Starring Dave Bautista, Jonathan Groff, Ben Aldridge, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Kristen Cui, Abby Quinn, and Rupert Grint
Screenplay by M. Night Shyamalan, Marc Bienstock, and Ashwin Rajan
Based on The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul G. Tremblay

Authors’ note: This review contains spoilers.

A gay couple is vacationing with their eight-year-old adopted daughter in a remote cabin in the woods when a strange man attempts to befriend her. Three other people, all carrying strange weapons, soon join him. Forcing their way into the cabin, the four strangers present the family with a horrific choice: Choose one of themselves to be sacrificed, or everyone else in the world will die. It’s unclear how this threat will be carried out, but it’s implied that supernatural means may be afoot.

This could be the setup for an excellent thriller, as the family members fight this insane demand and hold firm to their love for each other in the face of a nonsensical threat. But that’s not what happens. Instead, the movie proceeds to depict the notion that it is moral to sacrifice the person you love most—your highest value—for the benefit of others and/or to appease God.

The couple, Eric (Jonathan Groff) and Andrew (Ben Aldridge), are deeply in love and fiercely committed to each other. They have fought against homophobia from strangers and their own family throughout their relationship, staying “always together” in spite of the adversity they’ve faced. For much of the movie, their commitment to each other and to their daughter outweighs the attackers’ demands. Each time the family refuses to make the choice, the attackers kill one of the group, claiming a large portion of the Earth’s population will also die each time. The TV news seems to confirm that real disasters are taking many lives as they do this.

Although Andrew remains rational for most of the story, the more mystic Eric (who has suffered a concussion) begins to suspect that the four really are harbingers of the apocalypse. Andrew uses logic to show why the attackers are delusional—and yet turns out to be wrong, whereas Eric’s mysticism turns out to be right. When Andrew ultimately abandons reason and sacrifices the man he loves, the film’s message becomes explicit: Decisions should be made based on faith and feelings, not reason. The ending involves a particularly baffling choice on the part of the filmmakers, an element that is not in the book on which the movie is based.

At the beginning, the four strangers expect the family to believe them based on the unproven claim that they have experienced shared visions about the necessity of the sacrifice. Andrew, a lawyer, points out that if the four are not simply lying, they could be having a group delusion, which seems more probable. The later “evidence” they present—news footage of earthquakes, tsunamis, and a pandemic—have no apparent causal connection to the actions of anyone in the cabin.

The film’s basic dilemma—that the family must sacrifice one of their own to prevent the apocalypse—assumes that the world is a malevolent place where sacrifice is the only way to mitigate horror. There’s no reason for this suffering, which seems to be the work of a capricious and vengeful god. The four antagonists—who seem to represent the biblical Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse—claim that “a part of humanity has been judged” each time the family “causes” a new disaster, but the “judgment” consists of indiscriminate slaughter. This contrasts with the divine judgment depicted in the book of Revelations (on which the film’s catastrophes are loosely based).1 In the biblical story, as horrific as it is, God gives people a chance to repent before they die, so one’s fate depends on some semblance of one’s own choice. In the dark, nihilistic world of Knock at the Cabin, one’s fate depends on the choices of unconnected, distant strangers.

The film goes out of its way to portray all seven main characters as likable, good, pleasant people. Kindhearted Eric and Andrew, who is a human rights lawyer, adopt the innocent and curious orphan, Wen (Kristen Cui). They have done nothing wrong, as even the leader of the attackers agrees. But the strangers, too, are people we are meant to care about. Redmond (Rupert Grint), admits to having done stupid things in his past, but he says he’s reformed and works for a gas company. Sabrina (Nikki Amuka-Bird) is a nurse with a young half sister. Adriane (Abby Quinn), who makes breakfast for Wen, is a cook with a young son. And Leonard (Dave Bautista) teaches second grade; he is so attached to the sports team he coaches that he carries a photo of them in his pocket. And the implied god makes these four kill one another as time runs out; they are so unused to violence that they vomit and compulsively clean up after each killing. The moral perversity of the film includes, among many other things, the fact that the characters’ very goodness is the reason they’re being forced to sacrifice and to kill.

Despite the film’s vile message, it was the highest-grossing movie of its opening week, making back its budget with total sales of $21 million so far. Many critics have celebrated Bautista’s performance and the suspenseful story while highlighting inconsistencies in the plot. Few, if any, have lamented its anti-reason, antilife theme.

The fact that a movie with such a message can attract such high-demand actors as Bautista and Grint, and succeed at the box office, indicates the prevalence of mysticism and nihilism in the culture today. Reason, life-supporting morality, and art based on these values are desperately needed. Philosophers and filmmakers: take note.

#KnockattheCabin depicts the vile notion that it's moral to sacrifice the person you love most—your highest value—for others, and/or to appease God. Its success indicates the prevalence of mysticism and nihilism in the culture today.
Click To Tweet

1. George Simpson, “How Knock at the Cabin’s Apocalypse Differs from the Bible’s End of the World Prophecies,” Daily Express, February 6, 2023, https://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/films/1730426/Knock-at-the-Cabin-apocalypse-Bible-book-of-revelation.

Return to Top
You have loader more free article(s) this month   |   Already a subscriber? Log in

Thank you for reading
The Objective Standard

Enjoy unlimited access to The Objective Standard for less than $5 per month
See Options
  Already a subscriber? Log in

Pin It on Pinterest