Knock at the Cabin
Universal Pictures | Release Date: February 3, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
63
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 60 Critic Reviews
Positive:
35
Mixed:
21
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The PlaylistSimon AbramsFeb 1, 2023
Knock at the Cabin does not disappoint. It’s a movie that reminds us why Shyamalan is one of contemporary cinema’s greatest alchemists and a prime example of a filmmaker at his best and boldest. Read full review
90
UproxxMike RyanFeb 3, 2023
The result is a truly suspenseful film with a powerful, emotional ending. Again, it’s one of Shyamalan’s best. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriFeb 3, 2023
The result is the most exhilarating and wounding film M. Night Shyamalan has made in many, many years. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleTrace SauveurFeb 9, 2023
It’s harrowing to ponder, but a joy to watch unfold when told by someone with such distinct cinematic prowess. Read full review
85
Paste MagazineBrianna ZiglerFeb 2, 2023
Released a little under two years since Shyamalan’s previous film, Knock at the Cabin plays like an old dog who learned new tricks. It’s a sharper, more propulsive and formally exciting dramatic thriller that has far fewer disappointments in storytelling and visuals than 2021’s Old while revisiting and expanding upon familiar themes of family that Shyamalan has explored his entire career. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeFeb 17, 2023
As the film’s bleak momentum builds, so does a tsunami swell of existential dread. It’s Shyamalan’s most contained and efficient picture in a while. Read full review
80
Film ThreatAlan NgFeb 10, 2023
Knock at the Cabin is a thriller with great performances and will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. Read full review
80
NMEAlex FloodFeb 2, 2023
There’s no big twist to speak of, but this is a white-knuckle thrill ride that’s up there with Shyamalan’s most gripping work. Read full review
80
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzFeb 2, 2023
Finally, by tethering his story’s uneasiness to the rock that is Bautista, Shyamalan delivers a star vehicle built for two. It isn’t quite right to say that the director and his star deserve each other – more like they need one another. Just as we do. To the end of the world, fellas. Read full review
80
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyFeb 1, 2023
With barely a twist to speak of (at least in the traditional sense), his latest film Knock at the Cabin feels like a repudiation of the past. Read full review
80
Total FilmJames MottramFeb 1, 2023
From hook to pay-off, this is Shyamalan doing what he does best. A clever story, thunderously acted, carried off with élan. Read full review
80
The TelegraphTim RobeyFeb 1, 2023
From a premise of purest hokum, the Sixth Sense director wrings out an impressive amount of sweat – it's a real return to form. Read full review
80
EmpireJames DyerFeb 1, 2023
A harrowing, economical thriller that will sit with you for days, this is Shyamalan’s best film in years, and a calling card for Bautista in his strongest performance yet. Read full review
75
The Associated PressJake CoyleFeb 3, 2023
Shyamalan doesn’t pump up the violence, nor does he rely on plot twists to carry Knock at the Cabin along. Instead, the film works as a brutal, neatly distilled kind of morality play that toys with fatalism, family and climate change allegory. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonFeb 2, 2023
Knock at the Cabin unfolds like a good beach novel, one you can’t put down. Read full review
75
The AtlanticDavid SimsFeb 2, 2023
Knock at the Cabin avoids this problem partly through its deft casting, with Bautista serving as the most pivotal player. So much of the movie revolves around Leonard’s surreal monologues; the actor keeps a firm grasp on Leonard’s belief in his every word. Read full review
75
CNNBrian LowryFeb 2, 2023
Economically told and cleverly calibrated to maximize its claustrophobic setting, it’s among the most effective films the director has delivered since his mid-career slump, making this a door well worth opening. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubLeigh MonsonFeb 2, 2023
Knock At The Cabin is a harrowing and intense home invasion thriller that feels like a step in the right direction for Shyamalan. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesChase HutchinsonFeb 1, 2023
Shyamalan’s latest cinematic confrontation with mortality and meaning, Knock at the Cabin, is among his best work. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperFeb 1, 2023
While my guess is this will be pulverized by some critics and fans for its big swings and logic-defying premise, I found it to be an admittedly loopy but tightly spun, at times wickedly funny and consistently involving psychological thriller that dares to try something different. Read full review
