Review of M. Night Shyamalan’s New Film Knock at the Cabin
***May contain some unintentional spoilers.
I’ve been looking forward to seeing M.Night Shyamalan’s latest film Knock at the Cabin. What I love about his films are the originality factor and plot twists. There’s the little boy who can see dead people, who spends the majority of the film speaking with child psychologist Malcolm Crowe, played brilliantly by Bruce Willis, who doesn’t realize until the end of the film that he is in fact dead as well in the classic The Sixth Sense. More films will follow like Signs, The Village, Unbreakable, Glass, Split, The Visit, The Happening, and 2021’s Old, which has an ominous Fantasy Island kind of feel without Ricardo Montalban’s sidekick, Tattoo.
M.Night’s films hit and miss with critics and movie-goers alike. I think where he goes wrong is in his execution. The film will have suspense — check, original idea and storyline — double check, great casting — check, strong cinematography — check but as soon as the momentum builds up to an anticipated climax, the film tends to fold, and collapse onto itself, leaving the audience in a disappointed yawn. The specific films I’m referring to are The Happening, The Village, and Old. Again, excellent, original story-concepts, but fails in the execution, everytime.
Although Knock at the Cabin did not disappoint, I think the ending could’ve packed more of a 1–2 punch to match the edge-of-your-seat momentum that consisted throughout the film.
The film begins with an idyllic Airbnb cabin set in the middle of the Pennsylvania woods, where Daddy Eric and Daddy Andrew go on vacation with their adorable and resilient seven-year-old daughter named Wen. They’re a happy and loving family unit of three until a gentle giant of a man named Leonard meets Wen while she is in the process of catching grasshoppers for her field study. Leonard is able to put Wen’s stranger danger at ease until she spots three more strangers out in the distance. She immediately runs to the refuge of their cabin, then locks the front door behind her before she finds Daddy Eric and Daddy Andrew talking on the back porch, trying her best to convince them to get inside the cabin — right away. They believe their daughter when they hear a loud knock on the front door. The knock at the cabin will set off a chain of nightmarish events, leaving this kind family to make an unimaginable decision.
There are Biblical parallels to the Book of Revelation regarding the end times apocalypse that manifest in these four strangers, who under normal circumstances would not pose a threat at all. Leonard loves children, and is a coach. Adriane is a line cook, who has a young son and two cats named Riff and Raff. Sabrina is a caring nurse from California, leaving the more mysterious ginger-haired Redmond left. These four strangers found each other by way of their shared strong visions, or delusions, which would then lead them to this specific cabin on this specific day. The film also touches on collective psychosis sometimes called a “shared delusion” often found in internet conspiracy chat rooms, which is what Daddy Andrew thinks is happening here. During their captivity, we see flashbacks of Andrew and Eric’s relationship, the difficulties they’d face as a couple, and their adoption of baby Wen. There is also a glaring synchronicity between one of the four strangers and Andrew, which later unfolds. The film does an excellent job building tension and momentum while also building a bond with not only this sweet family but even the four strangers, Leonard in particular.
In 1988, when I was fourteen, I watched the 70’s Christian film A Thief in the Night. The film is about the atrocities on earth after the rapture, Christ’s return, that takes on a similar creepiness as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, at least in style and cinematography. Not long after I watched this film, I awoke to a scenario that concerned me: I couldn’t find my mother, or anyone else in my family. Our landline phone with its spiral-like umbilical cord was resting on its side on the kitchen table as if someone had disappeared in the middle of a conversation, and the TV was on as well. In my young, impressionable mind I’d assume that the rapture had occurred while I was sleeping, and I didn’t make it so I called the one person whom I knew would be able to confirm — my uncle, who is a beloved pastor in Philadelphia. My heart raced with each subsequent ring, and by the sixth or seventh ring, he would finally answer the phone. By now, I was in tears, and it went from Thank God the rapture didn’t happen to Where was everyone? to all was good.
When I saw the trailer for Knock at the Cabin, I knew I had to see it despite M.Night’s hit and miss record. The film largely did not disappoint.
