A single knock changes the lives of a family vacationing in the woods. That knock, from Dave Bautista, begins the hard and intense question of “sacrificing for everything”. M. Night Shyamalan returns to the big screen with his newest apocalyptic horror, Knock at the Cabin, based of the best selling 2018 novel, The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul G. Tremblay.
Knock at the Cabin – In Theaters February 3
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The film focuses on Eric and Andrew (Jonathan Groff and Ben Aldridge) and begins when Leonard (Dave Bautista) walks up and befriends Wen, Eric & Andrew’s eight year old daughter, while she is outside playing in the yard catching grasshoppers. Leonard tells Wen that her dads will answer the door and initially decline his request to come in, but that they must let him come in. Shortly after, a knock at the cabin occurs and Leonard is waiting outside the cabin with three companions on this mission. These three new faces are even more unusual than Leonard; a second-grade teacher (Dave Bautista), a registered nurse (Nikki Amuka-Bird), a cook and mother (Abby Quinn) and a sketchy-looking “Harry Potter” star (Rupert Grint). These four individuals represent all the “dimensions of the human experience,” which is evidently more confusing than the story itself. Through a series of events, Eric and Andrew are faced with the difficult decision…. sacrifice one of the family’s lives for the greater good of civilization, or watch the apocalypse happen and the end of the world with them being the only survivors.
Repulsed by the drastic challenge, Eric & Andrew each time refuse to comply and sacrifice one of them. One by one, each intruder is sacrificed and killed by the other members, and a global catastrophe follows through. This dramatic underwhelming story concludes, as predicted, with a bittersweet homecoming and sacrifice.
M. Night Shyamalan’s directorial version of this novel disappoints and leaves the audience underwhelmed. Dave Bautista, on the other hand, shines in one of his first and finest dramatic roles to date, ever so proving that he can act in serious roles. The other intruders are truly underwhelming and feel wasted throughout the movie other than to kill each other off to tell the story. Aside from Bautista’s emotional and fascinating character, the premise and story for Knock at the Cabin falls flat. This does not mean the movie is not worth a watch. Just don’t expect the “blockbuster thriller” that comes with M. Night Shyamalan films.
Knock at the Cabin is rated R and in theaters Friday, February 3rd.
Ever since he was young, Matt was enamored and glued to anything Disney. From the movies, to Playhouse Disney, to frequent visits to Walt Disney World. Disney was Matt’s childhood. As he grew up, and his interests went from movie fandom, to park operations fandom, his desire for spread to Disney Parks and his urge to work for Disney. Since then, he has completed numerous Disney College Programs, and is currently a proud Cast Member at his favorite park, EPCOT, having been apart of the opening teams for Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Creations Shop, and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind’s Treasures of Xandar.
