YNOT at the Movies

When I asked ChatGTP the following question, "If one has to kill a loved one to save humanity, should he do it?" I was told by the AI that this is a complex ethical question and "the decision is a deeply personal one that each individual would need to make for themselves." That answer actually makes more sense than what happened in the director M. Night Shyamalan's thriller "Knock at the Cabin" (USA 2023 | 100 min.), which deals with such a dilemma. The film poses the ambitious question but has little substance to elaborate on how to resolve it. It's a complete disappointment for anyone who expects suspense or surprising twists from the director of "The Sixth Sense" (1999).

The film has a terrific start to build the expectation, and is the only thrilling moment you will ever get from the film. The eight-year-old Wen (Kristen Cui) and her dads, Andrew (Ben Aldridge) and Eric (Jonathan Groff), are taking a family vacation in a remote cabin. Their vacation is interrupted by four unexpected visitors, who violently knock on their cabin door, demanding to come in.

The lead of the four is a soft-spoken Leonard (Dave Bautista) whose tattooed tough appearance makes him look more like a door man at a gangster's house than a second-grade school teacher that he claims to be. He is accompanied by a nurse Sabrina (Nikki Amuka-Bird), a line cook Ardiane (Abby Quinn), and a grumpy Redmond (Rupert Grint). They all carry strange homemade weapons and come to the cabin with one grand mission—to save humanity.

They tell the vacationing family of three that humanity is coming to an apocalyptic end, unless the trio chooses one to sacrifice right away. Good grief. Andrew and Eric don't believe what they are hearing from the four strangers, as anyone with a sound mind won't either. However, when the news on TV begins to show a tsunami and crashing airplanes, a decision has to be made, and fast.

Never mind how the four strangers became the messengers for such a mission on behalf of the whole world, and why this unassuming family should be the decider of the fate of humankind. Because the film's plot is so preposterous, we can only hope the director M. Night Shyamalan had focused on the philosophical and ethical aspect of the scenario, and presented us with the characters' mindsets in such a dire situation. Unfortunately, that hope is completely diminished after watching this film. None of the stuff these characters do is convincing or makes us care.

Given the director M. Night Shyamalan's reputation of building tensions, we would have been satisfied if we were offered some suspenseful and mind-boggling moments in this film. But that expectation is left unfulfilled. You simply watch these characters as a bystander, and don't care one way or the other what they will do next, or if they will be able to save humanity. It all looks like a farce. Perhaps mankind will have to rely on AI for its future.

"Knock at the Cabin" opens on Friday, February 3, 2023.