Novel adaptations may be commonplace in Hollywood, but the medium is entirely new territory for M. Night Shyamalan.
Serving as his first film derived from pre-existing material, Shyamalan’s Knock at the Cabin soared in places where its source material could only run and stumbled in parts where the novel succeeded. Nevertheless, the film has earned the 52-year-old director his first taste of critical acclaim since his 2016 movie Split, meaning Knock at the Cabin is by no means a flop – it’s just not the same story that unfolded within the pages of Paul Tremblay’s 2018 novel The Cabin at the End of the World.
To be fair, most of Knock at the Cabin remained faithful to Tremblay’s The Cabin at the End of the World in that it captured the horror novel’s tone, spirit, and structure. That said, the little details along the way got lost, and one big one at the end truly did the Hollywood production and those it represented a disservice.
Where the movie stayed the same
Like its source material, Knock at the Cabin begins with husbands Eric (Jonathan Groff) and Andrew (Ben Aldridge) and their seven-year-old daughter Wen (Kristen Cui) enjoying a peaceful vacation at a cabin in the middle of the woods. As they luxuriate in solitude, the three of them suddenly receive a knock at their cabin door behind which four strangers have come to convince them of the apocalypse.
So far, everything is the same. These strangers – Leonard (Dave Bautista), Adriane (Abby Quinn), Redmond (Rupert Grint), and Sabrina (Nikki Amuka-Bird) – break into the cabin, tie Eric and Andrew up, and attempt to quell their fears as they work to convince them that the only way to stop the end of the world is to sacrifice one of their own willingly.
Leonard reveals that he is a school teacher and sports coach; Adriane shares that she is a line cook at a restaurant and a mother; Redmond discloses his criminal history; and Sabrina tells them that she is a nurse at a hospital. Each of them has been visited by visions of the apocalypse, and each of them represents an aspect of humanity. Should Eric and Andrew refuse to sacrifice themselves, they will kill each other one by one and slowly unleash four deadly plagues upon the world.
Where the movie deviated from the book
Here’s where the movie begins to deviate. In the movie, Eric and Andrew spend most of their time tied up. When they do finally break free, it’s only after Redmond and Adriane have already been killed. Andrew dashes into his car to retrieve his gun and shoots Sabrina in self-defense after she rushes headfirst at him.
As the only stranger left standing, Leonard leads Eric and Andrew to the cabin’s porch, where he tries one last time to convince them to sacrifice themselves. At this point, a giant tsunami has already engulfed the coast of North and South America, a fatal disease is spreading across the planet, and airplanes are falling from the sky like rain.
When Eric and Andrew refuse once more to sacrifice themselves, Leonard slits his own throat. Meanwhile, Wen is hiding in the treehouse nearby with her headphones on, oblivious to the fact that Eric is about to convince Andrew to kill him. As planes plummet to the Earth and lightning cascades around them, Andrew eventually pulls the trigger and Eric dies in his arms. The film ends with Andrew and Wen, numb to their grief, returning home, the apocalypse officially averted.
In the book, Eric does not die, Leonard does not kill himself, and the apocalypse is not averted. Instead, when Andrew rushes to the car to retrieve his gun, he shoots Adriane, not Sabrina, and in his battle with Leonard over the gun, accidentally shoots and kills Wen in the process. Unfortunately, her death does not count as a sacrifice, so Leonard informs Eric and Andrew that they must still make a sacrifice.
This proves too much for Sabrina, who eventually kills Leonard because the mission has become too much for her to handle. She helps Eric and Andrew escape with Wen’s body and leads them to Redmond’s car. There, she kills herself, but not before telling Eric and Andrew one last time that they can still prevent the apocalypse should they choose to sacrifice themselves.
However, Eric and Andrew don’t prevent the apocalypse. They don’t sacrifice each other. They decide to weather the storm together, and thus The Cabin at the End of the World ends.
M. Night Shyamalan’s decision to go with Knock at the Cabin’s ending has rightfully opened him up to criticism, above and beyond simply deviating from the source material. As it turns out, killing a gay man “for the sake of making the world a better place” is not a good look.
Knock at the Cabin is now playing in theaters.