Dave Bautista and Jonathan Groff Star in Movie Knock at the Cabin

Dave Bautista and Jonathan Groff star in a movie that plays to Shyamalan's strengths and has the writer-director returning to some favorite topics. At the beginning of Knock at the Cabin, we watch as seven-year-old Wen (Kristen Cui) collects grasshoppers outside a cabin in the middle of the woods. She carefully sneaks up on the bugs as she collects them in her hands, and places them in her jar, while making sure none of the insects inside jump out. After twisting the lid of the jar on tight, she tells the grasshoppers that she isn’t going to hurt them, but she just wants to study them for a while. On one hand, it's easy to see this moment as M. Night Shyamalan (who directs and also co-wrote the screenplay with Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman, based on Paul G. Tremblay’s book, The Cabin at the End of the World) stating that he is the watcher of this world he is putting before the audience, putting all these characters into a jar and studying what happens when they all get together. But zooming out a bit more, this moment more likely represents Shyamalan’s view of a higher power, as God however it is defined can seem like a child playing with his bugs, testing them, and watching their reactions. There’s always the slightest possibility that the person outside the jar could interfere, but they never do, instead watching how the creatures inside react to the situations they’ve been put into. In a way, Shyamalan almost uses Knock at the Cabin as a way to explore themes he’s played with before with varying degrees of success, like faith (Signs, The Village) and the ignorance of avoiding the truth about the destruction of the world when the evidence is there (The Happening). Yet by restricting the story to this one cabin in the woods, it also plays to Shyamalan’s strengths, considering he’s often at his best when he puts his characters in claustrophobic and limited situations (Signs showed us an alien invasion mostly from the viewpoint of a house in the middle of nowhere, while Shyamalan also came up with the story for Devil, which took place entirely in an elevator). And while Shyamalan can certainly be hit-or-miss, Knock at the Cabin with its combination of Shyamalan's interests and strengths ends up being one of the better films in the director’s varied filmography.

As Wen collects her grasshoppers, she meets Leonard (Dave Bautista), who seems nervous, a bit scared, and yet inherently intimidating, considering he's played by Dave Bautista. Leonard tells Wen that he wants to meet her dads, Eric (Jonathan Groff) and Andrew (Ben Aldridge), and discuss something very important with them. Wen runs to her dads, who try to barricade the cabin from Leonard and his associates (Nikkie Amuka-Bird, Abby Quinn, and Rupert Grint) from getting in, but the effort is futile. Once inside, Leonard explains why he and these three other people are here: they have seen a vision of destruction that will lead to the apocalypse, and the only way to stop the end of the world is a willing sacrifice from Eric, Andrew, or Wen. What makes this scenario even more unnerving is that it’s clear Leonard and his team don’t want to do this to this family, but they are compelled by some unexplainable force to undergo such horrific actions. They don’t want to tear apart this family, and they don’t want to force them to make such an awful choice, yet their belief has made it so they have no other option. If one of the members of this family doesn't die, everything else will. As Wen collects her grasshoppers, she meets Leonard (Dave Bautista), who seems nervous, a bit scared, and yet inherently intimidating, considering he's played by Dave Bautista. Leonard tells Wen that he wants to meet her dads, Eric (Jonathan Groff) and Andrew (Ben Aldridge), and discuss something very important with them. Wen runs to her dads, who try to barricade the cabin from Leonard and his associates (Nikkie Amuka-Bird, Abby Quinn, and Rupert Grint) from getting in, but the effort is futile. Once inside, Leonard explains why he and these three other people are here: they have seen a vision of destruction that will lead to the apocalypse, and the only way to stop the end of the world is a willing sacrifice from Eric, Andrew, or Wen.

What makes this scenario even more unnerving is that it’s clear Leonard and his team don’t want to do this to this family, but they are compelled by some unexplainable force to undergo such horrific actions. They don’t want to tear apart this family, and they don’t want to force them to make such an awful choice, yet their belief has made it so they have no other option. If one of the members of this family doesn't die, everything else will. Shyamalan has always been a master of spatial horror, knowing just how to play with the limitations of a location to maximize the fear. Take, for example, the way Cole (Haley Joel Osment) hid in his red tent before realizing he wasn’t alone inside with The Sixth Sense, or how eery he could make an alien walking by on a home recording feel in Signs. Shyamalan is great when restrictions are put in place, and given the one location and small cast of characters, this restraint makes this feel like one of the tightest Shyamalan films in quite some time. It’s also been interesting to watch Shyamalan, with this and 2021’s Old, attempt to adapt existing stories and put his spin on the narrative. Knock at the Cabin doesn't have the expected “Shyamalan twist,” and it does change details of the original book, but Knock at the Cabin ends up feeling like a smart combination of the original idea and Shyamalan’s tone which work together quite well. The only time that Knock at the Cabin struggles with this story is in its approach to queerness, as the film occasionally brings up the idea that these visitors could just be bigots exacting revenge on these two parents, even though that’s more of a rationalization of these actions as opposed to a real possibility.