Worth: $13.50
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Cast:
Ben Aldridge, Jonathan Groff, Kristen Cui, Dave Bautista, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Abby Quinn, Rupert Grint
Intro:
... at times overwrought psychological thriller with a premise that is horrifying enough to sustain attention and tension ...
In surveying M. Night Shyamalan’s career, it’s easy to recognise that the highs are indisputable, and the lows… well, some are better unmentioned. The Sixth Sense was not only a massive hit with audiences, it generated an almost viral following in the days before viral followings were common. His follow-up films, Signs and The Village cemented Shyamalan as “the master of the twist” and for better or worse the filmmaker has mostly adhered to the final reveal formula.
This has backed the director into his own self-created corner. Audiences expect some kind of reveal, and it better be worth the journey Shyamalan takes the viewer through during the film. So, what happens when Shyamalan doesn’t follow his own rule book?
Knock at the Cabin, adapted from Paul Tremblay’s novel The Cabin at the End of the World, is a tense thriller, but it plays all its cards during the film. In many ways, this is Shyamalan’s most straightforward piece of filmmaking in a long time.
Wen (Kristen Cui) is playing outside an idyllic holiday cabin in Pennsylvania when Leonard (Dave Bautista) approaches her. She’s been catching bugs – she’s a precocious and clever almost eight-year-old who has curiosity instilled in her by loving fathers Andrew (Ben Aldridge) and Eric (Jonathan Groff). Initially, a little put off by Leonard’s advance, she is soon won over by his gentle manner. He insists that he is her friend, and that no matter what happens, he will remain her friend.
Soon, Wen notices that three other people are nearing the cabin with strange instruments that look like cobbled together weapons. She rightly freaks out and asks Leonard who the people are. He replies that they are not his friends like Wen is, but people he works with, and his heart is broken for what has to happen that day. He advises Wen that when they knock at the cabin door, it’s essential that she convinces her fathers to let them in. Of course, Wen is having none of that and races to the cabin to warn about the strangers that are coming.
The four, who eventually make their way into the cabin, explain that they are not personally there to harm the family, although considering that they have Andrew and Eric tied to chairs seems counterintuitive to their claim. The group is made up of schoolteacher Leonard who appears to be their leader, the aggressive ex-con Redmond (Rupert Grint), with trauma nurse Sabrina (Nikki Amuka-Bird) and chef Adriane (Abby Quinn). They won’t hurt the family, but they will demand a sacrifice of them to stop them unleashing a biblical plague on humanity.
Eric and Andrew have trouble believing that anyone would be there to harm them unless it was a deliberate attack because of their sexuality. Andrew, in particular carries trauma from a homophobic attack that led to his hospitalisation and eventually learning to defend himself.
Shyamalan is tapping into the contemporary zeitgeist of shared delusion and conspiracy theories. Could what these strangers be claiming be possibly true? As each plague is unleashed through shocking means, they turn the television on to reveal that it is happening in the real world. Of course, the plagues could be coincidence and some of them have rational explanations (climate change, cyber hacking, an uncontrollable virus…). Yet the group’s firm belief that their visions of Armageddon that brought them together only have one solution.
The filmmaker is interested in character building as much as he is in making the audience question the veracity of the group’s claims. He gives us time to get to know Andrew and Eric through a series of flashbacks (some not always necessary) and allows us to learn key details about Sabrina, Leonard, and Adriane. In becoming conscious that these people are indeed ordinary, with no previous agenda, the tension to believe the unbelievable becomes palpable both for Eric and Andrew, but also for the audience.
Knock at the Cabin is impeccably lensed by Jarin Blaschke and Lowell A. Meyer, whose use of extreme closeups wrench every emotion they can from the characters and amplify their impossible predicament. There is also the hyper saturated colour palate, which brings an otherworldliness to the cabin. Shyamalan is setting out to disorient the viewer as much as possible and the cinematography does as much work to achieve this as the script by Shyamalan, Steve Desmond, and Michael Sherman.
Like the ending of Old, in which Shyamalan couldn’t help but over explain what had clearly occurred on the screen, Knock at the Cabin suffers from its own problems with telling what has already been shown. By the third act, extra exposition in dialogue is unnecessary and the film peters out by continuing on after a crucial point.
Shyamalan might not be everyone’s cup of tea. Knock at the Cabin, in many ways, could have been directed by a number of people to the same effect, but because it sits under the Shyamalan brand, there will be expectations that the film doesn’t quite meet. Taken for what it is, however, Knock at the Cabin is an at times overwrought psychological thriller with a premise that is horrifying enough to sustain attention and tension – even if it does seem like a faux philosophical game of “Would You Rather?”
