The Moya View

Knock at the Cabin: Shyamalan Gets Less Shocking Just More Twisty

Courtesy Universal

Plot via IMDB;

Wen, only seven years old, is vacationing with her two dads, Eric and Andrew, at a remote cabin. While catching grasshoppers, she is approached by a stranger named Leonard. Initially friendly, he explains that he needs Wen and her parents’ help to save the world. However, Wen becomes suspicious when three other people appear with makeshift weapons. Wen flees to warn Eric and Andrew, but the visitors break into the cabin and tie them up, with Eric sustaining a concussion. Leonard and his companions claim that they have never met before this day and have no intention of harming the family. However, in the past week, they have been driven by visions and an unknown force to find the family as they are predicting an impending apocalypse. Vision or illusion?


Knock at the Cabin is M. Night Shyamalanโ€™s low budget Apocalyptic fright fest. Itโ€™s basically a debate on what needs to be done to stop the Apocalypse interspersed with moments of action, terror and suspense. Mix in some good manners, honest empathy on the part of these four home invaders for their victims and what needs to be done, a hell of a lot of muttering on Revelation prophecy, and you get a fairly passable movie that debates big questions of belief vs disbelief, the nature of God as truth and what is the right way to be human in face of the worldโ€™s end or if faced with a Sophieโ€™s Choice situation.

Courtesy Universal

For those who took ethics and philosophy in college they would recognize the Trolley Problem setup. Would you, the classic version goes, run over one person with a trolley if doing so meant you could save five people on the other track? The variation that home invader and religious zealot Leonard (Dave Bautista) proposes to little child Wen (Kristen Cui) and her adopted family of gay fathers, Eric and Andrew (Jonathan Groff and Ben Aldridge) is at once grander and more intimate. Would you willingly sacrifice yourself or someone you loved to prevent a global apocalypse?

Courtesy Universal

Shyamalan answer is the more optimistic ending than the nihilistic finish provided in the Paul Tremblay source novel (The Cabin at the End of the World). Itโ€™s manages to save both the world and family. Really the only solution allowed for a mass market aimed feature film. Itโ€™s more interested in thoughts and tender sentiments than in fright or shock. And in a surprise for Shyamalan fans, the only twist is that the director doesnโ€™t delver a twist ending.

Courtesy Universal

The plot just offers stark and simple choices. Either Leonard and his pals are telling the truth or theyโ€™re out of their minds. Andrew and Eric will believe them or not. The filmโ€™s effectiveness depends on what occurs on the way to the answers. Cabin is all about the shock and feel, the guilt and empathy for mankind that comes from those who are compelled to act on their Apocalyptic visions. The why on how these fringe types can see themselves as heroes and saviors.

Courtesy Universal

Aldridge and Goff do what they can to overcome the blandness of their gay characters. They are the only ones who get flashbacks. Since they are not playing Apocalyptic character symbols like their captors, they are allowed to live, breath, think and act independently.

Courtesy Universal

Still itโ€™s, Bautistaโ€™s movie and he delivers the menace, wit and grit that keeps Cabin credible, dangerous, and suspenseful. He makes it a delightful thrill ride in a toy trolley.

Courtesy Universal

Knock at the Cabin gets a 3.5 out of 5 or a B+.


Credits:

Directed by

M. Night Shyamalan

Screenplay by

  • M. Night Shyamalan
  • Steve Desmond
  • Michael Sherman

Based on

The Cabin at the End of the World
by Paul G. Tremblay

Produced by

  • M. Night Shyamalan
  • Marc Bienstock
  • Ashwin Rajan

Starring

Cinematography

Edited by

Noemi Katharina Preiswerk

Music by

Herdรญs Stefรกnsdรณttir

Production
companies

Distributed byUniversal Pictures

Release dates

  • January 30, 2023(Rose Hall)
  • February 3, 2023(United States)

Running time

100 minutes[1]

Country

United States

Language

English

Budget

$20 million[2]


Courtesy Universal


Posted

in

by

Comments

Leave a Reply

The Whale: A Lot of Emotional Blubber
As They Made Us: A Different Kind of Big Bang
%d bloggers like this: