Knock At The Cabin (15)

Eric, husband Andrew and their adopted daughter Wen head to a remote cabin in the woods for a family vacation. The tranquillity is shattered by the unwelcome arrival of four strangers, Leonard, Sabrina, Redmond and Adriane, who are armed with crude, homemade weapons. The interlopers tie the two fathers to chairs and reveal they have been summoned by shared visions of the apocalypse. Eric and Andrew have been chosen to make a horrible decision.

LondonNet Film Review

Knock At The Cabin (15) Film Review from LondonNet

We are active participants in our personal stories, creating chain reactions of choices and consequences with the potential to cause ripples outside our own experience. Get up or stay in bed, work or play, forgive or begrudge, compromise or stubbornly resist, sink or swim. Adapted from Paul Tremblay’s award-winning novel, The Cabin At The End Of The World, director M Night Shyamalan’s gnarly psychological thriller presents a same-sex family with an impossible moral dilemma: save each other or the entire human race. The film’s principal setting (a cabin in a communications blackspot) is intentionally claustrophobic and allows Shyamalan to slowly crank up tension by limiting access to verifiable proof that the tall tale being spun is true…

Sporadic flashbacks add daubs of colour – a vicious assault that lights the fuse on one man’s simmering rage, a joyful first encounter with a surrogate daughter as an infant, an awkward lunch date with one set of disapproving parents – but character development is largely limited to the here and now, restricting our emotional attachment to the chosen family. Powerful and compelling performances from Jonathan Groff and Ben Aldridge as spouses in peril tug heartstrings and Shyamalan avoids the introduction of one of his gimmicky last-gasp twists to an original draft of the screenplay by Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman.

Eric (Groff), his husband Andrew (Aldridge) and their adopted seven-year-old daughter Wen (Kristen Cui) head to a cabin in the woods. The secluded location silences the disruptive chatter of texts, emails and social media, allowing Wren to convene with nature while her parents savour quality time on the patio. Tranquillity is shattered by the arrival of four strangers, Leonard (Dave Bautista), Sabrina (Nikki Amuka-Bird), Redmond (Rupert Grint) and Adriane (Abby Quinn). The interlopers are armed with crude, homemade weapons and forcibly break into the cabin as Eric and Andrew protect their only child.

After a tense stand-off, the intruders tie the two fathers to chairs and reveal their shared purpose. “It might be the most important job in the history of the world,” enigmatically discloses Leonard. The quartet have been summoned by shared visions of impending catastrophe and present Eric and Andrew with a horrifying decision. “If you fail to choose, the world will end,” explains Leonard.

Knock At The Cabin begins with a joyful burst of KC And The Sunshine Band’s 1975 dancefloor groove Boogie Shoes then turns down the volume on external interruptions to the ill-fated family retreat. Suspense is comfortably sustained across the 100-minute running time. An agonising ‘what if’ scenario, translated from Tremblay’s book, provides plentiful food for thought after end credits roll. In terms of Shyamalan’s picture, the decision and its ramifications are more fascinating than the protagonists under duress.

– Jo Planter