Reviews
‘Knock At The Cabin’ (2023) Review
Are you there God? It’s me, Dave Bautista.
A New Movie From Director M. Night Shyamalan
M. Night Shyamalan’s movies make me feel weird. Not weird in the sense that they astound me or are bafflingly strange or terrifically bad, simply that they don’t seem to hit me with their divisiveness.
Since I was a young filmgoer on Al Gore’s internet, I have heard every joke about M. Night Shyamalan’s career. We all know the man has an exaggerated reputation. Once Hollywood’s darling, now its greatest punching bag, I genuinely feel apprehensive about covering his work because of the unnecessary aggression many people have towards him and his filmmaking, both in defense and in attacking his oeuvre. There’s a need among critics at this point to mythologize Shyamalan’s work in a way that is, honestly, just kind of annoying.
The Emotional Disconnect of Shyamalan’s Horror Films
Because I sometimes feel mentally broken looking at them. Especially with his horror films, and especially waiting for my hatred or love of them to sink in. And neither happens. They’re just fine. Even The Happening, reviled as one of the best “so-bad-its-good” horror movies, is sort of just a void to me. I’ve seen it twice, and it doesn’t do much either way.
They’re okay. Devil was fine. The Visit was fine. Split was fine. Everything he does to me, is just fine.
All of this very long preamble is to say my voice as a critic tells me Knock at the Cabin is much of the same, and if you have strong inclinations about Shyamalan’s filmmaking like many do, this film is a pendulum that will swing in your direction.
A Cast of Heavy Hitters Led by Dave Bautista
For the uninformed, Knock at the Cabin is based on the acclaimed Paul Tremblay novel The Cabin at the End of the World. It follows couple Eric (Jonathan Groff) and Andrew (Ben Aldridge) who, while on vacation with adopted daughter Wen (Kristen Cui), find themselves besieged by a doomsday cult that holds them captive. Led by the awkward giant of a man, Leonard (Dave Bautista), and united by visions of the apocalypse that force them to choose which among them will be sacrificed to stop the world’s end.
This cast, rightfully, piqued a good deal of people’s interests. Many have been curious to see Bautista take on more serious roles, and for those excited about that prospect, you will enjoy yourself. He wonderfully inhabits the character of Leonard, a violently neurodivergent doomsayer burdened by a task he believes wholeheartedly. The role is meaty enough for him to work with but not so distracting that he detracts from anyone else in the cast. His companions, played by Nikki Amuka-Bird, Rupert Grint, and Abby Quinn, are also good, barring some awkward line deliveries, but we’ll get back to them soon.
Strong Chemistry, Underutilized Characters
As for Eric and Andrew, Groff and Aldridge have undeniable onscreen chemistry, making a very believable pair; Aldridge is the calloused human rights attorney, while Groff is his much more softhearted husband, and the two balance each other nicely. But for some reason, the two are not particularly compelling in their struggle until their final scene together, which itself is marred by some ham-fisted dialogue despite being ultimately touching. I think it’s because the movie doesn’t give them much to do until the final act, with most of their speaking lines coming from flashbacks to difficult times in Eric and Andrew’s relationship. As a result, much of the onus to entertain and astound is on Bautista’s suicide cult.
The Cult’s Dynamic: A Missed Opportunity
And that’s another hiccup. One of the conceits of how the cult operates hurts what I like the most about the supporting cast; their nervous energy works well off one another, with all the actors’ dread bouncing off electrically as they trade lines. But it doesn’t last that long because…
They begin killing each other to initiate the very real plagues that will destroy everything. Which is an interesting idea, but in practice deprives us of a lot of great character interactions that I’m assuming were in the book and condensed down to a sub-2-hour runtime. While those developments on the ground shaking and the sky falling can be scary, it seems to ignore the human interactions we’re here for.
A Serviceable Script with Thematic Depth
The script is tight, and serviceable for the most part, except for some strange line choices. Thematically the movie isn’t overly ponderous or paper thin, it communicates its thoughts on the thin line that can sometimes appear between faith and delusion quite well, and the weight of the sacrifice is never diminished. The choice to utilize flashback segments wasn’t one I can outright call bad, but they don’t add enough of an emotional punch, or at least don’t add anything that wasn’t already present. The script is fine.
