Movie Review: 'Knock at the Cabin' explores world's end

Moving Pictures by Mo Buford

Knock at the Cabin, M. Night Shyamalan, 2023

At his best, M. Night Shyamalan is a kind of genre unto himself: The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, The Village, The Happening, films that soar because they explore the human heart in the face of horror and extraordinary circumstances. At his worst, his movies are a complete mess: Lady in the Water, Avatar: The Last Airbender, After Earth, films as bloated and directionless as they are boring. With his newest film, Knock at the Cabin, while we are in the later period of Shyamalan’s career, we are in something like the middle of these two poles. I guess I’d categorize this current era of Shyamalan’s career as something like a poor man’s Alfred Hitchcock–which, honestly, is still pretty watchable. 

Knock at the Cabin is a tense thriller about—maybe?—the end of the world, where four strangers invade the vacation rental of a gay couple and their daughter. What follows is a muddled, pseudo-philosophical exploration on the nature of belief and what one would do—or wouldn’t do—to stop the world from ending. 

In many ways this film has the hallmarks of a modern day B-movie: big performances and cheesy special effects and a plot that hangs on by a thread. But there is something engaging about the questions being asked here and the tension Shyamalan is able to establish, and then maintain, for almost the entire film. As with his last outing, Old, there is something in the idea behind the film that gets lost as the film goes on. There are even moments of direction from Shyamalan in Knock at the Cabin that I’d call inspired, but they are inconsistent and sometimes veer into being distracting instead.

Even though the performances were big, they were also quite enjoyable, with Leonard (Dave Bautista) and Wen (Kristen Cui) stealing the show. Bautista’s performance provides much of the driving force behind the film, a performance perfectly halting and tender and mysterious. Kui plays a child both thoughtful and precocious, with a touch of otherworldliness that much of the film hinges upon as well. But really all the performances were interesting and kept the movie afloat, where it could have been a slog in other actors’ hands.

Ultimately, the film’s greatest issue is that it has nothing to say. The vaguely Biblical circumstances and stakes around the film don’t amount to much by the end, leaving a kind of void where a larger meaning or catharsis should have been. That being said, the film is also deeply tense and exciting throughout. All and all, a perfectly fine film, with the promise of something more, that sadly never crosses that threshold to something great. 

★★★1/2

(three and a half stars)

The Cabin in the Woods is now showing at Columbia Cinemas.

Questions, comments, movie suggestions? Email Mo at movingpicturesccc@gmail.com

For more reviews and to see his up-to-date movie log, follow Mo at Letterboxd