Knock at the Cabin is the most recent film by M. Night Shyamalan, and it is a rare one in his body of work. The movie is based on The Cabin at the End of the World, a book by Paul G. Tremblay that came out in 2018. It is one of Shyamalan’s few movies that was based on a book. Knock at the Cabin has a small cast and setting, with Jonathan Groff, Ben Aldridge, Abby Quinn, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Rupert Grint, newcomer Kristen Cui, and Dave Bautista. However, the film is a big one in terms of what it is about. Wen (Cui) and her two dads, Eric (Groff) and Andrew (Aldridge), are on vacation in a cabin with their two dads when they get a visit from four mysterious strangers who claim to have seen the end of the world. What at first seems like a home invasion turns out to be much, much more. The four strangers give the family a life-or-death choice: kill one of your own to stop the end of the world, or be some of the last people to live in a broken and crippling world.
The movie takes place mostly in the cabin, and the tension that builds up there is a big part of what makes it work. The movie gets into a moral debate, but other than that, it has a pretty standard plot and doesn’t really have any of Shyamalan’s signature twists. Not that all of his movies have to have crazy things in them to be good, but this one doesn’t do well by messing with the story. Instead, the movie is based solely on the actors and the idea of building up tension. The four strangers must not only get this family to give up one of their own, but also show that they are telling the truth about the end of the world. Ben Aldridge gives the movie an unmatched sense of intensity from the start. His fierce and steadfast resistance to the intruders keeps the movie on edge. Dave Bautista’s calm, collected, and caring personality is the opposite of that energy. He almost fits the role of the gentle giant because of this. His acting skills keep getting better and better. Visit letmewatchthis for more movies.
