Movie Review: Knock at the Cabin

Now, I actually saw this movie, or at least a large part of this movie, probably last year or the year before at some point in time. But somehow, while it seemed entertaining and engaging, it did not quite grab me to the extent that the more recent viewing did.

Here's the scenario: there is a gay couple, Eric, played by Jonathan Groff, and Andrew, played by Ben Aldridge, who are trying to enjoy some time away at a remote cabin in the woods of Pennsylvania. They are there with their adopted daughter, Wen, played by Kristen Cui. Everything seems reasonably peaceful and quiet for the first few minutes.

Of course, that changes. Four strangers approach the cabin and demand entry. They carry these strange weapons and seem threatening. Yet, the situation is not what it might appear at first. In some ways, it is less immediately threatening than first appearances suggest. Yet, there is an eerie feeling that persists throughout the film, and it grows, if anything, once you learn more about the four strangers and what they actually want. 

Before I go on, of course, there should be the standard warning to stop reading if you intend to read this book, because there will be spoilers ahead.

SPOILER ALERT

SPOILER ALERT

SPOILER ALERT

Okay, so by now if you are still reading this, I have to imagine that you either are familiar with this movie already, or perhaps you do not mind the spoilers. Please just don't say that you were not given advanced warning. 

Alright, so now that you have been warned about spoilers, and there are no excuses, let's get into the part of this review which is filled with spoilers.

The movie opens up with Wen just outside of the cabin in the woods, trying to capture butterflies. Unexpectedly, she is approached by this huge stranger, Leonard, played by Dave Bautista. He starts talking to her, and you get this eerie feeling, knowing that little children are obviously not supposed to talk to strangers. And he is just a huge man, so the situation feels threatening. Yet, he helps her to catch butterflies and does nothing outwardly or immediately threatening. 

Then, three other strangers come out of the woods. Leonard turns to them, and he suddenly seems troubled. Wen, meanwhile, feels alarmed enough to finally run away and go back to the cabin to warn her dads. They do not take her too seriously at first, until it is obvious that there are indeed people there. The phone lines are dead, and there is no cell phone reception, and the strangers clearly want to get inside of the cabin, although they insist that all they want to do is talk. They are all carrying these strange makeshift weapons, although they refer to these things as "tools." Andrew has a gun, but left it in the car, so that hardly seems like a viable option. Clearly an uncomfortable, tense situation.

Eventually, the four strangers gain entry into the cabin. Eric gets injured in the process and suffers a concussion. We see the couple tied up in chairs, and the four strangers standing before them. Wen is not tied up, and she is given free range of motion. Not surprisingly, she remains with her two dads, hugging them and clearly uncomfortable. Yet the four strangers do not seem to mean her any harm. 

At this point, the four strangers begin to introduce themselves. We already met Leonard, but learn that he is a math teacher. Then there is Adriane, played by Abby Quinn. She is a mother of a young boy, and is counting on this family to make the right choice, as she sees it. Sabrina, played by Nikki Amuka-Bird, is a broke nurse from southern California. Even after this, it remains unclear what exactly they want or why they are here. But they all have a sense of urgency about this matter, and this keeps the tension going. Finally, there is Redmond, played by Rory O'Bannon, who seems the least inviting and friendly. He is from Boston, but never has the patience to talk much about himself. Later, this comes to be part of the mystery and intrigue. For now, he seems impatient just to get this whole thing going. The mission of these four still seems mysterious, but we are about to find out what they want. 

Little by little, it is revealed to us. They are there because they kept having visions. Really, it is a message from God, or so they believe. What they say - which the family has an extremely difficult time believing - is that the world will end unless the family makes a sacrifice and kills one of their own. Suicide is not an option.

Now, this is when Redmond, one of the four invaders, becomes questionable. He had a very short fuse, and he becomes the first sacrifice when the family refuses their request for a sacrifice. Redmond is killed, and Andrew suddenly remembers something. He instinctively knew that he recognized Redmon, but could not put his finger on where he knew him from. Then he remembers having been attacked in a hate crime at a bar, and is sure that the man who attacked him is none other than Redmond. This convinces Andrew more than ever that these four are crazy and specifically targeting him and Eric for their lifestyle. 

Then, strange occurrences indeed keep happening. There is a massive tsunami that plunges much of the northwest coast of the United States underwater, creating stunning damage and deaths. After the sacrifice, there is a plague which seems to be catching on. Even after these reports, Andrew remains skeptical, claiming that it all could be a conspiracy. That these four knew of these events beforehand, and are just trying to play it on television for dramatic effect. 

However, these strange events become stranger still when literally hundreds of planes begin falling from the sky all around the globe, all at once. This is the event which finally convinces them that this is not being staged or manipulated. That this is all real. 

Eventually, they realize that there really is no escape. One person in the family needs to be sacrificed. Eric convinces Andrew, right at the end, that there can be no other way. He then gives Andrew the gun and gets him to shoot and kill him.

After the sacrifice, some semblance of normality can be restored. The world as it exists will, more or less, continue. 

This is not a typical horror movie. It builds suspense very slowly. Also, there are no real jump scares, or anything like that. Yet, it gives you a distinctly creepy feeling. There is undeniably something wrong right from the start. And as it is revealed, it feels increasingly engaging. 

The acting in the movie was solid. I was particularly pleasantly surprised by David Bautista, who is believable as a sensitive and scared, albeit huge, math teacher thrown into a very difficult and delicate situation. I only had seen him before in very different roles, and was not sure that he could do any other kinds of roles. But he was excellent in this film.

Generally, people seem to have mixed reactions to M. Night Shyamalan. I have met fans of his, and I know some people who absolutely cannot stand him. Perhaps the best description that I heard of him was from a coworker, who said that his movies are either hit or miss. He seems either to hit it out of the park, or he strikes out embarrassingly. There is no middle ground.

Yet, I rather like M. Night Shyamalan. His body of work tends to be complicated, but it seems to me that he often receives unfair criticism. Some of his movies, like The Village and especially The Happening. While those were not perfect movies, I nevertheless did not have quite as many problems with them as most people seem to have. If you suspend disbelief (which is what you often are supposed to do while watching movies or reading fiction, right?), and just accept the story for what it is, these actually can be quite moving and entertaining. 

Then there are those movies of his which everyone seems to love, including me. Classics like The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Split. Those are some of the movies which, generally speaking, most viewers would tend to agree were among his best movies, the ones when he hits it out of the park. I love all of those movies and have seen each of them multiple times.

In this movie, Shyamalan manages to maintain tension consistently. Like other films, there are some surprises. In fact, it would be a surprise if there were no surprises in one of his movies. But this one works for me. 

Not sure what other people said about this one, although I saw some mixed reviews after briefly doing a Google search about the movie. Still, this one was a solid movie as far as I am concerned.

Highly recommended.