It seems that when a new film is released and M. Night Shyamalan's name is attached as writer-director, audiences either respond with a groan or extreme hesitance to watch his latest work. What once began as a promising filmmaking career that had some proclaiming him to be the next Steven Spielberg with early breakthrough hits including The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs also saw massive critical failures like Lady In The Water, The Happening, The Last Airbender, and After Earth. To most audiences, Shyamalan's career has become an unpredictable yo-yo with recent works like The Visit and Split meeting audiences with surprising success to Glass and Old once again misfiring with audiences. With Universal Pictures Knock At The Cabin, Shyamalan reverts back to his post Sixth-Sense glory days with the results marking a notable improvement over his recent efforts. Although not perfect, Shyamalan's Knock At The Cabin delivers a more restrained and old-fashioned version of the directors form of storytelling that easily makes it one of his better films in recent times.
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Based on the novel The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul G. Tremblay, Knock At The Cabin's plot has a young girl named Wen and her parents being taken hostage by four armed strangers, who demand that they make the unthinkable choice of sacrificing one or the other in order to avert the apocalypse. Playing off the supernatural elements that rose Shyamalan's career to high fame, Cabin represents a welcomed return to form for the unconventional filmmaker whose career has since struggled to regain its upper-tier stature. While it won't blow anyone's mind much like Shyamalan's early films did, Knock At The Cabin works as being a serviceable supernatural thriller that's tightly paced and gives audiences glimpses of the talent that once made Shyamalan one of the most promising filmmakers of his generation.
When it comes to performances, the cast delivers solid work while demonstrating total devotion to Shyamalan's story. The strongest work comes from Dave Bautista as mysterious and persuasive stranger Leonard, who explains that he needs Wen and her parents to help save the world by making the ultimate sacrificial choice. Bautista displays a surprising amount of range with audiences left guessing on whether his character is speaking the truth or just mentally ill. Along with Bautista's performance, Jonathan Groff and Ben Aldridge shine as Wen's loving same-sex parents Eric and Andrew with Eric's character shown to believe in what Leonard is claiming whereas Andrew see's the group as being mentally unstable kidnappers. Kristen Cui does well as seven-year old Wen, who quickly becomes suspicious of Leonard's intentions upon first meeting him, and fearful of the others once she notices the weapons they're carrying. The rest of Leonard's group prove to be effectively convincing including Nikki Amula-Bird as Sabrina, Abby Quinn as Adriane, Rupert Grint as redneck Redmond, and M. Night Shyamalan in a blink-and-you'll miss cameo as an informercial host.
With Cabin's directing, Shyamalan presents the story with an old school 1990's feel with him utilizing the same style of camera work from that era including using the same Universal Pictures logo from that period. Where M. Night thrives as the films director is creating an effective atmosphere that carries a sinister feel to it. The violence shown is intense with characters being killed off with quick glimpses of bloody wounds, and terrifying news footage showing huge ocean waves wiping out large populations of people along with planes randomly crashing all over the place. The films pace is kept fast-paced though steadily moving while never feeling like the story is dragging. The score by Herdis Stefansdottir enhances the mood of the story while adding to the mystery and suspense behind what's unfolding throughout the film. Although Shyamalan doesn't do anything here to reinvent the wheel, he reverts back to basics and generates some fairly decent suspense and mystery surrounding the plot.
Outside of Supernaturalist themes, Shyamalan's films also touch upon spirituality with Cabin's plot begging the question of what aspects of humanity are worth saving when facing an apocalyptic crisis. The group that Leonard leads is essentially the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse with them forcing Wen's family to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to save humanity. Despite minimal development, the group of strangers are left as a mystery to audiences which adds to the stories ambiguity. The apocalypse is written in a way which audiences are left guessing whether it's really happening or just a figment of the strangers imagination with brief glimpses of it being shown through news clippings. Rather than going all out with a large scale apocalyptic take, Shyamalan it's to keep things grounded and personal with building up key characters whom the audience can connect with such as Wen's family while questioning the motives of Leonard's group. In terms of writing, this is Shyamalan's strongest script in years and marks a strong improvement over both Glass and Old. It also helps that other hands were involved in the writing process with Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman penning the initial draft.
From the films chilling opening scene involving Wen picking grasshoppers to meeting Leonard and the latter revealing his true intentions, Knock At The Cabin presents interesting ideas and concepts that weave together in a story that ranks as being a welcomed return to form for Shyamalan. While not perfect and still contains moments where M. Night's style of directing can become infuriating at times, Knock At The Cabin nonetheless, shows that the filmmakers skill for generating spooky atmospheres remains intact with him using every aspect of the setting to maximum effect. It never reaches the cinematic levels of his early works like The Sixth Sense or Signs but it ultimately proves to be surprisingly watchable with a decent plot twist that proves effective. If one hasn't found themselves to be completely burnt out by the directors uneven pattern of film quality then they may be surprised at what they find here.
Final Verdict: Worth a watch but can wait to be seen from either Redbox or streaming.
Images Courtesy Of Universal Pictures
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