Knock At The Cabin Review

Plot: While vacationing, a girl and her parents are taken hostage by armed strangers who demand that the family make a choice to avert the apocalypse.

Film: Knock at the Cabin

Director: M. Night Shyamalan

Writer: Paul Tremblay, M. Night Shyamalan, Steve Desmond, 

Michael Sherman

Starring: Dave Batista, Jonathan Groff, Ben Aldridge, Kristen Cui

Knock at the Cabin is an apocalyptic thriller that centres around a cabin in the woods, and the family who have chosen to vacation there. Wen (Kristen Cui), Andrew (Ben Aldridge) and Eric (Jonathan Groff) are confronted by four strangers who inform them that unless one of them dies that day, the world will end. The film had so much promise, adapted from a beloved book, but the ending is really what let it down for me. 

Starting with the positives, I must give credit to the star of the show; Leonard (Dave Bautista). His muscular frame, paired his dress shirt and glasses, made for the perfect jarring image of a ‘villain’. The character isn’t really all that villainous, his role is to deliver a message, even though it’s obvious by his build that he could do some harm, that’s not the reason he’s there. 

Leonard and his companions spend the film telling Wen and her family of all the horrible things that will befall humanity if they don’t choose to make the ultimate sacrifice. Naturally as the viewer, you’re watching all of this unfold with as much disbelief at Andrew and Eric are, but the evidence is all there, each time they refuse to kill each other, another tragedy occurs. Coincidence? It’s a very frustrating film to watch because every part of me wants to tell them to get up and run, of course it isn’t real, but that same tension is what kept me in my seat, albeit on the edge of it, the whole time. 

Eric begins to believe while Andrew is sure he knows this is all fake, that nothing will happen if they don’t act. Leonard has done all he can do to convince them and leaves the family with a choice, and I was waiting for a twist, for something unexpected to happen and change the outcome of the film, but nothing comes. Without spoiling the ending completely, while you will keep on guessing right till the very end, the ending of the film is inevitable.