"Knock at the Cabin" a chillingly tense, thought-provoking morality thriller

Knock at the Cabin (2023)

M. Night Shyamalan has proven to split (hah!) audiences down the middle. All of his films begin with a humdinger of a premise that usually hits on primal fears, but in execution, not all of them land with a satisfying follow-through. It’s a joy to be able to report that the auteur’s latest is one of his most successful conception-to-execution efforts. An adaptation of Paul Tremblay’s critically acclaimed 2018 novel “The Cabin at the End of the World,” “Knock at the Cabin” is a crackerjack thriller, chillingly tense and fatalistic as it is thought-provoking about a moral quandary that could possibly save most of humanity but leave a loved one gone forever. 

Before there is even a knock at a cabin somewhere in Pennsylvania, a hulking stranger approaches precocious seven-year-old Wen (Kristen Cui), who’s catching grasshoppers in the front yard. The strange man introduces himself as Leonard and acts like her friend. When he nervously tells Wen that he’s there to do “the most important job in the history of the world,” emerging from the forest and wielding sharp tools are three other strangers (played by Rupert Grint, Nikki Amuka-Bird, and Abby Quinn). Wen runs inside to her adopted fathers, Eric (Jonathan Groff) and Andrew (Ben Aldridge), who barricade the cabin before Leonard and his associates make their way inside. As Leonard tells the family of three, they will have to make a sacrificial choice to stop the apocalypse. Are these strangers doomsday extremists doing a religious cult’s bidding, or have they really seen visions of the end of the world as they know it? Well, a telecast of a catastrophic tsunami still doesn’t answer these questions right away.

That right there is an unsettling start to a pre-apocalyptic home-invasion scenario. The way M. Night Shyamalan and co-writers Steve Desmond & Michael Sherman’s script is structured gets us emotionally invested immediately and then fills in the blanks later, back to Eric and Andrew in happier times and hard times. This family’s plight and their uncertainty about the world beyond the woods keep this harrowing, tautly coiled yarn spinning to a natural conclusion that could go either way. Will Eric and Andrew end up believing Leonard and his fellow believers? If the end is actually nigh, is it selfish of this couple to let the rest of humanity die instead? Whether they’re willing to sacrifice someone in their family or not, choices are still made by the concussed Eric and the pragmatic Andrew, a human-rights lawyer. Those choices (or, in Leonard’s mind, lack thereof) lead to bloody, disturbing ends that director Shyamalan judiciously keeps off-screen without muting the brutal blows. 

If Shyamalan's last film “Old” only halfway succeeded in being an inherently absurd mortality nightmare, “Knock at the Cabin” feels more fully and satisfyingly realized, putting the filmmaker back on track. Shyamalan should never be counted out, his visual storytelling often eloquent and his craft so technically assured but unshowy. The camerawork here by cinematographers Jarin Blaschke and Lowell A. Meyer is classically fluid yet dynamic, particularly how a fight in the cabin is captured, and Herdís Stefánsdóttir’s score is portentous yet distinguished. Aside from a couple of his more self-serious misfires, humor has always found its way into a Shyamalan picture, even in the gravest of high-stake situations. That sense of humor feels more natural this time and not like church giggles; an obligatory cameo from the director himself may take one out of the moment, if only for a second, but he’s having fun.

As economically written and movingly performed by Ben Aldridge, Jonathan Groff, and newcomer Kristen Cui, Andrew, Eric, and Wen are a sympathetic trio. Their dynamic as a family feels so warm, tender, true, and instantly recognizable that one isn’t ready to see their family vacation shattered and their psychological clarity torn apart. In the four remaining parts, Rupert Grint, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Abby Quinn, and particularly Dave Bautista each provide effective character work with nuance and a level of humanity. Belying Leonard’s imposing frame and ill intent, Bautista brings gravitas and gentle-giant vulnerability to this second-grade teacher who believes he must do an awful thing for the greater good.

"Knock at the Cabin" is less of an apocalyptic tale than it is a ticking time bomb of a morality play with the fate of one family as important as the fate of the world. There’s no whopper of a twist that makes the viewer re-contextualize the proceedings. In fact, the only twist is that there is no twist. There is, however, more room for debate: can love or violence save the day? Trusting in the simplicity of the source material, the film never gets bogged down in world-building when a clear internal logic is more than enough. Apparently, major alterations from Paul Tremblay’s novel were made, particularly with the ending that was far bleaker on the page. However, going purely by the film on the screen, you would never know it. As a chamber-piece crucible of faith and misinformation, “Knock at the Cabin” is consistently compelling, wonderfully acted, devastating, and yet somehow hopeful. The only choice is to see it.

Grade: B +

Universal Pictures is releasing “Knock at the Cabin” (100 min.) in theaters on February 3, 2023.