M. Night Shyamalan’s newest thriller Knock at the Cabin is an artistic thriller, but not as shocking as it was made out to be.
While vacationing at a remote cabin in the woods, a young girl and her parents are taken hostage by four armed strangers who demand they make an unthinkable choice to avert the apocalypse. Confused, scared, and with limited access to the outside world, the family must decide what they believe before all is lost.
The concept of the movie is intriguing and was the biggest factor that kept me engaged to see what would happen with the offer. I mean think about it, four people showing up at your house and giving you a big choice brings lots of tension and Shyamalan does this quite well to bring out the full intensity of this decision. It does make you think about what happens as more evidence is brought forward that keeps you guessing if this is true or just another conspiracy.
The presentation of these four strangers who show up is not too bad, but not as layered as I anticipated. The cool thing though is that each of them has an involvement that serves the story and leads to some interesting character usage in the film. Dave Bautista was brilliant, having his character the most involved, developed, and engaging which worked really well with the characters. I did enjoy the parts they served as well, this little balance test to see what each of them would bring to the overall plot.
All the other visitors execute their parts well and only dip into the cheesy area a little bit. Ben Aldridge is the actor I think most viewers will be divided on. He is either extraordinarily aggressive or very restrained, yet holds much of the turmoil of the moment which might be the intrigue factor for viewers. Jonathan Groff was a great character that offers a little more balance, and fun which helps balance the extremes making him a much more engaging character. Bautista was my favorite out of the whole cast, using his size, awkwardness, and acting to create this charming giant of a character. He really brought the movie together with such sincerity, mystery, and heart.
The movie was censored better than I expected and is as dark as we saw in the trailers, so there are a lot of things that you have to be ready for. However, Shyamalan manages to pull back several punches, and censors where it needs to. Don’t get me wrong, it is still very disturbing but could have been worse, and manages to stray away from demonic and insidious details that are insinuated in the tone.
Overall, Knock at the Cabin is interesting, to say the least, with an elevated, artistic analysis of human philosophy and morals that we should look at from time to time. It’s a thinking movie for sure with an engaging concept that is simple, yet full of emotion to make audiences question a lot of things. The acting does well convey the form and style that Shyamalan has to offer and is censored, but handles the dark very well, and always keeps the focus on the theme of the movie. However, the horror element is not really there and adds themes that are at the moment questionable and dulls the suspense especially when you can solve the mystery early on in the film.
Knock at the Cabin is now playing in theaters.
What did you think of the film? Let us know in the comments below.
