The biggest mystery in any M. Night Shyamalan movie these days is which M. Night would you get.
It’s been a long time (two decades) since the “next Spielberg” was once claimed to have made a great movie, but it’s also been a long time since it brought us The Happening. Thankfully, his latest film, Knock at the Cabin, is a tight-lipped, suspenseful, elaborately choreographed thriller — not great but enjoyable. Knock at the Cabin is about a couple (Jonathan Groff and Ben Aldridge) and their daughter Wen (Kristen Cui) who find themselves hostage to four seemingly insane individuals (Dave Bautista, Nikki Amuka). -Bird, Rupert Grint, Abby Quinn), the claimants. the apocalypse is coming. The point is, they might be telling the truth.
Shyamalan wasted no time getting into action; The first scene of Knock at the Cabin was unsettling, and it skyrocketed from there. The film maintains a constant sense of suspense throughout, but whether the story resonates with you or not, deserves credit.
I won’t go into the plot points, but there’s nothing particularly unpredictable about the movie; I’m not a religious scholar, but I understood what was going on in the first 20 minutes. More surprisingly, the film lacks one of Shyamalan’s main characters (no, he still has a cameo). Even so, the story is compelling and the script is among the most polished in the director’s career (he shares credit for writing the screenplay with Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman).
However, casting enhances the material. Everyone, including young Cui, was brilliant, with Bautista delivering a lively performance as a seemingly soft-hearted villain. If you can call it that. Bautista is absolutely amazing.
I would also say that while Daniel Radcliffe is perhaps the man with the most diverse and influential post-Harry Potter career, and the most financially successful Emma Watson, Rupert Grint is arguably the most accomplished person in the world. best in the group. He’s a man worth watching, and Shyamalan, who also featured him frequently in the weird but vexing TV series “The Servant,” realized that years ago.
After a brief hour and 40 minutes, Knock at the Cabin is over before you can blink. But as suspenseful as it is, the film fails to rise to new heights; it’s not as engaging as it should be, and not as fun or crazy as Cabin in the Woods, a very different horror movie that shares many similarities. The ending is a bit ho-hum; not bad, but not something that takes you out of the theater.
Knock at the Cabin isn’t among Shyamalan’s best films, but it’s not the worst either. It’s gratifying to sit somewhere in the middle, and that’s fine with me. All in all, this one is worth opening the door; You may not feel the desire to return one day.