Is there a more cursed, nightmarish scenario than a relaxing getaway gone wrong? Horror movie maverick M. Night Shyamalan understands this setting well: his last movie, Old (2021), was an existential thriller set on a tropical beach that quickly devolved into violence and death. Even a stay at The White Lotus looked more appealing, and that isn’t saying much. Now the controversial filmmaker has unveiled his latest project, Knock at the Cabin, an apocalyptic horror movie that begins with a (doomed) lakeside vacation.
A seven-year-old girl named Wen (Kristen Cui) is staying with her dads Eric (Ben Aldridge) and Andrew (ex-Glee star Jonathan Groff) in a remote New Hampshire cabin when a giant stranger named Leonard (Dave Bautista) appears. Soon, all hell breaks loose. The film’s story is said to be an adaptation of the 2018 novel The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul G. Tremblay, so what exactly is the plot of this movie? Where can we watch the trailer? And who else, cast-wise, will be joining us at the cabin? Here’s everything we know about the film.
What’s the plot of Knock at the Cabin?
The movie is an adaptation of Paul G. Tremblay’s The Cabin at the End of the World. A description for the award-winning 2018 horror novel on Goodreads explains the predicament faced by Wen and her family. “One afternoon, as Wen catches grasshoppers in the front yard, a stranger unexpectedly appears in the driveway. Leonard is the largest man Wen has ever seen but he is young, friendly, and he wins her over almost instantly. Leonard and Wen talk and play until Leonard abruptly apologises and tells Wen, ‘none of what’s going to happen is your fault.’ Three more strangers then arrive at the cabin carrying unidentifiable, menacing objects. As Wen sprints inside to warn her parents, Leonard calls out: ‘Your dads won’t want to let us in, Wen. But they have to. We need your help to save the world.’”
Who is in the cast of the movie?
Alongside Kristen Cui, Ben Aldridge, Jonathan Groff, and Dave Bautista, Harry Potter alum Rupert Grint will be playing an armed stranger in the film, along with Nikki Amuka-Bird and Abby Quinn in similarly mysterious roles. Other cast members include William Ragsdale, Ali Asghar Shah, Clare Louise Frost, Scott Vogel, and more.
Is there a trailer for the film?
The film’s original trailer starts off very cute – there’s sunlight, laughter, diving into water fully-clothed, all soundtracked to KC & the Sunshine Band – before the mood abruptly shifts. Dave Bautista comes along to ruin the fun. “My heart is broken,” he tells Wen, who looks at him with confusion. “Why is it broken?” she asks. He replies: “Because of what I have to do today.” Get a job! Stay away from her!
The movie’s second trailer leans more heavily into the darker themes teased by the first. We see some idyllic scenes, implicitly flashbacks, of Wen and her family, spliced together with (and considerably outnumbered by) trauma after trauma: gun violence, physical fighting, a killer tsunami wave, a mysterious bright light. What could it all mean? Well, we won’t have to wait much longer to find out.
What are critics and audiences saying in reviews?
While some audiences see Knock at the Cabin as a “new career high” for Shyamalan, others have taken issue with its themes. In Indiewire, Ryan Lattanzio called the film a “weirdly conservative parable” that treads the “hokey, pseudo-Christian terrain of some of this filmmaker’s worst tendencies.” Ouch. But it’s not uniformly a pan: later on in his review, Lattanzio says that the film is “impeccably staged” with some “brilliantly choreographed sequences.”
The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey praises Shyamalan for the “inventive, Hitchcockian flair” he approaches the story with, describing the film as “a chamber piece about love and belief.” She continues: “As protective father Ben, Aldridge explores love in its most desperate form while Groff’s Eric possesses an almost beatific sense of emotional clarity.”
As cult-leader Leonard, Dave Bautista’s performance in the film seems to have captured the hearts of certain critics. Writing for The Atlantic, David Sims calls him the film’s “most pivotal player.” “So much of the movie revolves around Leonard’s surreal monologues; the actor keeps a firm grasp on Leonard’s belief in his every word,” he writes.
When is the release date?
Knock at the Cabin will arrive in theatres on 3 February 2023.