Riot’s Reviews: Knock at the Cabin
Love/hate relationships are one of those universal experiences that people often enjoy debating about. Within Hollywood, there are a number of examples of writers and directors that we, as an audience, keep giving chances to. Whether or not they deliver a quality product is never really guaranteed. For me, two names immediately come to mind: Adam Sandler (who’s been coming in hot lately with roles like Uncut Gems and Hustle) and then there’s M. Night Shyamalan. The latter of which, has had more ups and downs than a roller coaster. When he’s on, he is on (I think of Sixth Sense, Signs, and Split here). But whoo boy when he misses, he misses big (The Happening, The Last Airbender, and After Earth). To be honest, in scrolling through his credits, I find myself wondering why I continue giving him a chance at all. Yet there I was, giving Shyamalan’s latest venture a chance to wow me. Knock at the Cabin invites the audience to think about the importance of family and whether or not they would be willing to sacrifice one of their own for the sake of the world.
The film opens on a little girl named Wen (Kristen Cui), alone in the middle of some woods catching grasshoppers, who encounters a hulking mass of a man named Leonard (Dave Bautista). The man insists he is not there to harm her and simply wants to learn more about her, commenting multiple times that he just wants to be friends. As if the premise of an enormous, tattooed man talking with a little Asian girl alone wasn’t creepy enough, it quickly becomes clear that Leonard is not there for any altruistic reasons. In fact, he admits he is burdened with a singular, tragic purpose. When the pair are soon joined by three others (Rupert Grint, Nikki Amuka-Bird, and Abby Quinn), each carrying a makeshift weapon, Wen bolts for a nearby cabin, to warn her two fathers (Ben Aldridge and Jonathan Groff) about the quickly approaching threat. After attempts to keep the intruders out fails, the small family are captured and informed of their daunting choice: choose to sacrifice one of their family, or unleash the apocalypse, ending the world at they know it.
Knock at the Cabin continues on (what I think) the most common trap that Shyamalan’s films fall into: an incredibly interesting premise that lacks proper delivery (for me, I think of The Village, Unbreakable, and Devil). The film’s greatest strength lies in its performances, particularly and a little shockingly from Dave Bautista. But much like his other recently reviewed film, great performances won’t make up for bad/boring storytelling. And boring this film most certainly was. How it was able to garner “horror” as descriptor, I’ll never understand. What happens to the people in this film is certainly horrific, but that doesn’t remotely match up to the stylistic choices of what anyone would consider as a horror film. Considering I have no particular love for that genre, I actually didn’t mind the 100% lack of jump scares. What I did mind, was the nonsensical and gaping plot holes. For all the dialogue that happens between characters, there is so much left unexplained that it’s hard to understand why an ample runtime could be so utterly wasted. Much of the runtime is lost in flashbacks that do extremely little to build empathy with the victims of the story. Instead of feeling invited to consider what I might do in the same situation, I sat there mostly unaffected/alienated by the lack of realistic explanations. The formulas and rules established by the four invaders aren’t consistent while the motivations of the captives are flimsy at best. The resolution of the film feels empty and by attempting to leave things “open ended,” it actually cheapened the rest of the plot. Throw in a little dash of deus ex machina to wrap things up and the disappointment is complete.
Riot’s Rating: 5/10: Fool me once Shyamalan, but you can’t fool me again.
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