Llaman a la Puerta

Just so you know where I'm coming from up front, I should preface this review by saying I'm not the biggest M. Night Shyamalan fan - in fact, I kind of like to tease and mock his movies when I watch them with friends. I think he often starts off with interesting ideas but, perhaps because of his early success with The Sixth Sense, always feels this need to cram in some kind of ridiculous twist (or multiple twists) at the end. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't - but he seems to rely on the surprise of the twist to win people over too much. It was a surprise to me then when this movie didn't have a twist at all. I kept waiting for it - but it never came.

That's not really a good thing though because the movie is very slow and plodding, never really going anywhere, and at 1hr 40min the premise just isn't engaging enough to sustain interest for the duration. It's not all bad though. Perhaps the most surprising thing is Dave Bautista, who delivers a nuanced understated performance as Leonard. I still remember when I used to assume a movie was going to be bad if Bautista was in it - but over the past few years he has really come into his own as an actor and is showing his ability to take on some interesting roles.

While I can't really recommend this movie I do have to give it a few bonus points just for Bautista.

I read the book this film is based on before watching it. The Cabin At the End of the World was a great book that really dives into the histories of the characters, the philosophy behind the choice, and it ended with an ambiguous ending, where you weren't sure who was right at the end.

The movie was on par with The Last Airbender in how it took the source material and made a Wikipedia summary adaptation with poor dialogue, acting and an ending that missed the point. The only redeeming quality was Dave Bautista's performance. He really did a good job with the role of a giant with a heart of gold, who is forced to do something horrible. You can really see the sadness in his eyes, and his conviction that what he saw was true.

M. Night needs to get help with his scripts. He just doesn't know what he's doing.

For some reason, despite a few bombs, I've always rooted for M. Night Shyamalan. I don't know ... he just seems like a good guy and someone who I would like to have as a neighbor maybe.

In addition to being a seemingly likeable person, he made one or two really great films (at least one, for sure) and for some reason that just adds to his likeability. The problem with this, is that because of his seemingly genuine affability and because of the one or two good films he has made, I always feel as if he has it in him to create something exceptional, and time and time and again I think that the 'next one' will BE the one ... only to find that it isn't. So is the case with his latest offering, Knock at the Cabin. With The Cabin At the End of the World (which was the source material for Knock at the Cabin), he even started off with more than half of the recipe for something amazing.

The fact that it falls SOOOO short of being so, is truly a shame, and makes me wonder if he will really ever reach the heights of another 'The Sixth Sense'.

In order to avoid a Spoiler Tag I will not go into detail, but there was ZERO FILMED backstory to any of the important characters, and the filming of the backstories (and getting to know at least a little about each of them) was NECESSARY / paramount for this film to work. Having each character just speak about themselves for what amounted to a handful of minutes, was the worst.

Parents Eric and Andrew take their young daughter Wen on a vacation to a remote cabin.

M Night Shyalaman always manages to offer something a little bit different, sometimes it works, sometime it doesn't, Knock at The Cabin I'd place as one of the better ones, I enjoyed it.

I expected something along the same lines as Strangers, some sort of slasher movie, I wasn't expecting a horror thriller with biblical overtones.

I'll be honest, I didn't care a great deal for it when I first saw it at The Cinema, but second time round, I rather enjoyed it, possibly because.i knew what I was expecting.

It's a truly quirky film, pretty much as you'd expect, it's fairly well paced, has a degree of tension, it just manages to be so different.

I always like to think about how I'd feel in the position of a film's central character, and seeing if from Eric's point of view, you'd surely be thinking it was a set up, and that someone from the past had set up an elaborate hoax, the alternative is too terrible even to contemplate.

It's well acted all round, but I have to give credit to Dave Bautista, who puts in an absolutely terrific performance, he's captivating.

Those BBC news articles made me chuckle, most presenters now have regional accents across the channel, here they all had those wonderful accents from the 1950's, all terribly posh.

This film is definitely worth seeing, even if you were a bit undecided first time round.

In a world of sequels and IP M. Night Shyamalan continues to give us interesting and original stories. And he tends to get a lot of flack for them sadly. People want original content but then destroy it every time it comes along. It's no wonder we can't have nice things. 'Knock at the Cabin' isn't perfect, but it's certainly a fun ride.

The film starts out as a mystery. We don't know what is going on and everything seems very strange and is not making a lot of sense. It's a good way to start a movie. Then we are let in on what is going on and things become particularly interesting. It's at this point that you simply must turn your brain off to logic to get through the rest of the film. Because much like a lot of religion it doesn't make a lick of sense.

Where the film let me down was the ending. The book has such a thought-provoking and interesting ending. To get the movie made they were obviously told they would have to change that. It's very disappointing but it's sadly where we are in the world of film. Everyone is afraid they might offend the 1% so the 99% miss out.

Still though, the first 9/10 of the movie are a pretty damn good time and are well worth your dollar. 7/10.