There are so few filmmakers who inspire the kind of anticipation that M. Night Shyamalan does. I look forward to seeing each one of his new movies because they could either be a nice surprise or an absolute train wreck. With his latest feature, he adapts a grim novel by Paul Tremblay. Considering the track record of adaptations that Shyamalan has taken on (The Last Airbender, Old), I was concerned about what this movie would turn out to be.
Knock at the Cabin centers around a family vacationing at a secluded cabin. Almost immediately we follow a young girl as she is approached by a hulking stranger (Dave Bautista) who says he needs to talk to her parents about something important. He is soon joined by three other people carrying medieval weapons. She runs to tell her dads to lock the doors and keep these people out. This small family has no idea what consequences will come when they hear the… knock at the cabin.
The story within is easily summed up. It’s a home invasion thriller where the invaders are pleading with the vacationing family to make an impossible choice that possibly has incredible stakes behind it. And while this is a Shyamalan film, it doesn’t necessarily need or have the twist that we all expect from him.
Instead of a twisty thriller, where there’s a new clue in every frame, we get a high-tension bottle episode that could easily be a stage play. The movie eliminates dramatic irony by putting us in the shoes of these two parents and the doubts or beliefs that could be valid depending on the characters’ limited perspectives.
Shyamalan has a knack for clever framing of shots. He’s inventive with his perspectives, as if each shot is methodical in following his storyboard. He also knows how to utilize a score to add necessary emotion at all the right times. However, those two techniques alone haven’t been enough to save some of his bigger cinematic disasters. Unless he’s working with the right cast, he struggles to get authentic performances from his actors. Given that Knock at the Cabin feels like a stage play, the actors are giving it their all, with each performance having a few nuanced layers. This benefits the script, as our invaders are meant to seem both malicious and strangely innocent.
The only deviations away from the cabin are the flashbacks showing the story of Eric (Jonathan Groff) and Andrew (Ben Aldridge). While I typically think flashbacks are lazy, in this case they showed the context of their history and why they personally felt targeted for the home invasion.
Content-wise, Knock at the Cabin is R. While most of the violent impacts take place just out of frame, there is a fair amount of blood. That, along with the heavier subject matter and having a child in peril takes it over the edge.
This isn’t going to be a Shyamalan thriller for everyone. It immediately introduces tension that may leave you feel gutted and it doesn’t let up for the next hour and a half. There’s no levity or relief for the majority of the movie. It’s the kind of cinematic anxiety I enjoy, because it’s escapism in a way. Though, if you need a happy-go-lucky popcorn movie for the night, Knock might not be the right choice.
Knock at the Cabin is a heavier experience than I expected from a Shyamalan movie, but he made a strikingly good adaptation of the source material. Instead of trying to surprise the audience with the stories twists and turns, he focuses on the actors and allows them to be their best. This isn’t the top tier of his filmography, but is hopefully another step in the right direction for his future projects. I hate answering the door for anyone, but I surprisingly let Knock in. B
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