Knock at the Cabin (2023)

 

Knock at the Cabin is about four people, all with a collective vision of the apocalypse, who take a family hostage and give them the ultimate decision to make.

Director M. Night Shyamalan brings a certain flair to the film. You know him from Six Sense, Split, and probably my favorite of his, Signs. I have only minor issues with his direction and it's mostly at the beginning with the dialogue scenes between the main villain and the child. There's nothing that really stands out in a positive way as the movie is very safe for a Shyamalan film in terms of direction. Also, I want to note this is not a horror film in any way. It's a thriller.

Writing on the other hand he shares with Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman, both relative newcomers to the screenplay scene, who won plenty of awards for their short film Monsters. The writing has some good notes and some bad ones. Let's start with the bad ones. The film fails to make a convincing argument for this apocalypse being a hoax and leans heavily into it being real. Most audience members would feel disappointed if there wasn't a true sense of impending doom. Also making the audience feel right about their intuition can be a good thing, the audience also has different expectations coming from Shyamalan.

Dave Batista is really trying to break out from his meat-head muscle-bound type cast. I'd say he's working on it and moving in the right direction with this film. I wouldn't say I'd go out of my way to see a Batista film, but he's moving the dial. He plays the leader of the four hostage-takers. I won't say more, but if you've watched the trailer it's already spoiled it for you. If I were you I'd avoid trailers for this movie.

In terms of acting Ben Aldridge stood out to me as someone who was putting as much into this film as Batista was. He acted in Pennyworth as Thomas Wayne. He plays a very fierce and loving father/husband. He plays the person you expect to man up in a hostage situation and make the tough decisions when it counts. I enjoyed his performance.

All in all the film delivers an enjoyable hour and forty minutes despite safe direction and questionable writing. I say questionable because this movie will hit differently for specific audiences. Because of that, I can't recommend it to everyone. I still enjoyed the film and it's still a solid B.