Guest Post: Knock at the Cabin (2023)

 

Knock at the Cabin

By Jonas Schwartz-Owen

 

What could be more terrifying than being isolated with your little child in the woods, and four strangers breaking into your house? What if they presented you with a horrific story and an impossible decision? What if they can prove that entire world will end unless you comply? These are the stakes in M Night Shyamalan's Knock at The Cabin, an absurd thriller that somehow works due to excellent performances. 

 

Based on Paul Tremblay's 2018 novel, The Cabin at the End of the World, the film starts with young Wen (Kristen Cui) playing in nature. A hulking but gentle giant, Leonard (Dave Bautista) approaches her and claims to need help from her parents. Wen frighteningly runs to her two daddies (Jonathan Groff and Ben Aldridge). They assume she has utilized her vast imagination, until they hear a commanding knock at the cabin door. 

 

Shyamalan's screenplay is too on-the-nose to build suspense. Instead of convincing the family that they hold the key to humanity's safety, the script reveals its cards too swiftly, which dispels tension and any surprise. The dialogue is transparent, and all the characters are mouthpieces rather than living beings.

 

All the compassion the audience feels for the characters come from the startling performances. Bautista reveals sensitivity and compassion as the former teacher, bound by horrific visions. He walks on eggshells as he presents the quandary to the family, ashamed he's been forced into this prophecy role. His eyes almost shake from anxiety. Abby Quinn and Nikki Amuka-Bird, as his two partners, convey the same discord between their usual nature and their mission. Harry Potter's Rupert Grint plays against type as the hot-head prophet with a propensity to fly off the handle. Groff, Aldridge, and Cui build a believable family — one that has spent many years together loving and protecting each other. There's a lived-in cadence to their conversations and their chemistry. Cui gives a completely unaffected child performance. It's naturalistic and her likability and vulnerability adds to the tension.

 

Though his script lacks unique elements, Shyamalan's direction is taut and effective. His camera displays understanding of its characters and makes their consequences important to the audience.

 

Shyamalan is a polarizing filmmaker. Some of his films feel like a ball that has been rolled down the hill with no control or insight, and some, like his classic The Sixth Sense — as well as his newer films Old and The Visit — are the works of a shrewd director of suspense. Shyamalan has had great financial success writing all the films he directs, but it would be intriguing to see him helm the works of others (he did co-write After Earth with Garry Whitta and Will Smith). His outstanding, undervalued television series Wayward Pines gave him the opportunity to direct someone else's scripts, those of showrunner Chad Hodge's. Maybe he could find fresh perspective by allowing another writer to lend guidance, because his scripts are often the weakest element of his films.