3 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): Knock at the Cabin

2023, M Night Shyamalan (Old) -- cinema

Wen (Kristen Cui, premiere) is vacationing in the woods with her two Dads, Eric (Jonathan Groff, The Matrix Resurrections) and Andrew (Ben Aldridge, Lucky Man). While Wen is out catching, and naming, grasshoppers, she is approached by the friendly, calm but incredibly physically imposing Leonard (Dave Bautista, Blade Runner 2049). Initially calming her down, once his friends show up, Wen rightfully gets scared of the stranger and runs back to the cabin, convincing her dads to lock the doors, close the windows and barricade themselves inside. But its a cabin with glass doors, and the four strangers, each armed with weird, arcane weapons force their way inside to restrain Eric and Andrew. Leonard then explains that the world is about to end, and unless one of the three is chosen by their other family members to perish, all the world will end, in biblical style plagues & disasters.  

The premise is rather straight forward. Either these four strangers are sharing a delusion, as Andrew suggests, angrily and desperately, or the world is about to end, and a terrible choice has to be made. Amusingly enough, its the same choice that has to be in A Cabin in the Woods, but they decide to go with, "Fuck the world, let it burn." Not amusing at all is how utterly dedicated this family is to each other. With flash backs and recollections, we see the family's past, through challenging situations and perfect moments in time. All we know about the four strangers is what they are compelled to share about themselves, which is also desperate and sad. They claim to have each had visions that brought them together, and they are continually plagued by what they know will come, if the acts laid out before them, happen as described.

You are not meant to know which what it is going, one way or the other. Are they insane? Possibly. Are they telling the truth? Possibly. Is there compelling evidence that the world is going to end? Yes. Is it faked? Possibly. We are not meant to know, and Shyamalan does a great job of keeping us guessing, despite missing an opportunity to have the strangers themselves beginning questioning reality, we are not sure which way this will go, until the very end.

I really "enjoyed" how this movie played out. Love him or hate him, Shyamalan likes to take challenging, inexplicable situations and have them played out via haranguing performances. I hesitate to truthfully say I enjoyed myself, as it took my already 99.8% anxiety level (work shit) and ratcheted it up to 125%. Or maybe it just replaced one anxiety with another. Either way, it worked as it was supposed to. 

And this is where I spoil.

But at the end, I still was just left with a big, "So, what the fuck was the point of all that?" If it had turned out to be a big play on delusions, then it was just torture porn, which I dislike. But it was real, the world was ending, and therefore, what was the message?!?! Yes, a family's love for each other & sacrifice can save the world, but only if a fucking sadistic, psychotic higher being puts them into that situation. Why? What are they hoping to accomplish? Thousands, if not millions of being died, so a point could be made? Nobody will know what they did, unless they tell, which is unlikely. And if they did tell, the damage would be catastrophic. On one side, the truth behind a higher being would be provided, but with the understanding they are a wrathful god. That might create new, more powerful religions, but it also would have heretical outcomes that wouldn't work in their favour. So, again, what as the fucking point?