Knock at the Cabin

“Knock at the Cabin” is a suspenseful, thriller with horror elements that wastes no time in its execution. After less than five minutes, the idyllic vacation choice of Eric and Andrew, dads to Wen, is turned into a nightmare home invasion. Leonard ( Dave Bautista ) tries to engage with Wen showing gentleness and countering the stereotype his muscular size conveys. Happily catching grasshoppers together, Leonard and Wen discuss family and future ambition. However once Leonard is joined by his three other companions his insistence and subsequent forceful entry to the cabin makes his character seem far more sinister.  Denial and paranoia set the tone as the four invading characters disclose their backgrounds and cult like vision that has set them on a mission to save the World from the Apocalypse. During back and forth conversations and threat of death, love and compassion strongly prevails even after some graphic killing. When faced with the reality of the home invaders reasoning for their actions, Eric and Andrew’s rising panic with each separate revelation fuels suffocating tension that continues to grow until the final moments. With very clever use of the four headless horsemen of the Apocalypse, and the persuasive nature of Leonard, eventually Eric and Andrew believe what they are being told. Throughout “Knock at the Cabin” M. Night Shyamalan’s direction keeps the audience constantly questioning. Are the events unfolding on screen actually real or just cult like paranoia twisting events to suit their agenda. With excellent performances and great use of lighting and cinematography to convey fear and rising tension, “Knock at the Cabin” is an engaging end of the World thriller.

"Wen" (Kristen Cui) is out collecting grasshoppers when she encounters the statuesque and friendly "Leonard" (Dave Bautista). When his three friends turn up though, she gets spooked and runs to her remote cabin home where her dads "Eric" (Jonathan Groff) and "Andrew" (Ben Aldridge) are chilling on the veranda. She is worried, and soon they are locked in with four seemingly hostile folks outside demanding entry. The doors and windows are no match for their rather medieval weapons and soon the boys are tied to their chairs fearing the worst in homophobic behaviour. Thing is, the four appear to mean them no harm - well, not directly anyway. "Leonard", in a calm and measured manner, now regales them with a tale foretelling an apocalyptic end for mankind unless this small family make a very, very, tough decision in the next twenty four hours. Should they not, then we soon discover that things will not go well for them, but do not go at all well for their four "persuaders" either. Bautista is quite good here, as is Aldridge and for a while the plot is actually quite intriguing. The ultimate catch-22 with a question posed to rational people - who love each other - that would test any of us. Sadly, though, M Night Shyamalan can't keep the intrigue sustained and it rather runs out of steam from the middle onwards. Groff doesn't really show up and neither, for that matter, does Rupert Grint. I also felt that young Cui takes a little too much screen time and grates after a while. It's the shortest of short stories, and might have worked better had it just been the hour with a tighter narrative and less meandering. Still - it does ask a question that I'm not sure I could answer either in their position - and I did quite enjoy watching it.

The tender, sympathetic, and desperate performances are what make _Knock at the Cabin_ worthwhile. The psychological and horror aspects of the film are timid at best with the true identities of Leonard and his associates being obvious, gruesome elements that you never see, and an apocalypse that is a lackluster disaster overall. It’s not that _Knock at the Cabin_ is entirely bad, it’s that it seems to actively know it could be more creative, thrilling, and shocking and yet purposely chooses to bury its head in the sand and let mediocrity have its remorselessly bland way with it. **Full review:** https://boundingintocomics.com/2023/02/03/knock-at-the-cabin-review-a-well-acted-blah-pocalypse/