Movie Reaction: Knock at the Cabin

Formula: The Mist * The Strangers

M. Night Shyamalan is by no means my favorite director. His only movie to even sniff my favorite movies discussion is The Sixth Sense. But I do love that there is an M. Night Shyamalan making movies. I'm not sure there's anyone better and more willing to try out any one sentence movie pitch. For the most part, he's used his clout to make whatever her wants, not to scale up where it's more of a collaboration with a studio and producers. And a healthy movie industry needs directors who are willing to go for base hits rather than home runs.

Knock at the Cabin is a modestly-sized home invasion movie about the end of the world. Eric (Jonathan Groff), Andrew (Ben Aldridge), and their daughter Wen (Kristen Cui) are on vacation in a remote cabin where they get held hostage by a group led by Leonard (Dave Bautista). This group claims to have seen visions of the end of the world that led them to this cabin where this family must make a terrible choice. One of Eric, Andrew, or Wen must sacrifice themselves to prevent the end of the world.

That's one hell of a pitch. To his credit, Shyamalan doesn't try to get too clever with this. That's exactly what the movie is about. No twists. Just Sophie's Choice with an apocalyptic twist.

Bautista is excellent in this. He's physically menacing yet carries himself like he's apologizing for taking up space. I love how often he opts to play against type for someone who looks like him. The others in his crew are good too: Nikki Amuka-Bird, Abby Quinn, Rupert Grint. They play varying degrees of conviction and self-doubt. None of them want to be enforcers of the apocalypse. It fell on them though. Kristen Cui continues Shyamalan’s underrated track record of getting great child performances. Aldridge and Groff did a little less for me. Groff is sidelined for much of this with a concussion and Aldridge is just angry a lot.

Despite the subject matter, I didn't feel much tension watching this movie. Certain characters have plot armor. I never really doubted Leonard's group. The version of this movie I would've responded more to would've given me more reason to doubt them. Fewer news stories and less obvious plagues, maybe. I had a little trouble remembering that these characters don't realize they are in a movie.

While I didn't adore this movie, it is the thing it sold itself as. Good performances. Intriguing premise. Shyamalan also has a special skill at making PG-13 movies that don't feel like they scrimped on anything. This movie is pretty brutal.

Verdict: Weakly Recommend