Rating: 8.5
Premise: While vacationing, a girl and her parents are taken hostage by armed strangers who demand that the family make a choice to avert the apocalypse.
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Universal
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
Screenplay by M. Night Shyamalan, Steve Desmond & Michael Sherman
Based on the book “The Cabin at the End of the World” by Paul Tremblay
Cast: Dave Bautista, Jonathan Groff, Ben Aldridge, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Kristen Cui, Abby Quinn, Rupert Grint
Runtime: 1hr 40min
Rating: 14A
Horror, Mystery, Thriller
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IMDb Rating: 6.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 68%
RT Audience Score: 71%
RT Critic Average: 6.2/10
RT Audience Average: 3.7/5
Metacritic Score: 62
CinemaScore: C
Letterboxd: 3.2/5
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Review:
written by Tyler Park
“I see dead people” is a line that has echoed through pop culture ever since M. Night Shyamalan’s breakout film The Sixth Sense. M. Night built himself on the twist that shocked audiences from that film, to the point that his entire career, for better or for worse, has been known for his iconic jaw-dropping twists. But refreshingly, with Knock at the Cabin, it seems that Shyamalan has outgrown the plot twist.
Based on Paul Tremblay’s 2018 novel, The Cabin at the End of the World, Knock at the Cabin follows the story of a loving family — Eric, Andrew, and their adopted daughter Wen — whose vacation at a remote cabin is interrupted by four strangers arriving at their door. Led by the hulking Leonard, the strangers insist that they are there to avert the apocalypse. But they need Eric, Andrew and Wen’s help with a terrible decision: the three must decide which of them must be sacrificed to save all of humanity from dying in a series of world-ending events.
And that’s it, there’s no twist. (At least if you haven’t read the book, there isn’t. More on that later.) Instead, Knock at the Cabin is a straightforward exercise in nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat suspense, steered by a filmmaker at the height of his confidence in his craft, and powered by a tremendous antagonistic turn from Bautista, who gives the best performance of his career yet. Bautista continues to surprise me with such interesting career choices, but I applaud him for taking these risks, especially when it ends up with him turning into an on-screen force.
It’s clear this is Bautista’s movie from the opening moments, when he emerges from the woods to approach Wen, who’s collecting grasshoppers outside the cabin. Bautista’s Leonard first appears as just a blurry figure in the distance, before we cut to his feet, his boots stomping on the worn-down path like some ominous death knell, each heavy thump reverberating through the screen until it settles in your bones. The sound design in the film is really well done, this was something I was not expecting! Shot from afar, Bautista’s large physique feels inherently threatening, but Shyamalan chooses to mostly show him in extreme close-up — a visual technique Shyamalan uses quite often and quite well in the film — Bautista’s gentle, open face putting the audience — and Wen — at ease as he asks her about her grasshoppers and her family.
But then, things start to feel a little off. As Leonard and Wen’s conversation continues, each cut becomes a deeper Dutch angle. A wide shot of the woods distorts with a dolly zoom, and soon, three other people emerge from the woods, each carrying a strange, primitive weapon. Leonard apologizes to Wen “with all of my broken heart,” and she flees to the cabin, pulling her dads inside and insisting they lock the doors. And the unrelenting barrage of dread and suspense begins. The film is thrilling, building tension from moment one that grows all the way through. There is great pacing all the way through that really helps to keep us on our toes (and on the edges of our seats)!
Shyamalan’s visual style is unparalleled, he seems to be one of the only filmmakers these days who is interested in using his camera as the driving storytelling device, letting shot types, focus and angles tell a complete story on their own. I even loved the look of the 35mm film shot on an anamorphic lens. I believe Shyamalan said his goal was to create a 90s sequence psychological thriller, and visually alone he managed to achieve that (right down to the old-style Universal logo)! I really loved the look of the film and fear it may not be discussed enough!
Shyamalan might have found his perfect collaborator in Bautista, who nails the tricky balance of earnest tone and stilted dialogue typical of the filmmaker’s movies, all while radiating a terrifying, unreadable fanaticism that feels equal turns compassionate and menacing. He’s a gentle giant who apologizes to his would-be victims and puts cartoons on for Wen, but he believes in his task with a religious fervor that makes his every action incomprehensible to everyone but him.
Shyamalan’s signature quirk of awkward dialogue, which is less pronounced here thanks to co-writers Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman, feels somehow natural coming from Bautista’s lips — Leonard’s words feel rehearsed because they are, his actions are practiced because he did. And despite the limitations of the character, Bautista manages to convey deep empathy and sadness with every word he utters; it feels like his short, heartbreaking scene in Blade Runner 2049 turned up to 11. This is a man given a terrible burden he wouldn’t wish on anyone, and Bautista sells that.
But if there’s anyone to hold a candle to Bautista, it’s Jonathan Groff and Ben Aldridge as Eric and Andrew, whose stubborn resistance to the strangers’ awful demands is only superseded by their unflagging loyalty to each other and Wen. Unlike the four strangers, Eric and Andrew are given the benefit of a character arc, with flashbacks to their lives together interwoven throughout the movie. It helps the two feel like the most fleshed-out and intensely human of Shyamalan characters, an achievement aided by the fact that Groff and Aldridge seem to have sidestepped the “awkward dialogue” requirements of his films.
This all being said, I found the ending was a twist in itself for me, as it will be for many fans of the original novel. The changes made to the ending were quite different, but they were very interesting and presented a less ambiguous take on the novel’s conclusion. I personally don’t think this worked as well, I quite enjoy how the book ultimately made the question of the reality of the apocalypse inconsequential, and focused only on the emotional choice that Eric and Andrew have to make. In the novel, it all comes down to the question of do they choose fear or the most defiant of all hopes, love? The story is really all about the choice, not the apocalypse. The film had bits of this, but I found it ended on a more hopeful, clean-cut ending in comparison that fell slightly short thematically. I found the storytelling got clunky in the last 20 minutes, and I became unsure of what M. Night was trying to say about the fascinating questions he posed to the audience. The messaging just got a little muddled with the new ending. However, I did like that it still recognizes that we tend to act on belief rather than objective fact. It is an overall great adaptation, and if you like the movie I would easily recommend checking out the book!
Knock at the Cabin is a rock-solid thriller, but not an amazing one. Its Biblical apocalypse prevents it from playing as anything more than a parable, and limits it from reaching for any deeper meaning beneath the surface-level suspense. The latter makes some readings of the film’s ending as potentially insidious feel thin. But as a showcase for Shyamalan’s evolving abilities as a filmmaker, it does a great job. This is Shyamalan’s best film since his early days! And even if Knock at the Cabin doesn’t live or die by a twist, it gets all the life it needs from a terrific, terrifying Bautista.
Fun Fact: M. Night Shyamalan cast Dave Bautista after he was impressed by his performance in Blade Runner 2049 (2017).
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