Knock at the Cabin mini review:

While vacationing, a girl and her two dads are taken hostage by armed strangers who demand that the family make a choice to avert the apocalypse. Director M Night Shyamalan’s latest thriller is gorgeously shot, superbly acted, and full of extremely effective sequences of heart pounding performance driven suspense. What works so well about this film is its remote setting and how the deeply unsettling opening scene establishes a feeling of isolation for the three lead characters. Jonathan Groff and Ben Aldridge both do an excellent job playing the adopted fathers of the little girl, and their chemistry was pretty believable, especially once they are put in hostile situations in which they’re given near-impossible ultimatums. It’s fun seeing the two dads try to decipher and pick apart the plans that the strangers had in place and this aspect plays a huge role in keeping the viewer guessing. Kristen Cui as the little girl Wen also did a fabulous job and never seemed to overact or try too hard. It really is Dave Bautista who arguably gives the best performance of his career as Leonard, pulling off a sense of hidden sadness and reserved subtlety that we’ve never seen from him before. To my surprise, Abby Quinn, and Nikki Amuka-Bird completely overshadow Rupert Grint here as he only has a minor role, which was a bit disappointing. The problem here is that the premise can only be stretched so thin that there are several instances where a character can totally save the day, but doesn’t because the film would end. There are lazy ways the script works around those situations as well as some things that are over-explained and could’ve remained more ambiguous to maintain the mystery. In spite of Shyamalan biting off more than he can chew at times, the film is kept afloat by terrific performances, strong existential tension, and M Night’s familiar themes of family and sacrifice. This is a decent effort by Shyamalan that held my attention for its 100 minute duration and I’d recommend it as a Sunday afternoon matinee viewing at the cinemas.