. In other moments, our eyes focus on one thing only to have the camera’s gaze shift abruptly. Elsewhere, moments of random humor break up tension and much of the film’s violence is largely heard and not seen. 

There is something to be said about the appearance of a gay couple not being presented as anything outlandish or provocative in a modern-day, major studio film. We get flashbacks, in random moments, where we see different struggles and shared experiences Eric and Andrew have shared together. We come to learn that Eric is more soft-spoken and reasoned, Andrew more temperamental and emotionally charged. 

But what does it all add up to? I’m not entirely sure. Again, faith emerges as a driving theme behind the conversations, the emotions, the violence. I can see Shyamalan is at least thinking about the limits we impose upon ourselves when it comes to reason and belief. Assertions are challenged a lot in Knock at the Cabin, and Shyamalan gives both sides some wins along the way. 

So is this cinematic “Both sides-ism?” A lecture to an audience on not dismissing those devout in their faith and beliefs, even if those beliefs do not comport with a rational reality? Does Shyamalan realize he’s built a film around a God-like character demanding a sacrifice and doesn’t think some may take issue with the sacrifice needing to be a gay couple; failing to recognize that many of the most devout have called for the demonization and even elimination of those within the LGBTQ+ community?

I want to tell you that Knock at the Cabin digs in deep and raises some insightful, probing questions. It doesn’t. Not really. 

In the end, Shyamalan may or may not throw in a trademark twist to all of this - that can be left open to the audience. This time around, he seems more content hunting and pecking away at the novelty of a clever premise and tossing some half-baked ideas into the middle of it all. Though when placed in the hands of Bautista, Knock at the Cabin becomes a far more engaging and interesting movie than it really has any right to be. 

CAST & CREW

Starring: Dave Bautista, Jonathan Groff, Ben Aldridge, Kristen Cui, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Rupert Grint, Abby Quinn

Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Written by: M. Night Shyamalan, Steve Desmond, Michael Sherman
Based on the book “The Cabin at the End of the World” by Paul Tremblay
Release Date: February 2, 2023
Universal Pictures