Knock At The Cabin
Review By John Olsen
M. Night Shyamalan has had a rocky career as a director. I have truly enjoyed many of his films, including Signs, The Sixth Sense, and The Village. However, many of his films have fallen short, including destroying the Air Bender movie.
To be short, I always go into an M. Night Shyamalan movie not low to no expectations. Knock at the Cabin was a fascinating movie. The film's outline is while vacationing at a remote cabin in the woods, a young girl and her parents are taken hostage by four armed strangers who demand they make an unthinkable choice to avert the apocalypse. This is also the basics you learn while watching the movie trailer. The young girl in the movie is played by Kristen Cui, who does a fantastic job as this intelligent little girl. The parents are played by Jonathan Groff as Eric and Ben Aldridge as Andrew. Jonathan Groff does a good job, but his character is muted compared to Ben Aldridge, who does a masterful job of portraying anger and contempt at the intruders and situation.
The intruders are led by Leonard, played by Dave Bautista. I have been shocked at how well Dave Bautista has grown as an actor. Most wrestlers who join the acting realm do well, but their acting falls way short of greatness. The Rock has always just played "The Rock" with different names. Dave has genuinely grown as an actor, and his acting in A Knock at The Cabin is fantastic. Daves's small part in Blade Runner proved he was working on being a great actor.
Knock at The Cabin is a psychological horror film at its best. The cinematography was done to put you off guard and uneasy and did just that. The horror isn't in the blood and guts; the horror is in the mental torture felt by the family and their captors.
Knock at the Cabin is a deep dive into the emotions of the world and this family. It keeps you wondering what is really happing up until the end. The movie is written well with great cinematography; however, it was the acting that carried this movie, with Ben and Dave at the forefront and everyone else doing masterfully as supporting characters.
A Knock at the Cabin is Rated R for violence, adult themes, and some language.
I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.
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