“Knock at the Cabin” Review
(From Left) Ben Aldridge, Kristen Cui and Jonathan Groff star in “Knock at the Cabin” as a family forced to make an impossible choice to prevent the apocalypse.
When it comes to director M. Night Shyamalan, I always am excited for whatever project he’s working on. What I admire about him is how he just makes whatever he wants and it always leaves an impact on you. Sometimes he makes very engaging films like “The Sixth Sense,” the “Unbreakable” trilogy and “The Visit.” Other times he makes films so bizarrely bad that they’re fascinating like “Lady in the Water,” “The Happening” and “Old.” But regardless of the final product, I always get this tremendous sense of passion radiating from the screen. That passion is just as strong with “Knock at the Cabin,” Shyamalan’s most recent film, and, once again, it just proves that you have no idea what to expect from this director.
Set in a remote cabin in the woods of Pennsylvania, a little girl named Wen (Kristen Cui) and her fathers Eric and Andrew (Jonathan Groff and Ben Aldridge) are enjoying a nice quiet vacation when they are set on by four mysterious strangers (Dave Bautista, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Abby Quinn and Rupert Grint). After taking the family hostage, the group’s leader Leonard (Bautista) explains that the three of them must choose to willingly sacrifice a member of their family in order to prevent the apocalypse.
What Shyamalan captures so well with this story is a gripping sense of tension. The titular cabin is the only location of importance for most of the film and the four strangers arrive within the first few minutes. There is no time wasted and you’re quickly thrust into this stressful situation with no escape.
As for the apocalypse, the film smartly keeps you in the dark as to whether or not this is occurring. While there are terrible events and disasters that are happening with every passing hour, there’s usually a logical explanation for all of this which Andrew and Eric are quick to point out. However, it’s just as plausible that the end of the world is near and “Knock at the Cabin” waits until the very end to reveal what’s really happening. And no, plants aren’t the culprits.
Despite holding this family hostage, these four strangers are still compelling because you get the sense that they don’t want to be in this situation any more than the family does.
Ben Aldridge and Jonathan Groff are remarkable as these parents who just want to get out of this thing alive without having to make the terrible sacrifice. While both of these actors have excelled in the past when it comes to drama, these two are in a heightened state of anxiety and fear for most of the film and keep you on the edge. As for their daughter Wen, Kristen Cui is excellent as she immediately hooks you in with a sweet yet tense scene when she first meets Leonard.
Not only are the first few minutes that we spend with these characters enough to establish sympathy for what they're about to go through, but the film occasionally flashes back to show the origins of this family. We see Andrew and Eric fell in love, how they adopted Wen and when they first arrived at this cabin which makes their path all the more engrossing.
Before this day, the four strangers have never met each other and all seem to have nothing in common. But they’ve all had visions which compelled them to come to this cabin and they all aren’t too happy about what they think they need to do to stop humanity’s extinction. Despite having to force this family to make an impossible choice, all four of them are still compelling and each of them are humanized with compelling reasons why they want to stop this impending doom. In particular, Dave Bautista gives the film’s best performance and is so quiet and thoughtful unlike his more brash roles in “Dune” or “Guardians of the Galaxy.”
Whether you’re looking at this film from the side of the family or from the four strangers, “Knock at the Cabin” is about a bunch of people in a horrible situation that don’t want to be there. When horrific acts are shown in this film, Shyamalan often keeps them blurred in the background. He knows that what we don’t see is even more frightening and loves to keep our imaginations running with feverish terror.
Despite the limited setting, Shyamalan and the film’s directors of photography, Jarin Blaschke and Lowell A. Meyer, know how to show off this gorgeous location in a way that is both lovely and foreboding. When we think of forests, they can be both places of scenic beauty and can also be mysteriously threatening and both of these tones are explored in “Knock at the Cabin’s” visual style.
As for the film’s screenplay, cowritten by Shyamalan, Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman, it certainly has the typical feel of this director’s filmography with an overly-melodramatic tone and lines that focus on destiny and choices and long speeches. However, unlike something like “The Happening” where this dialogue makes the story cheesy, it’s warranted with “Knock at the Cabin” because the style fits the subject matter.
With that said, the biggest fault with the script lies in the third act because the writing tries a bit too hard to explain why these four people were selected, why this family was chosen and why this sacrifice needs to be made. It’s like “Knick at the Cabin” is trying to analyze itself while it’s being made when the film should just leave it up to the interpretation of the audience. However, this doesn’t take too much away from what is essentially a captivating thriller.
While I don’t think “Knock at the Cabin” can compete with “The Sixth Sense” or “Signs,” it certainly is a captivating story that shows Shamalyan doing what he does best: making gripping films that keep you glued to the screen until the very end.
