I still have a lot of 2022 films to get to over the rest of this month, but I have seen a fair amount of 2023 films as well and I should probably take some time to get into those. There aren’t many names in “event cinema” but, for better or worse, M. Night Shyamalan is one of those names. Knock at the Cabin had some high highs and some low lows but it showcased the filmmaker’s knack for crafting cinematic tension in a way that’s broadly accessible. I can confidently say this is Shyamalan’s best film in years, but that’s also not saying much.
A same-sex couple and their adopted daughter on vacation are captured by four intruders dead-set on forcing the family to choose one member to be offered as a ritual sacrifice to prevent the apocalypse they believe is coming.
This is an interesting premise, taken from paul Tremblay’s The Cabin at the End of the World, with very little acknowledgment on the part of the studio’s marketing department. The poster doesn’t even quietly have his name on it and his name isn’t on the IMDB home page for the film under “writers”. I didn’t read it so I am not here to say that the book is better and yada yada, because I don’t believe in oneupmanship. It’s petty and a super undesirable character trait. However, I do believe in giving credit where credit is due because, at the end of the day, this story isn’t the creation of Shyamalan alone despite the marketing. Anyway, I digress.
This is the second time in consecutive outings that the famed director has opted for an adaptation. Old was based on a graphic novel and that film feels the part of something with a defined visual signature. With Knock at the Cabin coming from a novel, there is a lot more work to do in terms of themes and characters. Not all of that is handled so adeptly but there are some very interesting questions that get raised as a result and you are being asked as the audience to put yourselves in the shoes of this family. Could you choose one of your family to kill in order to save the world? It is that question that serves as the foundational pillar of the film.
The most interesting thing for me was the two starting points for each side of the character equation. On the one hand, there’s a family doing normal family stuff, just going about their lives and enjoying a vacation. On the other hand, there are four strangers united by a common apocalyptic vision. Both sides only see their side as the undeniable truth and navigating the space in between, where the characters actually have to interact, is the place where the film is at its best.
Whether Shyamalan, Michael Sherman, and Steve Desmond’s contributions to the story via the screenplay are the reason or not, the point in the film (fairly early) where the unknown elements are still at play is some fertile ground for the dialogue to foster. Because those of us in the audience don’t (or at least shouldn’t) know what is real and what isn’t, it makes the characters’ choice of words all the more important. This gives the antagonists a decided upper hand both narratively and physically, as the trailer shows they have tied up the family. This staging works very well up until some moments where it doesn’t and those moments suck the momentum out of the scenes. For example, it’s hard for me to believe the ‘what the fuck do you want?’ portion of the conversation doesn’t manifest right away.
I like Jonathan Groff from Hamilton and Ben Aldridge was the best part of Spoiler Alert, and they play Daddy Eric and Daddy Andrew to their on-screen daughter Kristen Cui. They are both good, but they don’t have much chemistry as a couple. That’s probably why there are so many flashbacks that are seemingly only there to help the audience gain sympathy for them. The problem is: you should already have sympathy for them. That time would have been better spent just having them be a couple on vacation with their daughter. There’s no established relationship for them before the catalyst for the story begins, almost right away, and it’s why the dialogue sometimes feels inauthentic. So, on the one hand, I understand why the flashbacks are there but it also came across as a crutch. I would have much preferred to just see them interact with each other and their daughter in the present timeline because Cui is so cute and seems so easy to write their relationship around.
Dave Bautista is getting a lot of credit for his performance and rightfully so. Despite the structure of the character dynamics, I see him as not the moral compass of the film but the heart. Considering he is the big, muscular, tattooed guy who shows up with some bludgeoning weapons to try and persuade this family to sacrifice one of themselves, that’s quite the achievement! I don’t know if it says more about the story arc itself, his performance, or the script but Bautista is the best part of the movie because he finds that space between the two sides to make something human and substantial.
I’m sure people who hadn’t seen Rupert Grint since his days as Ron Weasley in Harry Potter were a bit surprised to see him in a role like this, but I’m sure it was because Shyamalan has seen this side of him working together on Servant. Grint is good and I want to see more of him, but this isn’t really his story.
This was a very tense thriller nonetheless because there were a lot of different personalities involved in a high-stress situation and Herdís Stefánsdóttir original music really punches that up to a whole other level. It’s actually one of, if not, the things that identify this film in the horror realm with its long, malicious, heavy strings. I actually felt myself noticing its impact on me as the viewer which was certainly a positive in regard to the music. However, there also came a time in the film when I wanted the music to pull back and let the characters sit in the reality of the movie, but it never really did.
I enjoyed this movie because its strengths are worthwhile but there are some egregiously dumb things that happen to move the story along here for the sake of what I can only assume is meant to be dramatic tension, but it’s also pretty transparent. Unfortunately, that transparency also didn’t help with keeping me guessing and I found the ending to be pretty predictable in the first act.
As is the case with films that get hyped up to me, they rarely hit the mark but I can still endorse this as a good theater experience and something that makes me want to see Shyamalan’s next effort.
Recommendation: If you are an M. Night enthusiast, this is the kind of stuff you want to see him doing.
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