75
ConsequenceClint WorthingtonFeb 1, 2023
It’s not up there with [Shyamalan's] best, but it’s a solid thriller that traps you in the middle of an impossible question and leaves you, like its characters, to figure out the answer. Read full review
75
ColliderRoss BonaimeFeb 1, 2023
At its very core, Knock at the Cabin works because it reminds of the early days of Shyamalan, when he felt like the next coming of Alfred Hitchcock, and his films would leave the audience talking for days after. Read full review
75
USA TodayBrian TruittFeb 1, 2023
Top-shelf Shyamalan. Centered on a family having to make the most dreadful of decisions, “Knock” is a well-crafted intimate thriller that plays with your expectations and immerses you in a disconcerting situation. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineJake ColeFeb 1, 2023
The film takes its time delving into its characters' headspaces, to the point that it becomes less of a thriller than an unorthodox character study, especially as its expertly deployed use of flashback slowly forms the emotional core of the story. Read full review
70
Vanity FairRichard LawsonFeb 3, 2023
The riskiness of that—the way Knock at the Cabin, accidentally or not, courts and even invites sympathy to one of the right’s most dangerous shibboleths—gives the film a surprising, alarming, but not unwelcome edge. Read full review
70
ABC NewsPeter TraversFeb 3, 2023
M. Night Shyamalan can be too fuzzy, earnest and full of himself. But this doomsday thriller starring a never-better Dave Bautista as a modern horseman of the apocalypse confirms that the Sixth Sense maestro knows how to fill the screen with tension and squeeze. Read full review
70
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiFeb 1, 2023
With an excellent ensemble cast and intense character dynamics, Knock at the Cabin is a high-stakes horror that delights in the doubt and confusion that arises. Read full review
70
Screen DailyTim GriersonFeb 1, 2023
Director M. Night Shyamalan crafts an exercise in tense claustrophobia, teasing the audience with the question of whether their preposterous beliefs are correct — a riddle complicated by our familiarity with this filmmaker’s fondness for third-act twists. Read full review
70
SlashfilmChris EvangelistaFeb 1, 2023
Tension is the name of the game, and Shyamalan knows exactly how to build it. It rises and builds to the point of breaking. This might be the filmmaker's most intense film to date, and while there are occasional bursts of genuine humor, "Knock at the Cabin" is more concerned with leaving you perturbed and unsettled by what you're witnessing. On that front, Knock at the Cabin is a success, even if its script can't quite match the visual intensity. Whatever is lacking here is balanced by Shyamalan's filmmaking. Say what you will about the director, but he's still got it. Read full review
70
Rolling StoneDavid FearFeb 1, 2023
The fact that Shyamalan seems to be working out some issues onscreen doesn’t stop him from crafting a thriller, and one which goes about its job with steady determination in Cabin’s cryptic, superior first half. Read full review
70
PolygonJoshua RiveraFeb 1, 2023
It’s all extremely effective, mesmerizing stuff, undercut by Shyamalan’s habits as a blunt, obvious writer. Read full review
67
Original-CinThom ErnstFeb 2, 2023
Knock at the Cabin doesn’t send you home with a clever epiphany that has you rethinking everything you just saw. What he gives you is an ending that you never have to think about again. And a film to match. Read full review
63
ObserverDylan RothFeb 3, 2023
The true star of the show, however, is M. Night Shyamalan, whose camera work remains a marvel. Most of Knock at the Cabin takes place in a single room with its protagonists trapped in a stationary position, and yet Shyamalan continually finds new ways to frame the space, the characters, and their relationships to each other. Read full review
63
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenFeb 1, 2023
If Knock at the Cabin is mid-tier Shyamalan, at best, it may be because I was more taken with these formal choices than the story, which riffs on the Book of Revelation in ways that feel fairly perfunctory. I did appreciate the final moments, though, which resist any sort of Shyamalan twist and instead rely on an emotional, diegetic needle drop that I won’t spoil here. Read full review
63
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanFeb 1, 2023
To anyone who feels, at times, so overwhelmed by the drumbeat of climate disaster, economic collapse, crime, mass shooting and terrorism, deadly viruses, and political polarization that it feels as the apocalypse is upon us, Knock at the Cabin will resonate powerfully. Read full review
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