Wednesday 8 February 2023

Knock at the Cabin - The scoop and digest

M. Night Shyamalan adapts Paul Tremblay's novel The Cabin at the End of the World.

Dave Bautista - Leonard
Jonathan Groff - Eric
Ben Aldridge - Andrew
Nikki Amuka-Bird - Sabrina
Kristen Cui - Wen
Abby Quinn - Adriane
Rupert Grint - Redmond

Summary

Eric and Andrew are on vacation with their young daughter Wen at a remote cabin in rural Pennsylvania.

Four mysterious strangers (Leonard, Sabrina, Adriane and Redmond) force entry.

Leonard explains his group have collectively foreseen an impending apocalypse, and the only to prevent it is for somebody in the family to bite the dust.

Is he batshit crazy or telling the truth?

That's left for us to ponder.

Sacrifice love

Not great by means, but Twilight Zone-esque mystery is one of director's best.

Bautista gives a stellar performance and others are not overawed by mountain of muscle.

Cinematography for the most part is stunning and props for delivering tension and paranoia.

However, screenplay spews exposition and only the Four Horsemen benefit from any kind of characterisation.

Although flashbacks reveal why family were chosen, it's unnecessarily drawn out.

Inevitably, Hollywood fucked with final act.

Wen doesn't die and Andrew kills Eric.  They drive to a nearby diner and news confirms that disasters (plagues) have subsided.

In the book, Andrew and Eric take Wen's body to Redmond's car and pledge to stay together no matter what, leaving it ambiguous if the apocalypse has been averted.

Just leave shit alone already.

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