Knock at the Cabin (2023)

IMDb plot summary: While vacationing, a girl and her parents are taken hostage by armed strangers who demand that the family make a choice to avert the apocalypse.

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan. Starring Dave Bautista, Jonathan Groff, and Ben Aldridge.

Knock at the Cabin is a home invasion movie about a couple and their young daughter being held hostage by four strangers who claim that the world will end unless one of the family members is willingly sacrificed. This is Shyamalan's best script in a LONG time (possibly because he adapted it from an earlier draft rather than starting from scratch -- he should do that more often!) and it does an excellent job of bringing out the existential terror of the apocalypse. Dave Bautista gives an especially good dramatic performance, weighing his character down a mix of tragedy and compassion. I also understand people who were unhappy with the ending -- I understand it differs significantly from the book -- but the story as a whole is crafted well enough that the ending oddly didn't seem to matter as much to me. It feels like it's not about how it ends but the decisions that are made along the way. A movie that makes me remember why I liked Shyamalan back in the old days.

How it entered my Flickchart:

Knock at the Cabin > Skyfall

Knock at the Cabin > Dark Passage

Knock at the Cabin > The White Tiger

Knock at the Cabin < Fright Night (1985)

Knock at the Cabin > The Gods Must Be Crazy

Knock at the Cabin < Heathers

Knock at the Cabin < It Follows

Knock at the Cabin < Nosferatu

Knock at the Cabin > The Producers (2005)

Knock at the Cabin > Spirited

Knock at the Cabin < Life of Brian

Final spot: #350 out of 3862, or 91%.