The last movie I saw that took place almost entirely in a cabin, was the disappointing Tarantino film The Hard Eight. For some reason, Tarantino is praised by the movie critics and M. Night Shyamalan is often dissed. Yet to me, they both have clunkers, and both have a few brilliant films.
This story is based on the book The Cabin at the End of the World (a much better title), and it feels like a Stephen King story. The trailers make it look like a horror film, when it’s more of a psychological thriller.
The actor getting the praise for this is Dave Bautista, and he’s great in it. Yet the entire cast (which is a lot less known), is solid.
Here’s the story. Andrew (Ben Aldridge) and Eric (Jonathan Groff) take their 8-year-old daughter Wen (the adorable Kristen Wui) to a scenic cabin, surrounded by water and woods (and lots of grasshoppers for Wen to catch and study).
Stranger danger arrives in the form of Leonard (Bautista) who seems interested in grasshoppers as well. He’s also looking over his shoulder for his crew to arrive (Rupert Grint, Abby Quinn, and Nikki Amuka-Bird). After being mistaken for Jehovah’s Witnesses, the family realizes they’re carrying weapons, not bibles.
They vaguely explain that they have to sacrifice someone in the family or millions of people will die. Of course, the family doesn’t want to and…hijinks ensue!
Since people die (both inside the cabin and out in the world), it’s surprising that things don’t get really gory. I figured that was to get a PG-13 rating, but it’s surprisingly rated R.
We get some flashbacks that flesh out a few of the characters a bit, and they work well. For some reason, seeing news footage of what’s happening everywhere else, doesn’t pack the type of punch it should. Yet M. Night does a great job explaining why the family would still doubt what these strangers are telling them. It’s refreshing that the audience will initially believe these guys, but when the couple starts talking about how they’re just wacky conspiracy theorists or a suicide cult, we start to wonder if that’s a possibility. It’s not hard to predict where things will go, but it does create tension. It’s also nice that it takes you a while to figure out where it’s going, unlike say, The Menu a few months earlier. That movie showed its hand much too soon.
There are also some well done action sequences. And since the film is merely 90 minutes, you’re never bored.
3 stars out of 5.