Knock at the Cabin (2023) Review – A Tame and Toothless Adaptation

Welcome to Knockout Horror and to our review of 2023’s Knock at the Cabin.

More M. Night Shyamalan shenanigans

This movie was released last year and focuses on a couple and their child being held captive at their summer cabin by a group of strange individuals. After a minor scuffle, the group tie them up and reveal why they are there. The world is about to end and the couple have to make a single decision to save the entirety of humankind. A decision that will also tear their family apart.

Remember when M. Night Shyamalan’s name attached to a project prompted excitement from the movie going community? Shyamalan’s twist endings and “not everything is quite as it seems” stories were flavour of the month for a while there.

Coming hot off of the success of The Sixth Sense; he followed up with the fairly positively received Unbreakable and the pretty well regarded Signs. Only to push things a little with the divisive The Village. From there on out it was all downhill for a while.

I suppose we should have seen The Village as a warning that Shyamalan was getting a bit too big for his boots. It’s like he thought he could do no wrong but the convoluted and poorly fitting ending left people feeling hard done to. That was nothing compared to how shitshows like The Happening and After Earth would make them feel, however. That’s without mentioning the unwanted finger in the bum hole that Avatar: The Last Airbender was. 

Still the same old stuff

From there it has been a real mixed bag. The Visit was okay though never really managed to stick the landing. Split was great fun but the sequel, Glass, was a bit of a let down. Old seemed to be Shyamalan back to his old, bad movie, tricks and he has followed that up with more of the same in Knock at the Cabin.

“Shyamalan has a knack for taking interesting stories and finding ways to make them boring or underwhelming. He seems to out think himself constantly.”

Spoiler alert, updating this review in November 2024, Trap is another unfortunate disappointment. The best way to put it is that Shyamalan is, simply, a bit overrated.

He has a knack for taking interesting stories and finding ways to make them boring or underwhelming. He seems to out think himself constantly in an attempt to subvert the viewer’s expectations and has a knack for wrapping movies up in the least satisfying way possible. The best way to set your expectations when going into his movies is to prepare for bullshit and disappointment.

Disappointingly dull

Knock at the Cabin is a bit of a strange movie as it represents Shyamalan at his least adventurous. There’s no twists here, there’s no attempt to pull the rug out from under the viewer, there’s no trickery or hidden secrets. It’s just a very basic movie with some fairly decent tension and a “goes nowhere” plot.

“What we are left with is the movie equivalent of a back cover blurb… A short summary that misses most of the detail and nuance.”

The movie is based on the 2018 Paul Tremblay novel The Cabin at the End of the World. The problem is, Shyamalan has exercised a certain degree of creative license while making this movie and changed the plot for the worse. Tremblay’s dark and ambiguous ending has been altered and much of what made the novel so captivating has been pushed to one side. 

What we are left with is the movie equivalent of a back cover blurb for The Cabin at the End of the World. A short summary that misses most of the detail and nuance. Instead, replacing it with basic story telling and a Hollywood ending. There’s no chance to get invested in the characters, no opportunity to be surprised and no questions left to answer. This is a dishwater dull version of the story and a boring movie to boot.

Predictable and slow

You will see literally everything coming here. Knock at the Cabin projects every single event and never once attempts to subvert the viewer’s expectations. While some may enjoy that element of the movie, the rest of us will probably find ourselves frequently yawning. Background information on the characters has been diluted to the point of non-existence. Interactions between the bad guys and good guys offers little in the way of exposition. And there is little reason to invest in what is happening here.

The truth of the matter is, there are a whole range of deep, complex, characters here to learn about and to understand but the viewer is never given the opportunity. Since the movie is depending on these characters to carry the story, that is a big problem. The entire story is condensed into a few, flashback, moments of saccharine familial bliss and a bunch of characters attempting to summarise their entire existence and complexity in 3 sentences. It is very disappointing. 

On top of that, some of the more severe and impactful moments of the film are dragged down by poor acting and poor scene setup. The characters often refer to news reports that seemingly exist in a completely random, nonsensical, timeline and come across as unauthentic and unbelievable. It feels very amateur and something you would expect to see in a Tubi original horror movie.

Not all bad

There are some positives here, however. The one that stands out the most is Dave Bautista. He is sensational and I would almost recommend checking out Knock at the Cabin purely for his performance. The strides he has made as an actor deserve massive praise.

“Dave Bautista is sensational and I would almost recommend checking out Knock at the Cabin purely for his performance. He is leaps and bounds better than the others.”

It’s easy to lump all of the former WWE wrestler actors together but Dave Bautista doesn’t deserve to be in that conversation. He is leaps and bounds better than all of the others.

The movie maintains a fairly decent level of tension for much of its length. The first 15 minutes or so are particularly tense and it is easy to invest in the early part of the story. Unfortunately, much of what happens is strongly projected, making the movie completely predictable which robs from the tension frequently. Still, if you are fan of Hollywood horror then Knock at the Cabin does tick a lot of the boxes. It feels like it has fairly high production values and it never wanders too far off the beaten path.

Our Scoring Philosophy: A Fair Fight

Horror is a genre that thrives thanks to indie film makers and low budget creators. At Knockout Horror, we firmly believe that every movie that we review deserves a fair fight. That's why we grade on a curve. Our star ratings are all about context, judging a film on what it achieves with the resources it has.

A 4-star rating for a scrappy indie horror made for $10,000 is a testament to its ingenuity and raw power. A 4-star rating for a $100 million blockbuster means it delivered on its epic promises. We don't compare them side-by-side; we celebrate success in every weight class, from the back-alley brawler to the heavyweight champion. Please keep this in mind when considering star ratings.

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