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Knock at the Cabin ©2023 Universal Studios

Paul G. Tremblay is a 51-year-old author of horror, sci-fi and dark fantasy novels who has now published his tenth book. 2018 saw the release of The Cabin at the End of the World, for which he sold the film rights before its official release. The subsequently developed screenplay landed on the infamous 2019 Blacklist of Hollywood’s Best Unfilmed Ideas by Franklin Leonard, who has been publishing this poll-based listing since 2015, paving the way for success for many of today’s Oscar® winners. M. Night Shyamalan, who is best known for mystical, unexplained and familiar works, developed an interest in the work and originally only planned to produce a film adaptation before eventually also revising the script and claiming the director’s chair himself.

This is what it’s all about

Eric and Andrew have fulfilled their dream of having a small family. Together with their adopted daughter Wen, they go to a secluded little forest cottage where they want for nothing. When Wen is collecting grasshoppers, she is suddenly approached by a strange and dangerous-looking man who, although he pretends to be nice and kind, frightens her. Seeking help, she flees into the hut to her fathers. When three more figures suddenly appear, the family begins to barricade themselves in. But they have no chance. The intruders make it into the house. But instead of robbing the family or killing them, they are given an absurd choice: Either one of them sacrifices himself voluntarily or the whole planet is doomed. But why believe these rabid and fearless nutcases?

Review

The opening scenes of KNOCK AT THE CABIN play somewhere between the visual, quiet and narrative power of MINARI and any Haunted House film of recent years. Ultimately, however, he sticks to old patterns and develops a flick that takes place secluded from the larger outside world, keeping the focus point on one particular family and featuring a quirky and unpredictable drama that makes repeated advances on the horror genre. But this time he even goes a step further and at times wanders along the paths of Roland Emmerich. The apotheosis of the four antagonists and the associated belief in an end time serve as a cover for the perfectly simple question: If you have to choose between your family and saving the world – what is your path? Basically an exciting philosophical approach that is taken up here and provokes inner conflict in many ways.

Knock at the Cabin ©2023 Universal Studios

This variation on Karl Engisch’s trolley problem (May the death of one person be accepted in order to save several?), which still has top priority in the book, is noticeably stunted in the film. This is mainly because Shyamalan only hints at the question by accident and repeatedly uses the antagonists to insist that the “switchers” must make a decision, but does not specify what emotional turmoil the two options entail at all. But one should not hope for intelligent decisions in KNOCK AT THE CABIN anyway, because a striking emotional turning point from the book was unceremoniously changed so drastically by Shyamalan that any deeper meaning seems to be pulled by the hair and all final developments are cobbled together provisionally.

Well-intentioned, badly made

After OLD, however, it also comes as little surprise that the director is far too self-absorbed in his own thoughts and prioritises details over the big picture. So much work went into building the set, designing superfluous props, choosing older lenses and making sure the lighting was perfect. The latter was even coupled with an extensive lighting study that involved a full day of photographing every angle outside the windows and doors. All of this creates a nice overall package in terms of technical realisation, but also reveals why the eye for the essentials was missing time and again. Right at the beginning, Shyamalan gives us the first shock with oversized intro credits that really slay the audience and seem more like false scaling. But this was probably intentional, because we are mercilessly bombarded with close-ups that are far too close, rendering any acting facial expressions (if any) superfluous and missing the point of focus.

Knock at the Cabin ©2023 Universal Studios

This brings us directly to the cast, which could hardly be more absurd. The diversity checklist in KNOCK AT THE CABIN is abundantly clear, as we are shown a homosexual couple who adopt an Asian daughter and are attacked by two men and two women of whom Nikki Amuka-Bird, whom we already know from Shyamalan’s OLD, also represents BPoC. But this forced casting is not all that dramatic and to a certain extent corresponds to the novel. It takes much more getting used to seeing Dave Bautista in a much more serious role, in which he, with his 1.90 metre height and muscular beefy appearance, does not look at all like the typical teacher. But of course such a man might also teach children, because at least his feigned sensitive manner creates the necessary ambivalence. He himself says about this:

Knock at the Cabin ©2023 Universal Studios

Is this his comeback?

Given that Rupert Grint has hardly appeared in any major productions recently, his appearance is a bit of a surprise, even if it is only a small supporting role. However, since he also worked with Shyamalan most recently in SERVANT, casting him was an obvious choice. Whether this can be the beginning of a comeback remains questionable, however, since, with the exception of Kristen Cui, Ben Aldridge and Jonathan Groff, all the acting performances can be disregarded. In particular, Shyamalan himself should be mentioned in this context, who provided a laugh by means of a cameo appearance, but certainly not an enrichment in KNOCK AT THE CABIN.

Conclusion

Shyamalan picks up where he left off in OLD and in his attention to detail completely forgets to tell a coherent story and provide it with a sensible plot. Instead of using an unpredictable horror story again, he now merely shifts this to the disaster genre under which the actually exciting philosophical approach comes far too short and cannot develop. But this could also be the fault of the extremely unpleasant misdirections, in which a normal car suddenly has bulletproof glass windows or a protagonist does not flee from a threat but keeps his distance in a leisurely Sunday stroll. A small surprise is the casting of Rupert Grint, who has not been seen in such a major production for a long time. Although it is interesting to see Bautista in a more complex role for once, his stigma clearly hangs over him and makes his character seem somewhat unreal. Overall, then, this is a film that sticks to the novel only intermittently and otherwise shows the director’s familiar sadness around unexpected developments. Home cinema is probably quite enough here.

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