Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Knock at the Cabin 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 1, 2023

To call M. Night Shyamalan's career "chaotic" might be an understatement. After a flurry of early success with The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs, the director's career has since spanned decades and spawned a plethora of iffy films that have never lived up to the excellence of his early career masterpieces. With Knock at the Cabin, Shyamalan attempts to recapture the glory days of his directorial youth with a film adapted from the apocalyptic novel The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul G. Tremblay. The film flirts with some of the best ideas in Shyamalan's career, but the picture fails to resonate, falling flat with less than convincing story lines, characters, and performances. An intriguing premise awaits, but flawed execution prevents the film from capturing the essential essence of horror and hopelessness its material desperately wishes to engender in its audiences.

For the family of Eric (Jonathan Groff) and Andrew (Ben Aldridge) and their adopted daughter Wen (Kristen Cui), time away at a remote cabin getaway in Pennsylvania's idyllic recesses was meant to be a time of rejuvenation and reconnection. However, it becomes something entirely different, with life and death consequences, when four divergent individuals -- Leonard (Dave Bautista), Sabrina (Nikki Amuka-Bird), Adriane (Abby Quinn), and Redmond (Rupert Grint) -- arrive at the cabin with news: they are prophets who have seen the end of the world. For whatever reason, Eric, Andrew, and Wen are the only people in the world who can stop the coming destruction. The catch is that they must choose a sacrifice amongst themselves to prevent cataclysm. For each time they refuse to choose, one of the four will be ritually killed and the world will suffer extraordinary consequences. As the family holds firm, the world begins to crumble around them, forcing them to decide if they are indeed key players in the end times or if what they are witnessing is an elaborate prank being orchestrated by a dangerous cult.

It's difficult to pinpoint what, exactly, is wrong with Knock at the Cabin or to discern when, exactly, things go wrong for the movie. Certainly, there is a disconnect within the film's ability to present the urgency of the matter, both within the cabin and outside of it. The action is slow and plodding inside and the disasters that begin to befall humanity outside lack a real sense of intensity. The newscasts feel flat and staged rather than organic and amplified to match the chaos being reported. They do little to sell the audience on the depth of the disaster and the very real possibility of the world’s pending end. Inside the cabin, most of the action involves the family seated and the four intruders standing before them. There's very little movement and all of the momentum is built verbally rather than actively, and the dialogue is not good enough, nor is it delivered well enough, to make a significant dramatic impact. Shyamalan somehow fails to capture terror and fear; the screen feels like a barrier rather than a window, and the audience feels like dethatched observers rather than attached participants, never fearing for the characters or for the world outside the cabin. Nothing produces any real feeling for terror or grand importance. It's a very cold movie, one that is passionless and empty rather than passionate and full of significant end times and life-and-death terror.

Knock at the Cabin 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Universal's 2160p/Dolby Vision UHD presentation of Knock at the Cabin is a classic case of improvements to image finesse over the companion and concurrently released Blu-ray. This is not a transformational experience, but the enhancements that this format provides are clear, and the image (and the overall viewing experience) is better for these gains. As with the Blu-ray, the source is pristine and filmic and the encode is free of any troubling compression deficiencies. The level of clarity is amplified compared to the Blu-ray, offering a stable of enhanced definition characteristics that render faces, clothes, and environments with firmer clarity within every frame. There is no mistaking the improvements to sharpness, even viewing on a smaller 65" screen. Such gains are apparent everywhere, but viewers will particularly notice how the UHD renders pores and facial scruff in close-up with superior clarity and accuracy. The Dolby Vision color grading offers a deeper spectrum range. The picture looks a little darker overall but the gain to depth means superior blacks, more refined skin tones, and more lifelike colors such as the warm woods within the cabin or the bold natural greens outside. White balance is much better here, offering more vivid, pure whites than even the Blu-ray, which was itself exceptional in this area. Bold primaries pack a punch here as well. This is a very strong UHD release from Universal.

Knock at the Cabin 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Universal delivers Knock at the Cabin to Blu-ray and UHD alike with a Dolby Atmos soundtrack. The film's sound design is not prolific, taking place in an enclosed, largely quiet environment inside the cabin where dialogue is the primary audio component. Spoken word clarity is fine, with the broad range of vocal inflections and volume handled quite nicely with firmly grounded front-center positioning throughout. Some support elements are nicely defined as well. The Atmos track proves excellent from the opening moments where woodland insect sounds and various atmospheric cues effortlessly drop the listener into the location with full surround content and lifelike definition. This is one of the high points for total immersion; the track has few other opportunities for this level of layered envelopment, but it does deal in all cues with satisfying balance, spacing, and clarity. Some depth is present across a few areas of need, to speak of which would spoil some of the movie's surprises, but rest assured that depth and power are present as necessary. This is not the most potent or prolific track ever presented because of the somewhat more reserved nature of the original audio engineering and the film's core audio needs, but listeners can rest assured that what is here is clear and faithful to original content.

Knock at the Cabin 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This UHD release of Knock at the Cabin contains a handful of bonus features. A Blu-ray copy of the film and a Movies Anywhere digital copy code are included with purchase. This release ships with an embossed slipcover.

• Deleted Scenes (2160p/Dolby Vision, 5:35 total runtime): Included are They Need Some Time, Going to Church, Enjoying the Sun, and Leonard Explains.
• Chowblaster Infomercial - Extended (2160p/Dolby Vision, 1:10): A longer look at Shyamalan's cameo.
• Choosing Wisely: Behind the Scenes of Knock at the Cabin (2160p/Dolby Vision, 23:37): A comprehensive exploration of story and plot, project origins, differences from the book and the film, the biblical underpinnings, characters, cast and performances, and more.
• Tools of the Apocalypse (2160p/Dolby Vision, 5:03): A look at the weapons or "tools" that the four prophets carry in the film.
• Drawing a Picture (2160p/Dolby Vision, 3:36): A look at Shyamalan's filmmaking process with emphasis on storyboard prep work.
• Kristen Cui Shines a Light (2160p/Dolby Vision, 3:46): Looking at the young actress' presence on the set and work on the film.

Knock at the Cabin 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Knock at the Cabin is certainly neither a poor picture nor the worst in the Shyamalan canon, but it is one of the most frustrating pictures in the Shyamalan canon. Packed with potential, opportunity for rich subtext, extreme human emotion and duress, and significant drama, the film feels cold and distant with little sense of the very real enormity playing out as a result of what's happening in the isolated cabin. That seems to be so much of today's movie landscape: so much potential, so little excellence. Universal's UHD, however, is excellent, offering tip-top video and audio presentations. A few extras are included. Recommended for fans.