A smart, sweet girl and the two dads who adopted her are vacationing at a remote cabin, only to experience a home invasion from four strangers.  These invaders say these are the end times and the world can only be saved if one of the three (the girl or either dad) is killed by another one of their own.  None of the four can kill one of the others, nor is suicide an option.

First off, PBS needs to end their lame-ass approach to pledge drives, because this group of four has a far more direct approach.  Also, I spent a great deal of this movie thinking this is the weirdest ad for Vrbo I have ever seen.  Also, I look forward to the day neither myself nor anybody else knows what Vrbo was, because we will no longer be subjected to those goddamn ads before every YouTube video I watch.

The group of mysterious strangers carry not only an insane-sounding message from God but also disturbing weapons that are clearly homemade.  Before the house is broken into, one of the dads speculates the group is Jehovah’s Witnesses.  Once again, that’s an organization who could take some pointers from this film and adopt a whole new approach to their door-to-door operations.

Unfortunately, there’s hardly anything more I can say about the plot without giving too much away.  What I can say is there’s a lot I liked here. 

First, there’s the characters and their interactions.  There’s a lot of subtlety and complexity in what is essentially a one-room play.

Second, I enjoyed how finely the picture walks a narrow fence between whether the invaders are dangerous, delusional psychopaths or people on an actual mission to save the world.  They may even be a bit of both.

Lastly, the picture has a number of small touches that make it more substantial than the deceptively slight film it appears to be.  Things like how the girl says her school guidance counselor tells her is it OK she has two dads, but just the counselor saying that makes the girl suspect she feels otherwise. 

One weird takeaway I have is how the satellite TV is working, but they don’t have cell phone reception.  I actually jotted down a note: “BUY SATELLITE PHONE”.  Weird the lessons you can unexpectedly learn from the most unpresuming of films.

I really liked Knock at the Cabin.  I didn’t love it, but I strongly suspect I will be watching it again, albeit at home next time.

Just don’t even think of knocking on the door while I’m watching, because I’ll have that satellite phone right by my side.

Dir: M. Night Shyamalan

Starring Dave Bautista, Jonathan Groff, Ben Aldridge, Kristen Cui

Watched in a theater