Knock at the Cabin (2023)

Knock at the Cabin (2023)

Director: M. Night Shyamalan

Writer: M. Night Shyamalan, Steve Desmond, Micheal Sherman

Cast: Dave Bautista, Jonathan Groff, Ben Aldrige, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Rupert Grint, Abbey Quinn, Kristen Cui

We’re all familiar with the hit-and-miss reputation of M. Night Shyamalan. From great works like The Sixth Sense, Signs, and Split, to works that fell short such as The Village, The Happening, and After Earth, Shyamalan’s filmography always succeeds at dividing audiences. It seems like it’s a constant toss-up when it comes to whether his latest film will send us on a ride or send us out the door. While Knock at the Cabin, his latest piece, might fall into the latter category for many, it at least is compelling enough to be a middle-of-the-scale film, and that’s only because of the source material being exceptional.

When a group of strangers break into the cabin of Eric and Andrew, they hold the couple and their daughter, Wen, hostage and make the claim that they’re the key to stopping the apocalypse, and to do so, they must make a difficult decision. Knock at the Cabin is based on the novel, Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay, which is a fantastic and gripping story about the consequences of hard choices and the conflict between atheism and religious extremism. These themes tend to be a bit more subtle in the book, but in Shaymalan’s film they are spoon fed in an aggravating way, condescending to the audience as if we couldn’t possibly have figured it out if not informed outright. This comes in the form of the protagonists taking shots at the home invaders  using painfully blatant dialogue. It was quite a mediocre script that had the potential to make its powerful themes undertones had it not resulted in throwing away all subtlety.

Even more of a swing and a miss for this movie was its pacing. Typically, that would refer to the speed, or lack thereof, of the story’s progress. In this case, everything within the cabin was well paced–it began there and the suspense started right away and didn’t let up. It was the flashbacks, dropped in to provide character development, that halted the story repeatedly and sucked out every ounce of suspense. It was like a reset button was hit every time the tension was perceived to have gotten too high, which was unnecessary for a tale like this one. Had the development happened at the beginning, the protagonists would have been easier to care about once thrown into peril, but that just wasn’t the case here. Each attempt to give the audience  a backstory only ended up in making relatable and empathetic characters more and more impossible, and that goes for the antagonists just as well. These constant starts and stops distract from the plot and soften the blows of each pivotal moment that occurs before or after them. Pacing is only one of the missteps of Knock at the Cabin.

As far as adaptations are concerned, the conclusion of Knock at the Cabin was an unfortunate departure from Tremblay’s The Cabin at the End of the World. The original ending was a gut punch that leaves readers gasping for air up until the last moments when the grip is loosened, but not entirely. It’s left open, yet cements the perspective of not accepting pain and violence in the name of any higher power, whereas Shaymalan’s version surrenders to that violence and sends the message of sacrifice being necessary for the benefit of many. The weight of Tremblay’s original ending is lost in the film. It almost feels like the safest way out was taken, and that all the pain and suffering throughout the film was for nothing. It absolutely suffers for it. 

But of course, no movie is without its highlights, and they are deserving of pointing out. In times of tension, it’s taken to the highest point it possibly can by antagonists that prove that the people are just as dark and profusely frightening as any monster, and the imminent catastrophe hits hard. While those times were indeed interrupted as previously mentioned, the LGBTQIA+ representation was actually done well. The lead characters did have their struggles as a gay couple, but at no point did it overshadow the overall plot and come off as token. Stories will suffer when queer characters are made solely as some kind of statement, and both Tremblay and Shyamalan versions succeed at making this simply a part of who they are and not what the story leans on. It was authentic and unpretentious, which is admirable and worth noting.

Knock at the Cabin is not a very strong attempt at adapting a quality novel, but it is watchable if you’re in the mood for something suspenseful that you can still turn your brain off to, which makes this one of Shaymalan’s divisive films. If a deep, poignant story about choices, consequences, and the battle between extremism and moderation, the suggestion would be to read Paul Tremblay’s The Cabin at the End of the World. Typically, it is unfair to judge the film against the source material, but when it fails to do the book any justice, it’s simply too hard to help.

Knock at the Cabin is available to stream on Peacock.