Knock at the Cabin is a real strange one. While having the capacity to have a deep and complex storyline, M. Night Shyamalan falls short on scoring big time with this mysterious thriller. Known for his psychological thrillers, striking gold with the likes of Split and The Sixth Sense, the Indian American director is also known to fall at the last hurdle with problematic works like After Earth being amongst his various productions. It seems Knock at the Cabin is a mixture of both Shyamalan’s striking talent and sloppy failures. Eric (Jonathon Gross) and Andrew (Ben Aldridge), along with adopted daughter Wen (Kristen Cui), go on vacation to a seemingly cute woodland cabin. Unfortunately, their holiday appears to be doomed from the beginning due to it being in the middle of nowhere, a predictable start to the film I must add, as four randomers menacingly knock on the cabin door…hence the name, I guess.
Leonard (David Bautista), Sabrina (Nikki Amuka-Bird), Redmond (Rupert Grint) and Adriane (Abby Quinn) are all witnesses of the apocalypse coming to earth. In order to save humanity Eric, Andrew and Wen are told they must decide who to sacrifice within their family while four ‘plagues’ will be released every time the family refuse, allowing for millions to die around the world. The key issue highlighted is the battle between faith (represented through Eric) and reason (represented by Andrew), a clever portrayal of conflicting world views today. With a slightly more philosophical take on the plot than I had anticipated, the problem of whether humanity even deserves to live is assessed, as well as other contemporary issues such as struggles within the LGBTQ+ community and the media’s influence on the human race.
Short-cuts were clearly made, making the characters become unrelatable and uninteresting
Although fragments of a decent plot can be untangled from the mess of underdeveloped characters and an altogether rushed plot, we are presented with a predictable recipe for disaster as many scenes mimic other end-of-the-world type films such as 2012 and San Andreas. It did provide jump scares and ominous music, with the threatening score being one of the best aspects of the movie; however, though having a running time of 1 hour 40, there wasn’t nearly enough time to properly do the characters justice. Short-cuts were clearly made, making the characters become unrelatable and uninteresting. Though containing major plot holes, the talents of those performing were pretty phenomenal with realistic reactions and tear-jerking scenes standing out in particular. Well though-out visuals and shots brought life to the more confused shots while special effects were also pretty impressive. A bit odd seeing Rupert Grint without a hand-me-down robe and broken wand but apart from that the casting was pretty spot on. All in all, Knock at the Cabin needs at least two prequels to get to grips with what’s going on. Here we have another movie a long shot off success and nowhere near stimulating enough to be regarded as a horror.
Anything but original 5.5/10