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Knock At The Cabin Movie Review: Who Keeps Giving M. Night Shyamalan Money

BY JENNY JUNG

Hit or miss? Shyamalan strikes again with a new film. Let’s talk about it.

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20 FEB - 2023

*Spoiler Alert*

"Knock At The Cabin" is the movie adaptation of a novel called "The Cabin at the End of the World" by Paul Tremblay. It's only 300 pages, so I recommend giving it a read if you're looking for a short but exciting psychological horror with apocalyptic themes. As for the movie, it doesn't do the original source material much justice, but watching Ron Weasley with a horribly vague country accent makes it all worth it.

Also, it turns out that Shyamalan self-funds his films. So now we know!

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Review:

“Knock At The Cabin” is about a young girl, Wen, and her parents, Eric and Andrew, on a family vacation in the woods. During their stay in a quaint little cabin, a group of four strangers wielding purge-like weapons approach the family with a pretty intense ultimatum: either one of them dies, or the world ends. Each time Eric and Andrew refuse to take each other's lives, one of the four people sacrifices themselves, and it really does seem like the world is ending.

So, as viewers, we get to make the decisions along with Eric and Andrew, right? Do we believe these weirdos or not? If so, would we be willing to kill our loved ones to save the world? It turns out that it doesn't really matter because subtlety has completely left the chat, and Shyamalan doesn't care about the audience. He left no room for interpretation, and there wasn't enough suspense that created a good amount of doubt about what could happen.

Also not my favourite when a movie has to tell you things to your face. For example, the group of strangers were clearly a reference to the four horsemen of the apocalypse. It would have been fantastic for people to have connected the dots themselves. Instead, Shyamalan had a whole monologue explaining it to the audience. It totally takes away from the fun of mystery or psychological genre films.

Furthermore, why the irrelevant flashbacks? Shyamalan only showed snippets of Eric and Andrew's struggles of being in a gay relationship with an adopted Chinese daughter. I mean, it's all pretty self-explanatory. Instead, Shyamalan should've shared the focus between the four strangers who were allegedly led to each other by these strange visions. That would have been a hell of a lot more interesting.

I mean, I legitimately thought that the film was a dark comedy or a “horror” comedy. Later I discovered that "Knock At The Cabin" is supposed to be a horror mystery… Officially befuddled. Also, I am convinced that Shyamalan cheaped out on the budget because the film avoided showing any violent material like dead bodies. It was kind of lacklustre for a horror film.

A Good Bad Movie?

This film was full of typical Shyamalan quirks like awkward dialogue, strange camera work, forced M. Night cameo, cringeworthy foreshadowing and unironic irony. Luckily for Shyamalan, I actually love watching bad movies. Some of my favourites include “Splice”, “Birdemic” and “Buttboy” - enjoy.

If he had any real "Sixth Sense", he wouldn't be making movies like "Knock At The Cabin"...

Get Drunk

Honestly, Shyamalan has been falling off since "The Last Airbender", and I think he needs to reevaluate his directing style because it's not really working like it used to. If he had any real "Sixth Sense", he wouldn't be making movies like "Knock At The Cabin". And no, I will not feel bad for attacking the craft of… a millionaire. Shyamalan spent $20 million dollars on an extremely average movie.

That said, round up your favourite friends who are versed in the book of Revelations and drink a lot of alcohol. That way, this film will actually feel like a horror comedy, and you might enjoy it! Plus, there are definitely some moments where you’ll be grabbing your bestie’s hand and gasping as the tank AF Dave Bautista starts to hack at his ‘peers.’

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@mnight

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