Knock at the Cabin review

This is Shyamalan’s most consistent project from start to finish that can actually hold up to repeated viewings.

Adapting Paul Tremblay’s The Cabin at the End of the World, Shyamalan and fellow writers Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman, waste little time getting right into the film.

Wen (Kristen Cui) is out collecting grasshoppers outside her parents’ rental cabin when she’s greeted by Leonard (Dave Bautista, The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special). Shyamalan utilizes uncomfortably close camera angles, which gives Bautista an even more intimidating presence.

Leonard is a gentle giant of a man with a calm, soothing demeanor who reluctantly tells Wen that he and his three associates need to talk to her fathers.

Bautista has been smart with his film choices making sure to not be typecast despite his physique. He’s shown his comedic timing in the Guardians of the Galaxy series, played the awkward father figure in My Spy and a zombie killing mercenary in Army of the Dead.

This is easily his most nuanced and complex performance as he leans into his physical stature while mostly playing Leonard as an overly polite and caring doomsayer.

One of the more impressive aspects of the film is how the characters act like real people instead of goofy movie characters. They don’t make dumb decisions to help keep the movie rolling and handle situations in a sensible manner.

Wen is a little girl, but she’s no dummy — immediately running into the cabin and telling her fathers, Eric (Jonathan Groff, Hamilton) and Andrew (Ben Aldridge, Pennyworth), that there’s four creepy folks outside carrying makeshift dangerous looking weapons.

 

After their unusually polite requests to be let in the cabin go ignored, the foursome terrifyingly burst into the cabin and just as quickly began repairing the damage they’d done.

Leonard and his three companions, Sabrina (Nikki Amuka-Bird, Jupiter Ascending); Adriane (Abby Quinn) and Redmond (Rupert Grint, The Harry Potter franchise) explain the fate of the planet is in Eric and Andrew’s hands. If they sacrifice one of their family members they will prevent a series of catastrophic global incidents that will culminate in the end of humanity.

The foursome know they’re putting the family in an impossible position but plead for their decision to avoid millions dying. For every refusal, the four will unleash a new plague on humanity.

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Understandably skeptical, Eric and Andrew want no parts of this unthinkable choice even as Leonard and his cohorts show news reports revealing the threat they warned coming to reality. Groff and Aldridge sell the gamut of emotions exceptionally well from panicked skepticism to resigned acceptance.

Eric is more rational while Andrew is the more protective hothead.  There are just enough flashbacks to better inform viewers of Eric and Andrew’s backstory and their reactions to this invasion.

From their excitement at adopting Wen, the disappointment over Andrew’s parents’ disgust over their marriage and an encounter with a bigot at a bar all these moments are relevant.

A fascinating component of this dynamic is Eric and Andrew have been exposed to so much hate they can’t fathom another reason why they would be targeted.

This makes Eric and Andrew far more sympathetic especially in the final act when one questions why they sacrifice for a world that’s always hated them. Thriller suspense films are finally starting to portray LGBTQ characters as more than caricatures and this kind of story provides layers that aren’t an option in a heterosexual pairing.

Knock at the Cabin finds an inspired Shyamalan paired with a game Bautista eager to show his continued evolution as a wrestler turned box office heavyweight.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10