Knock at the Cabin Review

 

Knock at the Cabin is a psychological thriller film based on Paul G. Tremblay's 2018 novel, The Cabin at the End of the World. It's produced by Blinding Edge Productions, FilmNation Entertainment, and Wishmore Entertainment and distributed by Universal Pictures. Knock at the Cabin is written by M. Night Shyamalan, Steve Desmond, and Michael Sherman and directed by M. Night Shyamalan.

The story is Eric and Andrew have brought their daughter, Wen, to a remote cabin for a relaxing family vacation. This is soon cut short when four strangers arrive, break in, and hold them hostage. They demand that they chose who will be sacrificed in their believe that it'll avert the apocalypse.

Initial Reaction

The reason for wanting to see was because it's Shyamalan's newest movie. I've said so before, but I'll say it again. Ever since The Visit, Shyamalan has been given us some pretty good films recently. Have they been perfect? But compared to what he was making before The Visit, it's definitely an improvement.

Cons

I had no real issues with the movie, so just move on.

Middle Ground

Now if there's anything I've been debating about with the movie, it's the ending. It's still good. It's more of a bittersweet ending, which I feels fits with the tone of the film. But I do wonder if it would've been better if they left everything more ambiguous. That way audiences really could've had even more to talk about.

Pros

One of many things that worked was how this flew by. I had a one o'clock pm showing, and by the time it was over it was almost closer to three o'clock. I was expecting something like four or four-thirity. Glad to know I was wrong. Then we have the tension. Right from the very beginning we're thrown into a very uncomfortable situation, and then it just go more intense from there. Now while this did contain some violent scenes, what really made all of this frightening, was seeing these guys and their kid being put in this hostage situation. It's scary in the way of how real it felt. You can perfectly imagine being in your home or maybe a cabin, then next thing you know some maniac or maniacs, break in and demand you do what they want. That can be way more horrifying than any near unstoppable slasher, supernatural force, or bloodthirsty creature. Then there's this big debate of if the intruders are telling the truth or not. Because Shyamalan and co. did a pretty good job how Leonard and his associates could be telling the truth, but yet something or someone would point out how that doesn't make sense, or there's a detail that throws a wrench in their theory. The last thing to praise is the performances. Both Jonathan Groff and Ben Aldridge do a fantastic job acting like their in constant fight or flight mode, and Kristen Cui was also very good. So good in fact that it's hard to believe this is her first ever acting job in a movie. Then there's Dave Bautista. I knew he had some range because of his work in Blade Runner 2049, Army of the Dead, and Dune. Here it really felt like he kicked it up a notch, because throughout the whole movie, he truly made it seem like he didn't want to have to do horrible things in order to achieve the goal. So nicely done Dave.

I really did enjoy this and I hope you check it out as well, because it really was a very good experience. Even if I debating which direction the ending should've went, despite liking the one we got.

My final rating is Good.

That's going to do it for me. Come back on Thursday, Feb 9th, for my review of DC's newest animated movie, Legion of Super-Heroes. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.