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StarSolidStarSolidStarHalfStarOutline(2.5 Stars)
I’ll say one thing about Knock at the Cabin: M. Night Shyamalan has made perhaps the most civilized — and most provocative — home invasion horror film you’ll ever see.
The four strangers, who show up uninvited on a rustic getaway in the Pennsylvania woods, spreading biblical proclamations about Armageddon and lugging around scary-looking homemade weapons (which they call “tools”), knock before they meet Eric (Jonathan Groff) Barging in Andrew (Ben Aldridge) and their adopted daughter Wen (an adorable Kristen Cui). And that’s after their leader, Leonard – played by Dave Bautista, in all-gentle giant mode, with nerdy, wire-framed glass that seems too small for his rocky head – introduced himself to Wen in the front yard, even going so far as to help her, to catch grasshoppers.
I’m not saying the whole scenario isn’t spooky: Bautista’s imposing, tattooed physique provides an unsettling contrast to the diminutive stature of the not-quite-8-year-old Wen. And when Leonard’s accomplices – excuse me, his “employees” – burst into the house and one of them (Nikki Amuka-Bird) hits Eric on the head and gives him a severe concussion, she immediately identifies herself as a nurse and administers first aid . What in God’s name is going on here?
God may have a lot more to do with this gathering than it seems. Leonard, a teacher/bartender from Chicago, was drawn here by mystical visions to deliver a prophecy. So does Amuka-Bird’s Sabrina, who traveled all the way from California; Adriane (Abby Quinn), a quick cook from Washington, DC; and Redmond (Rupert Grint), a Massachusetts gas company worker who is the only whiner of the bunch. The world is about to end – by tsunami, disease, storm and a blizzard of plane accidents – unless the cabin occupants sacrifice one of their own for reasons that are never explained because, quite frankly, they are cuckoos .
Call this unholy quartet who didn’t know each other until they met in an internet chat room the Four Average Joes of the Q-Anon apocalypse.
Based on the book “Shack at the End of the World” by Paul Tremblay (whose disturbing plot was softened slightly by Shyamalan and co-writers Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman), “Knock” is satisfyingly atmospheric and suspenseful. It’s also moderately gory, but the invaders clean up after themselves.
Shyamalan uses our current paranoia here to great effect. For anyone who feels at times so overwhelmed by the drumbeat of climate catastrophe, economic collapse, crime, mass shootings and terrorism, deadly viruses, and political polarization that it feels like the apocalypse is imminent, “Knock at the cabin”. vibrate vigorously.
But there are problems with this story. If Leonard and his crew want to save humanity, they don’t do very well in getting their beliefs across to the people who need to convince them the most, let alone us. While Eric has a concussion and can’t think straight, Andrew is the only adult in the room who appears to have just screwed his head in, representing the audience’s perspective: these people are crazy. But Shyamalan is clearly inviting us to question that assumption as horrifying disasters seen on booth TV begin to pile up. There is also an indication that homophobia may have played a role for at least one of the four intruders in choosing this particular booth to terrorize.
Shyamalan purposely keeps things vague and ambiguous — which actually adds to the mood of delicious instability — but it’s also frustrating: when Leonard, a teacher, finally tries to argue that he’s not crazy, he’s unsuccessful.
I’m not sure if that’s a problem or a plus, or maybe both. Bautista is great: Leonard is a desperate, driven and heartbroken man because, as he sees it, he must commit an unthinkable act – or rather compel others to do it – in order to achieve a greater good. In the end, Knock at the Cabin is about the resilience of two powerful human impulses: altruism and self-preservation.
That’s a lot of thematic baggage, maybe even too much, for a home invasion thriller.
R In the theaters of the region. Contains violence and expletives. 100 minutes.