Based off of the terrific novel by Paul Tremblay, the film adaptation by the ever-interesting if not at times inconsistent M. Night Shyamalan adheres to the novel in its majority in a 1:1 fashion, for better or worse.
SYNOPSIS: While vacationing at a remote cabin, a young girl and her parents are taken hostage by four armed strangers who demand that the family make an unthinkable choice to avert the apocalypse. With limited access to the outside world, the family must decide what they believe before all is lost.
It’s apparent from the opening minutes that this film is impeccably well shot, every frame is tight and gripping in a way that places the camera exactly where it should be in order to maximize the eerie atmosphere that the film is trying to accomplish. The close-ups are effective, and the edit is very concise and purposeful, aside from occasionally jarring in its presentation.
There are times where certain cutaways disrupt tension in order to establish information on character dynamics that I felt could’ve been handled slightly better. The movie gets in its own way by having nonlinear cut-in flashbacks that often occur right at the height of action, instead of being more calculated in their placement.
Sometimes, this film is so much like the novel that it doesn’t feel like it’s going out of its way to enrich anything from the original source material, and instead, is sort of passively coasting along the foundations of what already exists. This can make certain parts of the movie feel slightly hollow, as the perspectives and insights of certain characters aren’t shared to the audience. For the film’s R rating, it plays it surprisingly safe in its presentation of violence that I felt lessened some of the impact of certain events and dulled the stakes at times.
The third act of the film is when it starts to form into its own interpretation of the novel, and some will absolutely despise this, but Shyamalan puts enough of his own voice into it that I think it works overall. Viewing the film’s story apart from the book may be difficult - as it was, up until the third act, faithful to it to a tee- but I think it plays to its own strengths in a way that I wasn’t unhappy with how things concluded.
This is a well-known fact, but man, Dave Bautista is truly a phenomenal actor. He absolutely stole the show here, and embodied every part of his character so meaningfully. I can’t wait to see Bautista in more roles like this! He’s quickly becoming one of my favorite faces to see. Jonathan Groff is great, despite not being given as much to do as his partner Ben Aldridge, who for me is the knockout of this entire thing. Kristen Cui gives a great performance as well, which can be added to Shyamalan’s extensive catalog of all star child showcases.
Knock at the Cabin is playing it safe in a lot of ways in its presentation, and while its surface level proposal is betraying to the novel in some ways, it never ceased to entertain me. It’s a very fun watch, which will please the average movie-goer, and while the hardcore fans of the novel may be disappointed, I think there’s a lot here to be admired.
3/5
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