Knock at the Cabin (2023) Universal/Horror-Thriller RT: 100 minutes Rated R (violence and language) Director: M. Night Shyamalan Screenplay: M. Night Shyamalan, Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman Music: Herdis Stefansdottir Cinematography: Jarin Blaschke Release date: February 3, 2023 (US) Cast: Dave Bautista, Jonathan Groff, Ben Aldridge, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Rupert Grint, Abby Quinn, Kristen Cui. Box Office: $35.4M (US)/$54.8M (World)
Rating: * ½
Some knocks at the door are best left unanswered. Pesky neighbors, political pollsters and solicitors are at the top of my list. Knock at the Cabin is another time when it’s best to pretend you’re not home. The new horror-thriller from M. Night Shyamalan is yet another unfortunate miss from a filmmaker who showed great promise early on (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable) but lost his way with duds like The Happening, The Last Airbender (or as I like to call it, The Last Air Biscuit) and After Earth. He still hasn’t regained his footing and his latest is definitely a step in the wrong direction. As has become his trademark move, he takes a rather interesting premise and drains all the life out of it. In turn, it sucks the life right out of the theater.
Based on the novel The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul G. Tremblay, Knock at the Cabin takes place almost entirely in the living room of a remote cabin in Burlington County, NJ where a family of three is being detained by four strangers warning of imminent doom unless they make the difficult choice of sacrificing one of their own to save the world.
It was supposed to be a fun, relaxing vacation for happy couple Eric (Groff, The Matrix Resurrections) and Andrew (Aldridge, Spoiler Alert) with their adopted daughter Wen (Cui). That is, until the arrival of four intruders bearing makeshift weapons. Their leader Leonard (Bautista, Guardians of the Galaxy) explains that he and his companions Sabrina (Bird, Old), Adriane (Quinn, Landline) and Redmond (Grint of the Harry Potter films) need their help in stopping the end of the world. They claim to have been brought together by some unknown force, the same one that led them to Eric, Andrew and Wen. Tied to chairs and cut off from the outside world, they’re told the only way to stop the impending Apocalypse is to willingly kill one of their own. It’s a choice they have to make themselves. For every refusal on their part, the rest of the world will pay the price be it a natural disaster or deadly virus. News reports appear to confirm what they’re saying. Could this be real or is it some shared psychosis?
There was a time when I thought Shyamalan deserved to be mentioned in the same breath as Spielberg and Cameron. He came out of the gate strong with The Sixth Sense, not his first movie but the one that first brought the filmmaker to the attention of the moviegoing public. It was a slow-burn thriller and Shyamalan made it work. How? He made the viewer’s patience pay off with one of the greatest final revelations ever. It all but demanded you go back for a second viewing. Since then, audiences have come to expect it every time from Shyamalan. This time, there is no payoff. The supposed shock ending of Knock at the Cabin isn’t a shock at all. The lead-up to it isn’t much better. It starts off okay with an unsettling premise and slowly goes nowhere. By the time we find out what’s really what, our interest has ebbed to the point of indifference.
Due to the recent controversy over 12YO Ryan Kiera Armstrong’s Razzie nomination for Worst Actress (which has since been rescinded), I’m reluctant to criticize 9YO newcomer Cui too harshly. In her first major acting credit, she doesn’t make much of an impression. She spends most of the movie with a blank expression on her face. It’s not a great performance; however, the fault isn’t entirely hers. The screenplay by Shyamalan, Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman lets her down big time by not developing her character too far beyond a superficial level. What do we really know about Wen? She’s an Asian adoptee born with a cleft palate (hence the scar above her lip). She likes learning and watching anime (she mentions Kiki’s Delivery Service by name). She loves her two dads. That’s it, more or less. Other than that, we don’t get much of a read on this kid. In Cui’s defense, she’s young and has lots of time to hone her craft if she chooses to pursue an acting career.
If I’m being honest, the acting isn’t the worst thing in Knock at the Cabin. None of it is Oscar-level stuff, but I doubt we’ll see any of the players on next year’s list of Razzie nominees either. I find it difficult to believe Bautista’s hulking, tattooed character is a second grade teacher, but if the Terminator can pass as a kindergarten teacher, why not Drax the Destroyer? Bautista reveals a gentler, softer-spoken side of himself here. He’s only menacing in size and appearance. It’s an interesting performance. Groff and Aldridge, both gay in real life, make a convincing couple even if their characters aren’t particularly interesting. Their arcs are extremely predictable with one of them (literally) seeing the light while the other continues to fight.
In simple terms, Knock at the Cabin is boring. Although Shyamalan keeps it relatively brief at 100 minutes (as opposed to the glut of movies with two hour-plus run times), it’s still a chore to sit through. I wasn’t interested in the characters or their dilemmas. Also, I knew exactly where it was headed. It doesn’t take a genius to know what the four strangers represent. If you know your Bible, the Book of Revelations in particular, you know what I’m talking about. There aren’t any surprises in Knock at the Cabin but one. It’s bad. But is that really a surprise considering Shyamalan’s track record as of late?
