The Reel Review
A family vacationing at a remote cabin in the woods is terrorized when four mysterious intruders take them hostage, telling them they must kill one of their loved ones to prevent a global apocalypse, in this horror/mystery from M. Night Shyamalan. It is based on Paul Tremblay’s 2018 horror novel ‘The Cabin at the End of the World.’
Here we go again, with yet another feeble Shyamalan project that starts with an intriguing premise, only to flounder into a nonsensical, convoluted and pointless finalé. Ben Aldridge (Spoiler Alert), Jonathan Groff (Hamilton) and scene-stealing newcomer Kristen Cui are all convincing as the family in peril, at the hands of a self-styled Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse that includes Dave Bautista (Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Guardians of the Galaxy) and Harry Potter’s Rupert Grint.
Solid performances and well-done cinematography aside, the screenplay Shyamalan wrote with feature film newcomers Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman, which includes flashbacks to the family’s earlier years and a visionary flash forward, is boring, predictable and anti-climactic. The story raises a plethora of concepts, never exploring any of them, as it sputters to an infuriating finish, wasting yet another hour and 40 minutes on more mindless Shyamalan drivel.
REEL FACTS
• At the 37-minute mark, M. Night Shyamalan has one of his trademark cameos, this time in a televised infomercial selling an air fryer.
• M. Night Shyamalan previously worked with Nikki Amuka-Bird in 2021’s Old and Rupert Grint in 2019 drama series Servant.
• For those who’ve seen the film, its second half differs drastically from Paul Tremblay’s much darker novel.
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