Knock at the Cabin

Parents Eric and Andrew take their young daughter Wen on a vacation to a remote cabin.

M Night Shyalaman always manages to offer something a little bit different, sometimes it works, sometime it doesn't, Knock at The Cabin I'd place as one of the better ones, I enjoyed it.

I expected something along the same lines as Strangers, some sort of slasher movie, I wasn't expecting a horror thriller with biblical overtones.

I'll be honest, I didn't care a great deal for it when I first saw it at The Cinema, but second time round, I rather enjoyed it, possibly because.i knew what I was expecting.

It's a truly quirky film, pretty much as you'd expect, it's fairly well paced, has a degree of tension, it just manages to be so different.

I always like to think about how I'd feel in the position of a film's central character, and seeing if from Eric's point of view, you'd surely be thinking it was a set up, and that someone from the past had set up an elaborate hoax, the alternative is too terrible even to contemplate.

It's well acted all round, but I have to give credit to Dave Bautista, who puts in an absolutely terrific performance, he's captivating.

Those BBC news articles made me chuckle, most presenters now have regional accents across the channel, here they all had those wonderful accents from the 1950's, all terribly posh.

This film is definitely worth seeing, even if you were a bit undecided first time round.

I have watched most of Night Shyamalan's movies and some I like a lot. But to me his ability to make interesting movies decreases as time goes by. The last one I watched was "Old" where people on a beach aged at an accelerated rate.

This one I stared watching streaming on Peacock. A family of three, two dads and a little girl, about to turn 8, are vacationing in a secluded cabin in the woods, somewhere in Pennsylvania. Very shortly after the movie begins four strangers show up, they want to talk, but break down the doors when the parents lock themselves in.

The most frustrating thing is how S-L-O-W-L-Y the four strangers tell them why there are there and what they need. It absolutely is audience abuse. They tell them all kinds of other things but "this is why we are here and what we need from you" comes out at such a prolonged rate that I found myself thinking, "He is only doing this to make the movie longer."

Well they eventually tell the family that their mission is probably the most important mission ever in the history of humanity. And what they tell the family needs to be done makes absolutely no sense at all.

My wife, wisely, chose to skip this one. I wish I had too, I might never watch a Night Shyamalan movie again. Doing so is just mostly a waste of time. This movie is NOT entertaining and it doesn't make sense.

Okay, Streamers, I know we all have been waiting on pins and needles for M. Night Shyamalan's next feature film, and it's finally here. Oh, was that only me? Okay, then... Anway, I was anticipating Knock at the Cabin since I saw the first trailer last fall. Home invasion and the end of the world movies build on reasonable fears that many people have, so let's see what Shyamalan was able to do with the mix of these two.

Knock at the Cabin is based on a novel by Paul Tremblay, "The Cabin at the End of the World." Shyamalan and his co-writers have adapted that novel into this movie. The basic premise is that a gay couple and their adopted daughter are on a vacation in a remote cabin in Pennsylvania when four strangers come to the cabin and tell them that the world will end unless they decide to sacrifice one of their own. It's a moral dilemma - kill someone you love in order to save billions of people you don't even know. What would you do if these hijinks ensue.

Here's the thing - the premise of this movie is very interesting. It immediately makes the audience question what decision they would make and what questions they would ask if put in this situation. In that way, the movie easily grabs you. The problem is that Shyamalan doesn't do much more than pose the question and go through the motions of telling you what these guys do. It gets repetitive and there isn't enough development of the gay couple as characters to help the audience care about them or why they make the decisions they make. Therefore, the movie becomes pretty frustrating and unsatisfying.

On the other hand, there are some good aspects. Dave Bautista, who plays one of the strangers, Leonard, is an inviting presence on screen. He can be menacing by his sheer size, but his performance ably fights against first impressions. Rupert Grint, who play another stranger, Redmond, brings a bit of dark humor. He's probably the scariest of the strangers. I'll also mention that even though I don't believe they are well-developed characters, Ben Aldridge and Jonathan Groff, who play the gay couple, Eric and Andrew, have good chemistry and react appropriately in this situation. I'll also say that no one does anything really dumb in this movie, which typically happens in these home invasion movies. Eric and Andrew, generally, make smart decisions to help protect each other and their daughter. So, the movie isn't frustrating because anyone is dumb.

I also don't know why this movie is rated R. There isn't really any gore. There isn't anything visually scary about it. There may be some curse words, but I can't imagine they were enough to justify this not being PG-13.

In conclusion, Knock at the Cabin is a decent entry in the Shyamalan filmography. It is not one of his best, but it also certainly not one of the worst. There is a good premise, but the movie doesn't do anything more than present it as a morality play, which eventually becomes repetitive. Although there are good performances, there isn't enough character development to sustain interest in these individuals. Knock at the Cabin is only good enough for a handful of popcorn - there's no urgency to see this in a theater.

For some reason, despite a few bombs, I've always rooted for M. Night Shyamalan. I don't know ... he just seems like a good guy and someone who I would like to have as a neighbor maybe.

In addition to being a seemingly likeable person, he made one or two really great films (at least one, for sure) and for some reason that just adds to his likeability. The problem with this, is that because of his seemingly genuine affability and because of the one or two good films he has made, I always feel as if he has it in him to create something exceptional, and time and time and again I think that the 'next one' will BE the one ... only to find that it isn't. So is the case with his latest offering, Knock at the Cabin. With The Cabin At the End of the World (which was the source material for Knock at the Cabin), he even started off with more than half of the recipe for something amazing.

The fact that it falls SOOOO short of being so, is truly a shame, and makes me wonder if he will really ever reach the heights of another 'The Sixth Sense'.

In order to avoid a Spoiler Tag I will not go into detail, but there was ZERO FILMED backstory to any of the important characters, and the filming of the backstories (and getting to know at least a little about each of them) was NECESSARY / paramount for this film to work. Having each character just speak about themselves for what amounted to a handful of minutes, was the worst.

I read the book this film is based on before watching it. The Cabin At the End of the World was a great book that really dives into the histories of the characters, the philosophy behind the choice, and it ended with an ambiguous ending, where you weren't sure who was right at the end.

The movie was on par with The Last Airbender in how it took the source material and made a Wikipedia summary adaptation with poor dialogue, acting and an ending that missed the point. The only redeeming quality was Dave Bautista's performance. He really did a good job with the role of a giant with a heart of gold, who is forced to do something horrible. You can really see the sadness in his eyes, and his conviction that what he saw was true.

M. Night needs to get help with his scripts. He just doesn't know what he's doing.