• Director: M. Night Shyamalan
• With: Dave Bautista, Jonathan Groff, Ben Aldridge, Rupert Grind, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Abby Quinn, Kristen Cui,
• Music by: Herdís Stefánsdóttir
• Duration: 1h40
• Studio: Universal Studios
• Based upon the novel ‘The Cabin At the End of the World’ by Paul Tremblay
• Platform: Netflix
• Rating: 7,5/10

Synopsis:

From visionary filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan comes a thriller about a tight-knit family who are taken hostage by four armed strangers while vacationing at a remote cabin. The visitors, led by Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy), demand that the young girl and her parents make an unthinkable choice: to save their family or save humanity.

Review:

This movie is based upon the novel by Paul Tremblay, although M. Night Shyamalan changed its title from ‘The Cabin at the End of the World’ to ‘Knock at the Cabin’. The ‘knock’ in the title are actually seven knocks… and as the whole movie is an allegory to the biblical announcement of the Apocalypse those seven knocks are also symbolic… for the seven trumpets that sound to cue the apocalyptic events!

The movie starts with an asian girl catching grasshoppers when a strange and very large man called Leonard (Dave Bautista) comes up to her and claims to want to be friends with Wenling, the girl. Soon the tone changes when he apologises for events to come and Wen runs up to her two adoptive dads, Eric and Andrew. They listen to her ranting about Leonard and three others she saw coming up to the cabin where they are vacationing in. And then hell breaks loose for the couple and the little girl.

As Leonard and another man and two women knock on the cabin door and try to make their way in a struggle for survival starts. Before they know it they are strapped to a chair and have to listen to what seems is a delusional story about the upcoming apocalypse only they can prevent, if they sacrifice one of them and that person needs to be willingly killed by one of them. Andrew thinks this is a homophobic attack and they are targeted.

But when the four (symbolic for the four horsemen) sacrifice themselves and with each one killed a new disaster strikes the planet doubt starts to creep in. Is what they claim actually true or is it all a hoax?

I have been a fan of Shyamalan ever since he gave us ‘The Sixth Sense’ and with each new movie he brings us I’m always there for it! And even though he is often called out for his movies as being a bad director (which I don’t get because he is a great storyteller!)! So I was very much looking forward to seeing ‘Knock at the Cabin’! It was not a let down at all but I also have to admit, it wasn’t his strongest movie! (Once in a while he has a lapse, I guess)

I think the book (which I have not yet read) will be stronger and better (as a book tends to be) and I also know (I got spoiled the ending of the book) the endings of both movie and book differ greatly, which I don’t get why apart from maybe expected reactions if Shyamalan might have followed the ending from the book…

But it still is a great movie in its way of telling the story and giving us a cinematic masterpiece. Even though the movie is mainly in and around the cabin it didn’t bore me a single moment. (The flashbacks help to break that, I guess) and Bautista and Kristen Cui have some great scenes together!

So all in all a good movie albeit not Shyamalan’s best feature! Now I just need to look for a copy of the book and get to reading it!