Knock at the Cabin

If I watch a movie based on a book or read a book that eventually becomes a movie, I like to watch or read the other version shortly after finishing. I enjoy comparing the two and seeing the different directions they go. In the vast majority of cases; the book is so much better because there's a lot more time to flesh out the story, the characters and their motivations than you can in a 90-minute movie. But that's not always the case, like today's movie...

Knock at the Cabin (2023)

I'm going to be honest; this is a tough one to talk about. I had read the book before I watched the movie and I'm at a loss at how to compare the two. I'll dive into that later but I will say before we get into the meat and potatoes, I much prefer the book's title. Cabin at the End of the World is much better, it's vague, foreboding and in my case, makes me a lot more intrigued about the story. If I'm going in fresh and someone gives me two books to choose from by title only, I know which one I'm grabbing 100% of the time and it's not Knock at the Cabin.

The adopted fathers of a young girl are vacationing at a secluded cabin in Pennsylvania for the girl, Wen's, upcoming birthday. While she is outside she meets Leonard, who from this point on I will exclusively refer to as "Big Dave." He talks to Wen and they bond until Big Dave's friends show up with some really evil-looking weapons. After forcing their way into the cabin, Big Dave lays out the scenario; Andrew, Eric and Wen have to decide to sacrifice one of them or the world will end. Each time they refuse, someone in Big Dave's group dies and then a tragedy befalls the world. As the violence and the death toll rise, Eric and Andrew are forced to make an impossible decision, or else everyone in the world dies.

As for my thoughts, this is my biggest takeaway; Big Dave is a phenomenal actor. If it weren't for Hulk Hogan's cinematic masterpiece Suburban Commando, I would say Big Dave is by far the best wrestler-turned-actor. You think that's damning with faint praise, but say what you want about Rock playing it safe, he was the biggest movie star in the world for years. Big Dave carries this movie and it's not just his immense presence either. He's bigger than the entire cast put together but he's not trying to intimidate them into submission. He's stuck doing something he hates and he's pleading with them throughout the entire movie. Everything thing he says and does is so filled with emotion. He has a bunch of monologues and close-up reaction shots and he knocks it out of the park. I mean, you wouldn't think a guy yelling that "Basketballs don't hold grudges," would be this good of an actor. I can't say enough about how good he was.

While I'm on the topic of the acting, it's phenomenal all the way around. Everyone does a great job; from the victims to Big Dave's posse. As an aside, I really liked Adriane and her death was difficult for me. Every character felt real in their reactions to their terrible situation. I even liked Ron Weasley playing a very different role than what he's known for. I liked that throughout the movie everyone made logical decisions. Well, almost everyone, Sabrina's death was a little ridiculous charging at a guy with a gun and all that.

OK, are you with me still? Because if you don't want spoilers you can click out now. I can't discuss this movie and make my thoughts make sense unless I put them in context with the book. The biggest change from the book is that Wen dies. In the novel, when Big Dave and Andrew are fighting over the gun, it goes off and Wen is shot. Leonard gives up struggling and then he's eventually killed by Sabrina. She leads them to Redmond's truck but then finds a gun hidden with the keys. She then pleads with them one last time before killing herself. Eric and Andrew decide that after losing Wen didn't stop anything, they weren't going to lose each other. The book doesn't come out and say Leonard and friends were right, but there's no other conclusion you can make.

In the movie, after Big Dave slits his throat, Eric convinces Andrew to kill him and then we are treated to a montage of news reports from a diner confirming the apocalypse has been canceled. While I'm on the topic of the news stories; nothing takes me out of a movie faster than what Hollywood thinks the news media is. We're treated to several newscasts where we're watching people die. It's not like it's live reports and they couldn't cut the feed fast enough, they're showing footage of people being swallowed by a 50-foot wave and then planes falling out of the sky and erupting into balls of fire. It's the "Rule of Cool," I get it, but no news station is going to broadcast people dying, and if they do, they get into loads of trouble. Other than that, at least the reporters and anchors sounded like reporters and anchors. A lot of times when I hear a news report in a movie or TV show, I think, "Jeff and Sashem would have a lot of things to say if I wrote a script like that."

One thing I liked more about the book that the movie ignored was Eric's faith. It's a pretty big plot point in the book that Eric is Catholic. I thought that was interesting because the book went into Eric's thoughts about how he has to reconcile being gay with some of the messages he's hearing from his congregation. While it's never said in the movie, in the book Leonard admits they were sent there by God for this mission. It creates interesting dialogue moments between Leonard and Eric because of his faith. There's a fantastic line in the book that stuck with me and gave me chills. Sabrina is freaking out over the violence and death and she asks Leonard what kind of God would make all this happen? He then answers, "The one we have." I roll my eyes a lot when mainstream entertainment brings religion into their stories because it's rarely done well. I mean, when was the last time Stephen King had a religious character that wasn't evil? The Stand?

Anyway, I'm not sure which I prefer. The book and movie follow the same path but the movie takes a right turn and keeps going once we get the fight over the gun. I completely understand the characters in the book saying, "Fuck this," and letting the world burn. God didn't accept the death of their child and they weren't going to kill anyone else in their family to appease Him. Narratively, I think it's a stronger ending, but it's bleak as F. While the movie doesn't have the same gut punch, the ending is more heroic, but as much as I hate to say this, less satisfying. Still, I think I liked the movie more. The book kind of runs out of steam near the end and just spins its wheels to get to the finish. The movie is tighter and there's not much filler and the acting is awesome from everyone involved.

I don't think I'll ever watch it again. It's really good, but it's difficult to sit through. When I watch a movie like this I wonder what I'd do in that situation, and that is something I don't want to spend a second thinking about.