An original score that can ratchet up some of the tension in a film where it’s not always present is an aspect of the film I can appreciate. As far as technical praise goes, the lighting works in tandem with the set design nicely. On the other hand, there’s somewhat obnoxious camerawork that emphasizes a lot of very dire close-ups of characters. The movie opens with one of these, and it’s a few minutes long, shot reverse shot of two faces right next to each other. I understand what they’re trying to communicate, Leonard encroaching on Wen’s space and getting down to her level, but it just feels too literal, and the insistence on pulling in on every character’s face at least once gets tired.
Cinematography and Editing: Perfectly Fine
The editing is good, while some of the CGI is a bit distracting on a large scale and the small scale (I still don’t get why we’re using CGI blood for simple gunshot wound effects in 2023, but I know that’s just a personal gripe). Can you guess which two words I would ascribe to the cinematography? Right-o, reader: it’s fine.
I’m torn, as usual. In the end, Wen’s promise to her jar of grasshoppers feels like a reflection of my thoughts on Knock At The Cabin: this movie felt like I was here to learn about these people, and learn I did. For some that will be enough; for others, this will be another exercise in disliking Shyamalan’s work. But at the end of the day, I’m not sure if this character study will stick with me, or if it has much rewatch value. It’s a thriller with its fair share of positives and negatives, but it is ultimately no world-rending serpent or rapturous hand of God when it comes to the genre. Still, it’s worth at least one watch, so check it out and see how you feel.
No way it’s the horror of 2026, but Hokum could be this year’s most solid “welcome to the big leagues, kid” horror. It’s a pill that’s got the potential to draw in new horror fans, but has enough flavor to satisfy a veteran for 101 minutes. Damian McCarthy definitely learned to polish up his idea of a nightmare from Caveat (2020), to Oddity (2024), to his best feature yet. Literally, sort of. With a single watch of each under my belt… Hokum has the same theme and tone as the previous two, just waxed and remixed. I’m not mad at it, though.
Hokum That Bridges Indie and Mainstream Appeal
Even the freaks like us who live in the underground horror tunnels can understand the public’s genre fatigue. I agree- it can seem like all these remakes and re-hashes are seriously weighing down blockbuster horror these days. The good indie stuff gets looked over, but McCarthy’s most recent film is a decent little in-between. It won’t bother you with a high cinema monologue, but it knows how to make you cringe, and will lock you in a dusty room with it.
It’s vague in exposition, not that a simple idea like this really needs to be super fleshed out. It stars Severance’s Adam Scott as Ohm Bauman, a famous Yankee novelist, a guy who grieves, and a big jerk. He arrives at a boutique Irish inn to scatter the ashes of his parents, and finish the last book in his trilogy. The challenge of writing an asshole lead that still has to convince the audience to root for them is damn refreshing. Scott’s performance holds it up too. He’s got a great jerk-face even without dialogue. He’s easy to pity, though- somewhere between Paul Sheldon from Misery, and a real life Stephen King, who shares the suspiciously balanced atmosphere that drove Jack Torrence nuts in The Shining.
Familiar Horror Influences with a Refined Execution
McCarthy borrows a lot from those two, and probably a catalog of blockbuster peek-a-boo scary movies. The reason Hokum is a good challenge for the horror gateway, is that it doesn’t try too hard to “elevate” (it does, though only a little) the genre. It listens and learns from its elders to complete the haunted hotel play-by-play. Not a repeat, but a re-do of the things that work for paranormal and folk horror. The aspect that Hokum brings home is the solid polycule made of production design, sound mixing, and cinematography. A happy, creepy home of cobwebs and jump scares.
The only hotel staff spared from Ohm’s terrible attitude is Fiona. When he learns she’s gone missing after a Halloween party he was famously blackout drunk for, he feels a responsibility to return the kindness and effort she had shown him. The last person to speak to Fiona was local kooky guy, Jerry (David Wilmot). His local status is confirmed by Ohm after Jerry claims Fiona is most likely dead in the honeymoon suite… because her ghost approached him and told him so. Jerry might be crazy, but Ohm has nothing to live for, apparently. Ohm agrees to investigate the suite that the hotel staff keep locked and out of service. It’s haunted by a witch, they say. Obviously.
