The knock at the Cabin is M.Night Shyamalan’s new movie which was released on February 3rd of this year. The movie is about the apocalypse and three members of a family being forced to choose to save humanity from destruction. M.Night Shyamalan is known for the twists in his movies, like in The Sixth Sense. So fans of the director are Curious to find out the twist in this movie too.
So, to not distinguish that excitement, we will try not to spoil the ending while giving the review. The movie, which is based on the book ‘The Cabin at the End of the World’ by Paul Tremblay, is not available at the moment on any streaming sites.
Plot Summary of The Knock at the Cabin
The movie begins with Wenling collecting grasshoppers to study them. She encounters a man named Leonard and becomes familiar with him. Leonard tells her that his heart is broken because of something he has to do. Seeing some other people who appear to be Leonard’s friends coming on the way to the Cabin, where she is vacationing with her fathers, Wen runs to her father and forces them inside.
Her fathers, Eric and Andrew, are trying to get them to leave but to no avail. The four finally force their way into the Cabin, and Eric gets a concussion on his head. Sabrina, who introduces herself as a nurse, treats his wound. After tying up Andrew and Eric and cleaning up Eric’s wound, the four intruders, led by Leonard, begin to introduce themselves.
Leonard is a 2nd-grade teacher and bartender, Sabrina is a nurse, Redmond is a truck driver, who is also a former convict, and Adriane is a line cook. Out of all of them, Redmond is the most impatient one.
The four intruders look distraught, and it becomes obvious that they don’t want to do this either, but they have no choice. They reveal that they are here to prevent the apocalypse, and in order to do that, one among them should be willingly sacrificed. They warn that if the family refuses to do so, they will have to release different plagues into the world to judge human beings for their sins.
Leonard lists out the plagues that will befall humanity if they refuse to accept the request. Andrew and Eric refuse to believe the four strangers and don’t agree to their request. He tries to convince the strangers to let them go, and Andrew accuses the four of targeting them because they are queer. He also accuses them of being a crazy cult. Their refusal result in Redmond getting sacrificed by the group.
Before getting sacrificed, Redmond covers his face and says, “A Part of humanity is judged.” This incident shocks all three of them, and we see Eric seeing some light at the back while it happens. The remaining three also look sad and terrified of what they have done.
After Redmond gets sacrificed, Leonard switches the TV on, and we see News reports of earthquakes and tsunamis in various places. This incident still doesn’t convince Andrew, but Eric starts to get shaken. Later, when he is getting his wound dressed by Sabrina, she mentions how she is not a crazy religious person and how she did not even go to church before the visions started. This is also one of the catalysts for Eric’s change of mind.
To convince Eric that everything is a setup, Andrew says that Redmond is the guy who attacked him once in a bar. Hearing this, Adriane starts doubting their reason for being here and doing all this, but Leonard manages to convince her and calm her down. Then when the family refuses again, they sacrifice Adriane, who mentioned to Andrew and Eric earlier that she doesn’t want to die because she has a young son named Leonard. The trio refuses to sacrifice one of them, and the group sacrifice.
Adrien’s death causes yet another plague on the earth, this time in the form of an X-virus that mainly affects children. Once again, we see Andrew convincing himself that it is all fabricated and, if not, a coincidence. But we see that Eric is slowly getting confused.
During the sacrifice of Adrien, Eric manages to cut the rope tied to him and attacks Leonard, while Andrew loosens his rope and gets his gun from his car. During this act, Sabrina injures Andrew while attempting to stop him from escaping.
During the scuffle that follows, Andrew shoots and kills Sabrina. And Leonard sacrifices her, though she is already dead. Now another plague falls on the earth, and this time, multiple airplane crashes occur in various parts of the earth. Finally, we see Eric caving in and starts believing in what the group was saying all this time, but they still don’t agree to sacrifice.
Then we see Leonard deciding to kill himself. Before that happens, they send wen away to hide in a tree house. In the end, Leonard kills himself, causing lightning strikes to fall and create fires in multiple places. Now the trio is left to decide what to do and what to believe. Should they walk the earth alone, or should they sacrifice to save humanity?
See Also: 34 Movies Like The Sixth Sense That Will Twist Your Mind
Knock at the Cabin Review
M.Night Shyamalan, who also wrote the screenplay for the movie, brings the elements of belief, religion, and myths into it. The idea of the end of the world, a commonly used trope in Science fiction movies, gets a new makeover with these new elements added to it.
The reason for the apocalypse in science fiction movies is environmental, man-made, or even alien attacks. So even though the concept is not easily digestible for non-believers, me included, it was quite refreshing to see the end of the world used in a mythical way than a scientific way because it is a rarely used concept.
In many religious beliefs, the apocalypse is the result of man’s sin, which Shyamalan brilliantly made use of in this series. There are various other myths that he uses in this series, like the myth of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Here, the four strangers represent the four horsemen of the apocalypse, and as put by Eric in the movie, they remind you of all aspects of humanity.
Redmond represents malice, Adrien represents nurturing, Sabrina represents compassion, and Leonard represents guidance. They needed to die for the family to understand why they needed to save humanity, which is a confusing concept. The concept was executed justly and properly.
Though there aren’t any major twists as one would expect from a Shyamalan movie, you are able to watch the whole movie with anticipation of what will happen next. In that way, you can conclude the movie was successful in maintaining suspense. The movie also cutbacks to short flashbacks at certain times. This flashback involves major events in both Eric’s and Andrew’s life.
They were, at times, very random and abrupt. The movie also subtly deals with problems that queer community faces, like disapproval from parents, difficulty in adopting, and violence from society. No other aspects, including cinematography, particularly stood out to me, but there is nothing to criticize strongly against either. All aspects of the movie were at least average.
Performance of The Actors
None of the actors’ performances stood out to me, but they did their job well and could portray their characters well. The actress, Kristen Cui, who is portraying the character Wen, did not have a very impressive dialogue delivery; it felt very off and forced. But we can’t criticize a child for her acting too much.
Though initially, the chemistry between Eric and Andrew was not that great, towards the end, it gets better, but never quite to perfection. I did expect more chemistry, especially in emotional scenes. But, it has to be mentioned that they did do a good job as Andrew and Eric.
It is great to see Rupert Grint getting a partly negative role; he plays the role of Redmond, one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. But, even his acting did not stand out. David Bautista, who plays Leonard, a very important character, was good in his role. He can portray the conflict his character was going through pretty well.
Meanwhile, the two that stood out to me a bit better, compared to the others, are the actresses playing the characters Sabrina and Adriane, Nikki Amuka Bird, and Abby Quinn. The anxiety, fear, disbelief, and distraught are portrayed by the two very well.
Though they may look over-expressed to some, I believe they were appropriate for the context of the movie. M. Night Shyamalan also makes a cameo in the movie, but you have to watch the movie carefully to see where he appears.
Conclusion
Our verdict for the latest M. Night Shyamalan release is that it is a watchable thriller that maintains a moderate level of suspense throughout the movie, with actors who did a good job portraying their characters. The acting is not iconic or brilliant as mentioned earlier, but they do justice to the characters to a certain extent. I would say that the acting was great at certain moments but quite average at other moments.
If you are not a big fan of myth or religious concepts you may not like the movie because there is a strong presence of these elements in the movie. It is these elements that run the plot and keep the movie-going.
After watching the movie, you won’t be left with the feeling of regret, but it won’t leave you speechless, either. There is nothing that makes this movie special, so even if you didn’t watch the movie, you wouldn’t be missing out on anything great.
Our Rating: ⭐ (3.5/5).
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