I think I’ve come through the rabbit hole on M. Night Shyamalan. Sure, like everyone, I enjoyed his early string of successes up through and including The Village – a movie that to this day I remain bewildered at its cold reception. But also like everyone else, I too audibly groaned when his name started to appear before films in trailers. I’ll never forget catching a teaser for the Shyamalan-produced Devil, and when his name burst out in white text, the entire theater erupted with laughter. Since then, in our household we’ve mostly treated his movies as what we term as “trash watches”. Keep in mind, for us, this is a term of endearment and keeps our expectations grounded. It might be really bad (like The Visit or Glass or Old), but there might be just enough there to have fun with (also Old and Split).
This is how we now steel ourselves for films from the man who brought us The Sixth Sense and Signs. It’s not ideal, but it works and sometimes it’s oddly comforting. Good old M. Night, still out there cranking out his junk for fools like me.
What’s surprising about Knock At The Cabin is that it’s actually a strong film. Stronger and more sturdy than we’re used to from the director. There’s no major twists, few moments of embarrassment, and the cast is quite game for what it’s a remarkably clever concept. Knock is based on Paul Tremblay‘s novel The Cabin at the End of the World, with some major details changed, particularly regarding the fate of a few characters and a completely different ending (the one marring feature of Knock, which I’ll get to momentarily). But, the core setup remains the same.
A married couple, Eric and Andrew (Jonathan Groff and Ben Aldridge), along with their adopted daughter Wen (Kristen Cui), have their cabin vacation interrupted by four strangers (Dave Bautista, Rupert Grint, Nikki Amuka-Bird, and Abby Quinn) who burst through their rental and claim that they must chose one member of their family to sacrifice to prevent the apocalypse. Pretty good premise!
And as the film moves through its motions, Shyamalan keeps the tension running while also trying to pull the audience back and forth in terms of their potential loyalty. Are they telling the truth? Are Andrew’s doubts legitimate? And just why does one of the strangers have a connection with one of this married pair anyhow? Was it all planned? But then why is the world falling apart due to their inaction? Knowing Shyamalan’s patterns and beats, it’s a guessing game of when the other shoe might drop. I’m thankful to say whether it does or not, the film gels together as one of his most coherent and largely satisfying experiences in some time.
Given the small proximity of the space the cast and crew are working in, the script and performances better be good and while it’s hardly Tolstoy regarding the former, there’s an impressive balance between show and tell that is being used to keep seeds of suspicion running through one’s mind. We literally see Eric and Andrew’s background in flashbacks that strengthen their character arcs and backgrounds, while the strangers only tell us why they’re doing what they’re doing. Up to this point, it’s an impressive show of restraint for Shyamalan, and having a secret weapon like Bautista, who breathes an impressive amount of life and compassion into Leonard – the de facto leader of this quartet. Bautista has grown by leaps and bounds as an actor, improving with each role, but even here I was surprised by how well he adapted to Shyamalan’s narrative tics.
Depending on the viewer, the tenor of the ending may or may not upend the entire film for you. It’s less of a ruinous twist and more an issue of Shyamalan and his co-writers throwing out Tremblay’s ambiguity and instead attempting to give way to messaging that is already creaky and dated. The strain of straight man guilt that runs through the final moments of Knock leave an unfortunately foul taste, maybe not in a way that’s problematic so much as this was simply a bit of broader thematic reach that no one was asking for, particularly from someone who handles this stuff as clumsily as Shyamalan.
But does 5 minutes or so at the tail end of a film ruin all the goodwill that was being built up throughout? I tend to think not, and on balance Knock At The Cabin, while a relatively minor feature, is Shyamalan’s most effective effort since The Village. It’s a real movie, Jack.
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