“Knock at the Cabin”: Do Our Decisions Dictate Our Fate?

M. Night Shyamalan’s allegorical moral dilemma is an much-needed left turn in his filmography

WARNING: This review contains spoilers.

The chilling arrival of an unexpected guest at the door is a trope as old as biblical texts themselves, and one that establishes some of the most compelling moral uncertainty in storytelling. In the Coen Brothers’ A Serious Man, the stranger is an entity possessed with uncertainty with which we project ourselves onto, but we will never be able to unmask them to reveal their indeterminate identity — we can’t know whether or not the stranger is evil, but we can’t let uncertainty dictate our existence. In Jordan Peele’s Us, the stranger is a circumstantial contrast to ourselves, a physical mirror of the human form meant for us to reconcile with those just like us who are condemned below to an inescapable circumstance — neither of us are evil, but the line drawn between us is. In Knock at the Cabin, the stranger is a contrast of faith to ourselves, sent to the door to assist us by directly challenging our own desires, emphasizing that our decisions dictate our realities and sacrifices must be made for the greater good — making a choice is not evil, but complacency is.  

Besides the arrival of an unwanted stranger, the three aforementioned films are also linked by their strong biblical or otherwise religious subtexts. While A Serious Man and Us both use these themes to unpack what is uncertain or unjust, Knock at the Cabin uses the framework of a religious parable to put forth an impossible moral dilemma. After the disaster of the beach that makes you old, director M. Night Shyamalan diverts from his more convoluted conventions to create something straight-forward and earnest. Based upon the 2018 novel The Cabin at the End of the World, the movie uses the same structure of the moral dilemma but with a drastically different outcome.

Knock at the Cabin opens on Wen (Kristen Cui), a young girl vacationing in a remote cabin when she is approached by a stranger while collecting bugs in a jar. The man, Leonard (Dave Bautista), initially poses no threat, but soon three other strangers also approach the cabin. Wen and her parents, Eric (Jonathan Groff) and Andrew (Ben Aldridge), are taken hostage by Leonard and his armed accomplices, who demand that the family must choose a member to sacrifice in order to avert an apocalypse foreseen by the group. Eric and Andrew are doubtful of the group's demands, but as bodies begin to fall and the visions of the intruders become increasingly prevalent, the pressure to make a decision builds. Ultimately, after all of the premonitions of the visitors come true, Eric decides to sacrifice himself, promising a hopeful future for his husband and daughter rather than an apocalyptic reality for the world. 

The film is not subtle in its allegory for the judgment of queer families by outward society. For their entire relationship, Eric and Andrew have been estranged from the rest of the world, and Shyamalan uses frequent flashbacks to illustrate the fact that the arrival of their daughter gave them strength and hope in a world that seemed universally against them. Leonard and his group impose themselves upon the family, serving as the earnest messengers of an ambiguous higher power that seeks to disrupt the wellbeing of the family permanently. 

However, in the book upon which the film is based, Eric and Andrew refuse to cave to the demands of the intruders and ultimately question their apocalyptic visions, deciding to face an ambiguous future united. But in Knock at the Cabin, Shyamalan allows the couple to succumb to the beliefs of their captors. While the novel never confirms the existence of the coming apocalypse, Shyamalan’s Andrew is provided with concrete evidence that the sacrifice was necessary when the disaster subsides after his husband’s death.

Here, Shyamalan fundamentally shifts the commentary of the original novel, but not necessarily for the worse. While he robs Eric and Andrew of their agency in opposing the intruders, he gives the family an opportunity to escape the trappings of dystopia for the sake of a normal future. For their whole lives, Eric and Andrew have been outsiders, distinguished from their families and environment, but the world is dependent upon them and their decision will dictate their chance for a positive future. For the first time, they have agency to control their surroundings. Eric and Andrew choose to have faith in a future and use their hope to fight the apocalypses they have always faced in a world that is fundamentally against them. 

While Shyamalan both repurposes the original story for a more hopeful future and distorts the original subversive message, the most meaningful part of Knock at the Cabin is revealed when the film is contextualized within his filmmaking canon. M. Night Shyamalan is most well-known for shocking and unexpected twists at the conclusion of each of his stories, but his misdirection is not present in Knock at the Cabin. The moments right before Eric’s death consist of overexplaining the biblical allegory of the visitors as the Four Horsemen — dialogue reminiscent of set-ups for past Shyamalan twists — but when Eric is killed, the aftermath is as promised. The world quickly returns to normal, and Andrew and Wen are able to begin their journey home. 

Shyamalan manipulates audience expectations to craft something genuine and uses the shtick of suspense to emphasize sincerity. Our expectations are subverted because all the events of the film are genuine and untethered from a final twist — when the weight of the world is on our shoulders, our decisions (whether or not affected by the divine) are all we have, and we deserve joy and hope rather than simply survival. 

OVERALL SCORE: 7/10

Knock at the Cabin was released on February 3 and is currently streaming on Peacock.