I saw Knock at the Cabin...

Writer/director M. Night Shyamalan succeeds again, capturing Rod Serling's profound, Twilight Zone approach to storytelling. Knock at the Cabin encapsulates twists and turns in a simple but effective nightmare slipped onto celluloid. 

In this instance, Shyamalan and his cowriters, Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman, present two dads and their daughter, played by Jonathon Groff, Ben Aldridge and Kristen Cut, on a cabin retreat, when a weaponized quartet enters the scene, insisting that the family prepare for the Apocalypse. To worsen the request, the group deals an unnerving caveat: One of the family members must be sacrificed by one of its own to keep the End of Days from reaching fruition. It appears the group is off its rocker, but in Shyamalan territory, nothing is ever as it seems.

The group is led by Dave Bautista's Leonard, whose spectacled persona is as friendly as it's formidable. His companions are played by Rupert Gint, Nikki Amuka-Bird and Abby Quinn. Leonard's supporters act a tad reluctant to participate, which is only understandable, considering what's required. This leads the audience to question if they share a delusion or possess veritable mystical insight? In any event, televised signs do seem to validate their abhorrent claim.

Knock at the Cabin, like Serling's "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street" and "The Shelter" (not to mention Bill Paxton's Frailty, Dan Trachtenberg's 10 Cloverfield Lane and Drew Goddard's Cabin in the Woods), creates a need for survivalist cohesion. Shyamalan's story, based on Paul G. Tremblay's acclaimed novel, The Cabin at the End of the World, also insinuates Serling's "Where Is Everybody?", with urgent questions prevailing but answers never rising fast, though the succinct ending compensates for the nail-nibbling wait. 

Knock at the Cabin also acts as an exemplum for inner belief and the extreme diligence needed to solve a dilemma in light of its limited options. The concept is presented in a tight package, which would work as well as a stage play, but in its heated confines, roars in a way that landscape-hopping and CGI-jammed counterparts often fail to achieve. 

I like Shyamalan's approach and his movie's intent. Its message is much needed when contagious conformity and perplexing passivity constitute the propagandized lay of the land (i.e. let others answer what knocks at the collective conscience). At the same time, Knock at the Cabin is scary fun, which holds great merit all by itself. It's worth a watch, if not a second and third, for the shrewd view of the human condition it shares.