Production Design and Sound Craft a Claustrophobic Nightmare
The suite, and the source of Hokum’s nightmares, is stunning work in the macabre department. Despite my distaste for them, it really is a playground for jump scares. Lighting and sound design do some real respectable heavy lifting that the viewer is forced (complimentary) to sit through. My personal playground, though, would be the dumbwaiter. The last time I had that much fun with one of those was when lowering Danny into the den of lizard aliens in Zathura (2005). Hokum’s dumbwaiter plays as much of a role as Adam Scott does in his.
Besides the horrors that persist in it, the honeymoon suite really comes alive with the one or two Resident Evil-esque puzzles in order to reach the meat of the mystery. A super engaging focus from cinematographer Colm Hogan to use frame ratio, and other visual camera tricks to induce the claustrophobia of the epicenter of scares. Bring back the dumbwaiter please.
Where Hokum Falls Short
What doesn’t work is excusable. The thin background information on Ohm’s trauma presents itself too often through a jump scare/flashback cocktail. Did this movie need to be 101 minutes, or could it have been 90? Did the viewer need to understand the weight of Ohm’s undesirable childhood? Not to this degree. I think these moments also risk confusion as to what supernatural thing we’re dealing with at the moment: the witch of the honeymoon suite, Fiona’s ghost, or the lasting haunt of Ohm’s mother’s tragic death? The film takes the “less is more” rule at about 70%- not awesome, but a passing grade, no doubt.
One of the most entertaining aspects of horror is its subgenres. Zombie films have an ever-branching group of sub-subgenres, as do slashers and paranormal films. It’s honestly exhausting to try to classify some of these films. Hell, my favorite bigfoot film, Night of the Demon, is a cryptid slasher film! Who knew that the slasher subgenre would ever have a cryptid branch to it?! But the straight-to-DVD times of the mid-aughts brought a series of weird slasher-ish films to the shelves of Walmart and FYE’s across the United States. One of those films that caught my eye (at too young an age) was a genuinely weird, trailer park, splatterpunk remake called 2001 Maniacs. (Would this technically fall under the Hellbilly slasher subgenre?)
What Is 2001 Maniacs About?
Anderson Lee (Jay Gillespie), Corey Jones (Matthew Carey), and Nelson Elliot (Dylan Edrington) are three college kids on their way to Daytona for Spring Break. As their college graduation looms, or lack of graduation, they want to go out with a bang. Literally. A detour leads the three and two other groups into the overly cheery town of Pleasant Valley. But this stuck-in-their-ways town has danger lurking beneath it. The town’s mayor, George W. Buckman (Robert Englund), who dons a Confederate flag eye patch, welcomes the eight travelers in with open arms. And just like that, the Guts n’ Glory festival is set to begin! Though who will make it out alive, and who will get turned into tonight’s pot roast?
A Movie that Shares Some Odd Company
I’ll be completely honest. I haven’t watched this movie in over a decade. There was a time in my life when I was hellbent on finding the most messed-up movies I could. As my watchlist grew, so did my desensitization. Movies like this, Freakshow (which proudly boasted it was banned in 47 countries), August Underground, and The Girl Next Door filled out my formative film-viewing years. While I can understand why some of these disgusting movies were made, some completely befuddled me as to why they were even made. Out of all of these films, 2001 Maniacs stuck in my head as the most perplexing of the bunch.
Writers Tim Sullivan and Chris Kobin, with direction from Tim Sullivan, are very competent voices in horror. They co-wrote Driftwood together, which, while not amazing, is better than the reviews suggest. Their work on Snoop Dogg’s Hood of Horror resulted in a great anthology film that gets overlooked in most conversations about anthologies. And Tim Sullivan wrote/directed the second-best segment in Chillerama, “I was a Teenage Werebear”. So, why this movie? Why remake Herschell Gordon Lewis’s just as perplexing Two Thousand Maniacs!?
