The end is near. It is up to the couple to decide whether to sacrifice their own lives or the lives of their children to save life on earth.
OK, what’s the twist? That’s the “Knock at the Cabin” question. M. Night Shyamalan’s latest work. Night Shyamalan are villainous filmmakers who typically rely on some sort of gotcha moment when what you thought was true is flipped over their ears and a new reality is revealed. He made his films not to be seen as movies, but as puzzles to be solved. And in “Knock at the Cabin,” some pieces of that puzzle are missing from the box.
Just outside the title cabin, 8-year-old Wen (Kristen Kui) is playing collecting grasshoppers in the woods when a giant human who seems to shake the ground as she walks approaches her. That’s Leonard (Dave Bautista), dressed in a white short-sleeve button-up, with wireframes over his eyes, and a pro wrestler who discovered God and now sells Bibles door-to-door. It looks like
Leonard is a gentle giant who kindly explains to Wen that he needs to talk to his parents. and frankly did not expect guests. Leonard’s heart is broken, he tells Wen, “because of what I have to do today.”
The business of the day constitutes “knocking on the cabin,” and frankly, Leonard and his three medieval weapon-carrying sidekicks (including former “Harry Potter” actor Rupert Grint) For the family, who is doing it, and most importantly for the viewer. Buckle up and this ride is going to be very bumpy.
For whatever reason, and to say the details are vague is an understatement, Eric and Andrew chosen, and the fate of mankind rests in their hands. It is up to them to sacrifice one of their own lives or the lives of their children. Otherwise, the rest of Earth will perish in a series of post-apocalyptic events. And the clock is already ticking.
It’s the scenario Leonard and his gang have prepared for the couple after a home invasion that binds the family together. what in the world are you talking about? So, uh, who are you?
To make matters worse, after a period of time when the couple makes no sacrifices, one of Leonard’s cohorts puts a white mask over their faces and he beats them to death. Judged. ’ It’s not personal, it’s just business — the business that ends the world. And then I turned on the TV to show cable news footage of some sort of global atrocity happening in real time, pinning it to Eric and Andrew for not following the rules laid down.
Here is a religious fervor, carried out by a group of fanatical warriors, united by a shared vision, trying to save the world in their eyes. But all these mechanics, who or why, are never properly explained, not by Leonard and his crew. some sales pitch? — or by Shyamalan’s screenplay, co-written with Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman, based on Paul Tremblay’s 2018 novel The Cabin at the End of the World.
It’s never believable, not even as a parable, but as a thriller. It doesn’t help much.It raises a moral dilemma.Kill your partner, kill your children, or let the world burn down.It’s up to you. What do you do? — it never airs or is given a chance to breathe. I have. And the twist, so to speak, is that he never does. You’re left with a sickening psychological thriller, uneven in tone and worth nothing.
The silver lining to all of this is Bautista, whose imposing physique and soft-spoken nature are being put to better use than ever before, and whose range has only just begun to be explored. but “Knock at the Cabin” feels like a new chapter for him. Unfortunately for Shyamalan, we’ve seen this book of his before. Acclaimed as an actor, he has proven to be a master of disappointment time and time again, and “Knock at the Cabin” is no exception. In his end-of-the-world scenario, we are all doomed.
“Knock at the Cabin”
Grade: D+
Rating R: Violence and language
Running time: 100 minutes
at the theater
agraham@detroitnews.com
@Graham Llama