M. Night Shyamalan, the master of the twist ending, presents his 15th film with Knock at the Cabin. Shyamalan is one of the most polarizing figures in the film industry. He’s known for three primary things: very high highs, very low lows and his trademark “Shyamalan twist.” With films ranging from being Academy Award-nominated (Sixth Sense) to downright embarrassing (The Last Airbender), you never quite know what you are going to get walking into an M. Night Shyamalan film.
Knock at the Cabin feels right at home with most of Shyamalan’s filmography, mainly focusing on psychological horror. The plot primarily centers around a family’s torment by a mysterious group attempting to prevent the apocalypse.
Unlike my last review, Fear, Knock at the Cabin takes its interesting premise and expands upon it quite well. The film proposes a central question: "Would you kill one of your own family members to prevent the apocalypse?” It’s a genuinely terrifying concept and question to grapple with on an emotional level. I have to say that Shyamalan presents and explores this compellingly.
Shyamalan and his cinematographer, Jarin Blaschke, do a brilliant job setting up and executing shots here. It should be no surprise that Knock at the Cabin looks so good given that Blaschke has shot the Academy Award-nominated film, The Lighthouse. Shyamalan blocks and frames his shots so purposefully and well throughout the film. Specifically, I love the way that he focused his shots on using the outside thirds of each frame.
The rule of thirds is a commonly used photography and cinematography concept that splits each frame up into three sections horizontally and vertically. Shyamalan puts on an absolute masterclass here, not only shooting his subjects extremely well using this concept but also using the sets to create frames and thirds within the frame. He also decided to juxtapose shots by bouncing the framing of characters back and forth between sides, creating an intentionally jarring experience at times.
I’ve always been a bit skeptical of Dave Bautista as an actor. He’s primarily been in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Drax in the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise. Given his role as Drax in the films, he has always come off to me as a large, muscle-bound guy who can get the job done acting physically. Ultimately, that’s all I really viewed him as. However, he really shines in a much more demanding role here. Bautista is seriously great, giving a compelling emotional performance. You truly feel the conflict he is going through. Most of the film falls on his shoulders given he is the main antagonist and the driving force of the film’s narrative.
Though I think actor Ben Aldridge is solid in the role, my biggest negative with the film has to be the main protagonist, Andrew. This mainly is due to how annoyingly written his character is at times. The stubbornness and general nonsensical nature of the character are grating, to say the least. Though I understand that Shyamalan was trying to explain this away given the trauma the character experienced in the past, it still doesn’t excuse his stupid decisions.
Without going into spoilers, Andrew sees three specific things happen right in front of him, then continues to deny the nature of said things. To make a comparison, he sees that the sky is blue and then proceeds to vehemently argue that the sky is, in fact, not blue. It’s seriously unbelievably dumb and nonsensical. A character being that unlikable and ignorant without an inherent point is simply infuriating as a viewer.
This mainly has to do with Shyamalan’s below-average writing prowess, especially as of late. His dialogue, in particular, is quite weak. It’s apparent here and in his most recent film before this, Old, that he doesn’t quite know how to write dialogue for children. Most of the time, the daughter, Wen, sounds quite odd while speaking due to Shyamalan’s dialogue.
Overall, Knock at the Cabin is a pretty solid psychological horror film. The premise is a good one and thought-provoking, the film looks incredible and Dave Bautista delivers a career-best performance. However, some writing issues and an insufferable main protagonist ultimately leaves you with a semi bitter taste in your mouth. This was very close to being great. However, it is a good time overall.
6/10
Comments