Knock at the Cabin Review

Knock at the Cabin review.

M. Night Shyamalan returns with a character driven piece about the end of worlds both large and small. A great cast and perfect pacing make this (largely) locked door thriller work. Even if the marketing department is hell bent on seeing that it doesn’t.

New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.

Knock at the Cabin

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan

Screenplay by M. Night Shyamalan, Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman

Starring Dave Bautista, Jonathan Groff, Ben Aldridge, Nikki Amuka-Bird and Rupert Grint

Knock at the Cabin Review

I’m going to try my best not to turn this review of Knock at the Cabin into a rant about how films are marketed.  An odd way to preface a review…but a necessary one.  Universal Pictures second released trailer for the movie commits the greatest sin that a trailer can.  We’ve all seen trailers where we fear the best parts of the movie were spoiled…there is a level worse than that.  The second trailer for Knock at the Cabin doesn’t show the best parts of the film…it actively ruins experiencing them.  A large portion of the movie deals with questioning whether the people who knock at said cabin are telling the truth.  A mystery completely undone by whoever cut together and released the last trailer.

None of this is Shyamalan’s fault.  Whoever Universal tasks with cutting and distributing their movie trailers is.  It’s the inherent flaw with the system.  The director’s goal is to make an entertaining picture.  The marketing arm’s job is to get the movie to make money.  Even if it comes at the cost of enjoyment of the product they’re selling.  Shyamalan made an entertaining picture.  For his sake I hope the marketing arm’s choice to spoil a key answer is rewarded at the box office.  Because it cost the movie a lot.

Now…this is a review of a motion picture.  How does the movie play from start to finish?  How successful is the director’s vision?  Are the performances and story worth checking out?  That’s what was under Shyamalan’s control and what we are here to discuss.  You can’t dock what he has created in Knock at the Cabin because of a decision someone else made after the fact.  So from here out we will block that aspect from the discussion and concentrate on what we should.  …  It did turn into a bit of a rant.

Knock at the Cabin is the story of a family tasked with either an impossible decision…or an unbelievable one, depending on your perspective.  Four people come to their cabin and inform them that the fate of the world rests on their shoulders.  Either they must choose to sacrifice one of themselves or plagues will be unleashed on humanity…killing everyone except the family.  They will be left to wander a barren hellscape alone.

To Eric (Jonathan Groff), Andrew (Ben Aldridge), and their daughter Wen (Kristen Cui) the choice is unbelievable.  Four strangers break into their vacation spot wielding weapons and tie them up.  They’re in the middle of nowhere with no way to communicate with the outside world that they are told is about to end.  Only TV reports that shed light on events that had already started provide any context to the insane request.  There isn’t any way to know if the intruders have concocted an elaborate rouse with the intention of torturing them.

To Leonard (Dave Bautista), Sabrina (Niki Amuka-Bird), Adriane (Abby Quinn) and Redmond (Rupert Grint) the choice is impossible.  How do you convince a loving family to choose a member to die?  The intruders can’t kill someone themselves…the family must do it themselves.  Plagued by visions of what will happen, and prepared to carry out the extreme measures they themselves are tasked with. There is no moment of their time in the cabin that you don’t believe they aren’t 100 percent convinced they have been chosen to save the world.

The performances in Knock at the Cabin are one of its greatest strengths.  Most of the film deals with talking through every angle of this situation.  Without compelling actors to deliver the dialog the whole thing would sink.  Right from the opening scene…performance dominates this character driven horror story. 

Bautista does a lot of heavy lifting and does a fantastic job walking the line between dangerous and likable.  We can’t know if he is telling the truth…but because of his performance, we believe that he believes it.  Groff and Aldridge bring a ton of heart to the film.  Shyamalan cuts in flashbacks to key moments in their relationship and they carve out rich, likable characters in little time.  Cui shines as their young daughter as well.  The whole cast delivers in a movie that demands it.

Shyamalan movies have sometimes suffered from too slow pacing…but that isn’t the case with Knock at the Cabin.  It kicks its story off in a hurry and ratchets up the tension, and doubt, at an expert pace.  He’s on his A game here.  There are moments of great restraint as he lets the actors, or the action, tell the story.  Too much restraint, perhaps, as it pertains to the violence depicted.  Everything happens off screen or just out of frame.  It’s an odd choice for an R-rated thriller.  Not every depiction of violence needs to be shown, of course…but there are moments in Knock at the Cabin that would be elevated with a bit of gore.  Especially given the (alleged) stakes of the film.

Knock at the Cabin makes compelling arguments in favor of both sides of the conundrum. Can you trust something so unbelievable? Is this real? Could you make an impossible choice? Is humanity even worth saving?

Unlike the trailer…that’s where we will leave this review of Knock at the Cabin.  A movie about love, family, belief, duty and, just maybe, the end of the world as we know it.  Knock at the Cabin successfully portrays an impossible, unbelievable choice.  Even if the marketing wants to make it for them.

Scare Value

I wish I could have seen Knock at the Cabin with completely fresh eyes. Genuinely compelling moments are undone by the film’s marketing department. That said…the film itself is very good. Performances are top notch across the board and Shyamalan shows a masterful ability to tell a quieter horror story with great pace. Recommended…even more so if you don’t watch the second trailer.

3.5/5

Knock at the Cabin Link

Buy tickets on Fandango

Knock at the Cabin Trailer

Check out another new movie review, Infinity Pool