“The apocalypse is coming…..then gone”

Knock at the cabin – M Night Shyamalan – 2023

So I was intrigued to watch this one! I’ve always had a soft spot for Shyamalan.

The Film is set as the title suggests with a cabin in the woods. We follow our main Protagonists Wen (Kristen Cui) and her fathers Eric (Jonathan Groff) and Andrew (Ben Aldridge) are on a summer vacation which interrupted by four intruders Leonard, Sabrina, Redmond and Adriane (Dave Batista, Nikki Bird, Rupert Grint and Abby Quinn). They are given the choice of either killing one of themselves to stop the on coming apocalypse or the four intruders will sacrifice themselves and bring upon one part of the apocalypse each time.

The film was engaging, interesting and suspenseful throughout. I really enjoyed not knowing if this was real or all just a hoax or part of some doomsday preppers conspiracy.

The acting was incredible with Dave Batista giving a stellar performance and you really felt for the 4 intruders as you could see they were just normal and loving people (Mostly).

I really loved the imagery that the four intruders were meant to symbolise the four horsemen of the apocalypse and all had their own meaning (Guidance, Healing, Nurture and Malice) alongside with some of the religious intent throughout.

However….

Unfortunately it wouldn’t be a M. Night Shyamalan without having a part of the story that is disliked by the populous. I tried to stay neutral throughout my viewing knowing it has received rather mediocre scores. The ending was so lack lustre and was such an abrupt ending I was kind of felt let down. I understood that they stopped the Apocalypse however it just felt like such a good story for it just to end and only the two remaining try to carry on with their lives.

6/10 🍿