2001 Maniacs’ Surprising Connection to Cabin Fever
Quick aside, since we’re also covering Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever this month. What’s interesting is that this film stars Giuseppe Andrews as Harper Alexander (who reprises his role of Deputy Winston in Cabin Fever 2). And towards the beginning of this film, Eli Roth reprises his role of Justin from Cabin Fever. So, Eli Roth exists in this world as his character from Cabin Fever, but Giuseppe Andrews exists as a completely different entity. That’s neither here nor there. Just an interesting observation that implies the flesh-eating disease also exists within this world. What are the odds? As much as I despise Eli Roth, it would have been fascinating to see this group of characters battle Confederate ghosts AND a flesh-eating disease.
Okay, where were we?
The Incredibly Shaky Acting in 2001 Maniacs
Nothing about this film works, except for a handful of practical effects. You can all hate me for what I’m about to say…and that’s okay. Robert Englund and Lin Shaye are not good actors. I will concede that Englud is great as Freddy, and he has worked his way into his legendary status. Beyond that? Not so much. Lin Shaye just…she’s a nepo sister who got in while the getting was good. Her high-pitched, high-energy line readings get old after more than 30 seconds of screentime. It’s easy to see why she has so many fans, and I’m happy that they have thousands of films to watch her in. I just think she took the spot of a potentially better actor. Though you should not mistake what I said as me saying the other actors in this movie are great. Because that is simply untrue. Nearly every scene feels as if the actors are reading their lines from a teleprompter slightly off-screen.
Do the Kills Make it Worth Sitting Through?
“But the point of this movie is the gory kills!” Okay, and? A few of the kills in 2001 Maniacs are fun and inventive, but you have to sit through endless filler until you get there. It gets to a point where this movie’s horniness becomes so over the top that even a hypersexual Joe Bob Briggs fan would become annoyed. You can say that it’s because this movie is a horror comedy, or that it’s supposed to be tongue-in-cheek. And I can come right back and say that there is not a single bit of ‘comedy’ in this movie that works. Vampires Suck is funnier than this. Hell, Disaster Movie is funnier than this.
2001 Maniacs is a Big Skip
2001 Maniacs is the closest I’ve come to a DNF when covering a film for Horror Press. The movie’s blatant racism-played-for-jokes becomes old before it even gets started. Decent practical effects are ruined by mid-aughts digital effects that would make the SciFi Channel cringe. God, how many times can you scream, “The South’s gonna rise again,” before it stops becoming satire and becomes weird? Calling this movie satire would be unfair because there is not a single moment of awareness throughout. Yes, they make Southerners look like pig-screwing dimwits, but it feels like it’s only done to cover their asses.
Do not watch 2001 Maniacs. It is a truly terrible movie. And that’s coming from someone who has watched nearly every SciFi Original, Mongolian Deathworm, and has sat through Verotika eight times.
The Horror Press Podcast Episode 59: Shudder & Sequels
[INTERVIEW] Alice Maio Mackay Talks ‘The Serpent’s Skin’
Overlook Film Festival: ‘Hokum’ Review
‘2001 Maniacs’ Is Spring Break…For Racists?!
‘Lee Cronin’s The Mummy’ Review: A Reboot With Mixed Results
5 Horror Movies To Watch When You’re Super Stoned
Everything You Need To Know About ‘From’
‘Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever’ Review: A Meth Trip That Never Ends
Overlook Film Festival: ‘Exit 8’ Review
The Crypt Keeper Takes Overlook Film Festival 2026
‘The People Under the Stairs’ Review: A Brilliantly Bizarre Horror Classic
‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ and The Story of William Afton Explained
Slappy Was the Blueprint: How the Dummy from Goosebumps Became A Horror Icon
Glen and Glenda: Don Mancini’s Reverence for Queerness in ‘Seed of Chucky’ (2004)
‘Truth or Dare’: Who Did it Best?
V/H/S Franchise Ranked, Best to Worst
Everything You Need to Know About Jason Voorhees
The 11 Most Disturbing Horror Movies Ever, According to an Actual Horror Fan
[REVIEW] ‘Cherry Falls’ (1999) Brittany Murphy Shines in This Cult Classic Slasher