'A Knock at the Cabin' Is M. Night's Best Movie Since 'The Sixth Sense'
While vacationing, a girl and her parents are taken hostage by armed strangers who demand that the family make a choice to avert the apocalypse.
This is a movie that I really feel like will be hurt by expectations that come with an M. Night project. However, I think if you take M. Night out of the equation and pretend any other director made it, you will walk away happy that you saw this movie.
On the acting side of things, 'Knock at the Cabin' has two heavy hitter stars in Dave Bautista and Jonathan Groff. Bautista was definitely more impressive but he also had a more interesting role. He has this intense, dominating presence that made the small space of the setting feel even smaller. It's very similar to his role in 'Blade Runner 2049' in that way. After him, I was very surprised by both Ben Aldridge and Kristen Cui. I've said it a million times, bad kid actors can derail a movie. Cui, however, made it better.
On the plot side, the concept of this movie is awesome. Through the whole movie you are stuck in this claustrophobic space and being forced to battle with what is real and what isn’t. That builds a ton of tension that I think a lot of you would love.
SPOILERS. DO NOT READ BELOW IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED YET
This is where we come to how the expectations that come with an M. Night Shyamalan movie can affect the viewing experience.
What is M. Night known for? Twists. I think this expectations hurt but also maybe helped the viewing experience.
It helped in that, throughout the entire movie, I was really on my toes. I didn’t believe anything that was shown and I was waiting for the other shoe to drop the whole third act. To me, that added to the tension and the cinematic experience. When that twist didn’t come, and it was not guaranteed by any stretch, it felt like something was missing. A definitive ending with no tricks? That couldn't be right.
But, again, remove the reputation/expectation and I think you have a tight, 1 hour 40 min thriller with good acting, a cool concept, and some really awesome camera work from M. Night.