Movie · 2023 · Horror, Mystery, Thriller · 1h 40m · R · English
Curator score: 1.7/10 (626.5K ratings)
Save your family or save humanity. Make the choice.
Overview
While vacationing at a remote cabin, a young girl and her two fathers are taken hostage by four armed strangers who demand that the family make an unthinkable choice to avert the apocalypse. With limited access to the outside world, the family must decide what they believe before all is lost.
Dave Bautista, Jonathan Groff, Ben Aldridge, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Rupert Grint, Abby Quinn, Kristen Cui, McKenna Kerrigan, Ian Merrill Peakes, Denise Nakano, Rose Luardo, Billy Vargus, Satomi Hofmann, Kevin Leung, Lee Avant, Odera Adimorah, Kat Murphy, Kittson O'Neill, Lya Yanne, M. Night Shyamalan
Where to watch
Peacock Premium, Peacock Premium Plus
Curator Review
Verdict
A lean, high-concept apocalypse thriller with strong tension, a committed cast, and a few striking Shyamalan set pieces, but it’s also hampered by blunt exposition and a finale that will divide viewers. It works best as a tense chamber piece with moral pressure, less well as a fully satisfying mystery or horror payoff.
Best for
Viewers who like contained, dialogue-driven thrillers
Fans of apocalyptic dilemmas and moral-choice stories
People open to earnest, high-concept genre filmmaking
Anyone who enjoys Dave Bautista in unexpectedly sensitive roles
Skip if
You want subtle writing and a mystery that stays ambiguous
You dislike overtly sermon-like or explanatory storytelling
You need a consistently scary horror movie
You’re frustrated by endings that prioritize theme over logic
Overview
Knock at the Cabin is one of M. Night Shyamalan’s more efficient recent thrillers: small-scale, tense, and built around a single impossible decision. The setup is strong, the performances are committed, and the film understands how to turn a remote location into a pressure cooker. Dave Bautista is especially effective, bringing a strange mix of physical threat and emotional fragility that gives the movie real weight.
Worth noting
The movie’s biggest strength is its premise, which keeps asking whether faith, fear, and love can survive under catastrophic pressure. It has a clean, almost old-fashioned genre shape, and when it stays focused on the cabin and the family dynamic, it’s genuinely suspenseful. The runtime helps too; it doesn’t overstay its welcome.
Bottom line
But the film also leans hard into explanation, and that undercuts some of its mystery. If you prefer ambiguity or more naturalistic dialogue, the script may feel too insistently pointed. The ending is likely to be the main divider: thematically tidy for some, frustratingly literal for others.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Annabella_08 (3★) · 10864 likes
Ron Weasley Homophobic Arc? It’s what J.K Rowling always wanted
edit: apparently i have to clarify that this is a joke
jonathan fujii (3★) · 7921 likes
Not all of this works for me but Dave Bautista continues to do such interesting work while The Rock probably still talking about how Black Adam was actually a success
rheese🫅🏻 (3★) · 7620 likes
You know who would’ve survived AND saved humanity? Lesbians.
Travis (3.5★) · 5785 likes
was waiting for ed sheeran to sing shape of you but instead he was a republican??
matt lynch (3.5★) · 5522 likes
Shyamalan shoots the hell out of this, it's suspenseful and spooky, everyone's good in it, and it's barely 95 minutes. Cinema.
2016 · Thriller, Science Fiction, Drama · 1h 44m · PG-13 · Curator 5.8/10 (1M ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
A tightly wound confinement thriller built on uncertainty, manipulation, and a character-driven survival dilemma.
2014 · Thriller, Science Fiction · 1h 29m · NR · Curator 6.5/10 (578.7K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, Peacock Premium, Philo, Night Flight Plus, Cineverse, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Peacock Premium Plus
A small-scale, idea-driven thriller where ordinary people are forced to make sense of an escalating impossible event.