Knock at the Cabin premiered in New York City at the Rose Hall on January 30, 2023, and was theatrically released in the United States on February 3, 2023, by Universal Pictures. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and has grossed over $54 million worldwide.
Plot
Seven-year-old Wen is vacationing with her fathers, Eric and Andrew, at a remote cabin in rural Pennsylvania. She is approached by a stranger named Leonard, who explains that he needs Wen and her parents' help to save the world. Three other individuals break in with makeshift weapons and tie them up. Struggling to fight them off, Eric sustains a concussion.
Leonard and his companions—Sabrina, Adriane, and Redmond—claim that they have no intention of harming the family. However, in the past week, they have been driven by visions to find the family. They foresee an impending apocalypse in which oceans will rise, a pandemic will spread, and the sky will fall. The only way to prevent this is for the family to sacrifice one of their own. If they do not make a choice, they will be the last people standing.
When the family refuses, the intruders sacrifice Redmond by fatally striking him with their weapons. Eric sees a figure of light as Redmond dies. On television, news reports show devastating megatsunamis. Andrew believes Redmond is Rory O'Bannon, a man who had been arrested after assaulting Andrew in a bar years prior. He thinks Rory tracked him down for revenge. Leonard, Sabrina, and Adriane grapple with guilt, but reveal that Redmond's death has unleashed the first judgment of humanity. The next day, the intruders sacrifice Adriane. Meanwhile, a deadly variation of the flu virus spreads across the world.
Andrew escapes and shoots at Sabrina with his gun until she flees. As Leonard is being held at gunpoint, Sabrina breaks in and is fatally shot by Andrew. Leonard decapitates Sabrina, and afterwards Andrew finds Redmond's wallet and proves to Leonard that he was Rory. Andrew confronts Leonard in the bathroom, but Leonard overtakes him and grabs Andrew's gun. A TV broadcast reveals that hundreds of spontaneous plane crashes have occurred around the world.
Realizing their time is nearly over, Leonard informs the family that after his death, they will only have a few minutes to make a decision. He then slits his throat. Upon his death, lightning causes fires and more planes to crash. Eric now believes the events are real, and that the intruders represent the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Not wanting Wen to grow up in a destroyed world, he offers himself as the sacrifice and envisions an older Andrew and an adult Wen thriving in the future. He feels that their family was chosen to make the sacrifice because their love is so pure. Andrew reluctantly shoots and kills Eric.
Andrew and Wen find the visitors' truck with belongings that corroborate their stories. They drive to a crowded diner, where they watch news reports confirming that the disasters have subsided. The radio plays "Boogie Shoes" by KC and the Sunshine Band, coincidentally the song that Eric had played for them before. The duo drives off. As the closing credits fade out, seven distinct loud knocks are heard at the very end of the film.
Knock at the Cabin is an adaptation of the 2018 horror novel The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay, who had signed an option with FilmNation Entertainment in late 2017, prior to the book's publication, and had to keep secret that the film was based on one of his novels until July 2022. The Black List and GLAAD List listed the initial draft by Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman as one of the most popular unproduced screenplays of 2019.[6][7] While another director was briefly attached, M. Night Shyamalan read the original screenplay and grew interested in producing. Shyamalan later rewrote the script and came on board to direct the project as part of the two-film partnership between Universal Pictures and his production banner Blinding Edge Pictures.[8][9]Old (2021) was the first film in that deal, with Knock at the Cabin being the second.[10][11] The first draft was halfway completed by July 2021, and the title was revealed in October.[12][13] Shyamalan said the script was the fastest he had ever written in his career.[14]
Principal photography took place in Burlington County, New Jersey, from April 19 to June 10, 2022, with cinematographers Jarin Blaschke and Lowell A. Meyer.[20][21][22][23] Shyamalan shot the film with lenses from the 1990s, to give it an "old-school thriller" look.[24] During post-production, Herdís Stefánsdóttir composed the score.[25] Shyamalan chose to change the ending of the film and make it different from the book so that it was not as dark and open-ended.[26]
Knock at the Cabin premiered in New York City at Rose Hall on January 30, 2023.[28] The film was theatrically released on February 3, 2023, by Universal Pictures.[13] The release was originally set for February 17 before being brought forward by two weeks as to avoid competition with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.[9]
This was the last film from Shyamalan to be released by Universal as soon after its release he signed a multi-year deal with Warner Bros. Pictures.[29]
Knock at the Cabin grossed $35.4 million in the United States and Canada, and $19.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $54.8 million.[3][4]
In the United States and Canada, the film was released alongside 80 for Brady, and was projected to gross $15–17 million from 3,643 theaters in its opening weekend.[2] The film made $5.4 million on its first day, including $1.5 million from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $14.2 million, displacing Avatar: The Way of Water from atop the box office.[31] The film made $5.5 million in its second weekend (a drop of 61%), finishing in sixth, and $3.9 million in its third weekend.[32][33]
Critical response
On review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 67% based on 335 reviews with an average rating of 6.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Although it's often less than scary and parts of the story don't bear scrutiny, Knock at the Cabin is a thought-provoking chiller and upper-tier Shyamalan."[34]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 63 out of 100, based on 60 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[35] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale, while those polled by PostTrak gave it a 56% positive score, with 35% saying they would definitely recommend it.[31]
Ready Steady Cut film critic M.N. Miller embraced the movie's faults by saying, "This is an exceptionally made thriller with satisfying flaws to pick at and debate."[36] Reviewing for RogerEbert.com, Nick Allen gave the film two out of four stars, commending the "rich and earthy" cinematography and Bautista's "disarming" performance, but ultimately finding the film "frustrating and self-serious", adding "M. Night Shyamalan should probably just stay away from the apocalypse."[37] Charlotte O'Sullivan of the Evening Standard found "many plot holes" in the film, adding, "The deeper issue, though, is that the supposedly complex home-invaders aren't given enough space to become interesting."[38] Wendy Ide for The Observer wrote, "As the film's bleak momentum builds, so does a tsunami swell of existential dread. It's Shyamalan's most contained and efficient picture in a while."[39] Stef Rubino for Autostraddle felt that "Like all of Shyamalan's greatest features, what unfolds throughout the course of the film is a family drama but on the grandest of scales."[40] Writing for Slate, Sam Adams criticized Shyamalan's changes to the ending and filmmaking choices that gloss over the horrific violence of the story.[41]
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