Summary:

Four strangers hold a small family captive to present them with an impossible choice: willingly kill one of their own or allow the apocalypse to destroy humanity.

Review:

The perceived marketing value of M. Night Shyamalan’s name has ebbed and flowed with his commercial successes and critical failures over the course of his career.  Following Shyamalan’s breakout hit “The Sixth Sense” in 1999, few filmmakers were hotter in Hollywood.  During a disappointing string of lesser titles that included “Lady in the Water,” however, Shyamalan bounced between studios while his involvement as director took second billing to big IPs like “The Last Airbender” or marquee stars like Will Smith in “After Earth.”

With “Knock at the Cabin,” Shyamalan evidently enjoys the good graces of PR people once again because someone decided they could take the far better title of author Paul Tremblay’s source novel “Cabin at the End of the World” and swap it with something more generic, less informative for the film adaptation.  This tells us those PR people had renewed confidence that prominently attaching “M. Night Shyamalan” to any title, no matter how mundane, would do most of the talking to sell the movie instead.

As well it should.  Since steadying himself with “The Visit” (review here) in 2015, Shyamalan went back to the basics of what made him a household name in the first place.  He then rebuilt his reputation with a series of modest thrillers that strip out blockbuster bloat to focus on simple storytelling.  “Knock at the Cabin” continues that approach of delivering signature Shyamalan style by doing what any suspense-intensive chamber drama must to keep invested eyes glued to the screen: use engaging performances to draw out the tight tension of a ticking time-bomb mystery.

For the premise portion of that equation, “Knock at the Cabin” puts the bait of a typical “What would you do?” conundrum onto the hook of a morality fable in the tradition of “The Box.”  As is often the case when wading in genre waters, “Knock at the Cabin” takes place at a commonplace location, a remote retreat in the woods.  Here, four strangers led by Leonard take two men and their adopted daughter hostage to present them with an unthinkable proposition.  Willingly kill one member of their three-person family, no suicides or intervention from the intruders, or else allow the apocalypse to destroy the world.

This is a fascinating position for a story to start from.  Classic conflicts come up regarding what to believe and who to trust.  Convictions change as new details alter perceptions.  All the while, an audience gets invited to play the same devilish guessing game at home, wondering who’s telling the truth, what twist comes next, and sitting on sharp pins and needles waiting anxiously for answers to these constantly evolving questions.

As for the acting half of Plot + Performance = Successful, Simple, Suspenseful Storytelling, “Knock at the Cabin’s” cast provides evidence for the adage that there are no small parts.  Certain characters have more screen time than others, of course.  Yet everyone puts a crucial cog into the machine to pull off an impressive illusion that this fantastical scenario could be possible using charged performances played as seriously as if this were “Sophie’s Choice.”

Leading the way as Leonard, Dave Bautista adds fuel to the fire in an imaginary feud with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson for which wrestler-turned-actor can be considered the most versatile performer.  It usually comes down to finding the right roles, and “Knock at the Cabin” uses Bautista’s semi-robotic cadence to great effect, exploiting his imposing intensity to fashion a gentle giant who can be seen as either compassionate or threatening, and you aren’t always entirely sure which part of his possibly explosive personality currently has control.

“Knock at the Cabin” also pulls a Janet Leigh by removing a presumably key player in unexpected fashion early on, immediately indicating that all bets are off regarding where everything might be headed.  With the threat level instantaneously increased, the heightened sense of danger plants an “anything can happen” idea that no one is safe and the path forward will be anything but predictable.

A setup such as this one can never end in a way that fully satisfies logic, realism, and viewer expectations.  A setup such as this one, where every possible outcome remains in the air until end credits roll, can never please everyone with its conclusion, either.  Indeed, it’s my understanding that “Knock at the Cabin’s” ending does something different than the “Cabin at the End of the World” novel does, miffing devoted readers in the process.  I haven’t read the book.  I don’t even know what that original ending is, so I have no dog in the faux fight of which way the story might have been better off going.

I can only take “Knock at the Cabin” for what it is, which is a character-driven thriller that attracts attentive eyes by having its charismatic cast turn the screws on a highly suspenseful narrative.  That’s essentially the same thing I said earlier.  I don’t know too many other ways to alternatively identify this type of tale, although M. Night Shyamalan seems to keep finding entertaining new ways to tell them.

Review Score: 80