Meewella | Critic

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Tag: M. Night Shyamalan

QuickView: Knock at the Cabin (2023)

6 December 2023 | | Reading Time: < 1 minute | 0 Comments

“Ultimately, whether the world ends or not is completely up to you three.”

Leonard

Knock at the Cabin is a variation on the home invasion movie where a group of strangers demand that a family sacrifices one their number to prevent an apocalypse. Much of the film is spent discussing whether the intruders are perpetrating a hoax, are deluded cultists, or genuinely come with divine purpose. A more intellectually rigorous script might have made this exploration enjoyable but the flimsy evidence offers little to critique. Shyamalan continues to assemble interesting casts — Dave Bautista is the standout here as Leonard, a softly spoken gentle giant, with support from the likes of stage veteran Jonathan Groff and Rupert Grint a world away from his typical comic relief, along with an impressively natural debut from 9-year-old Kristen Cui. That talent is underserved by the lacklustre script and direction which fail to garner the necessary audience buy-in. It sits a notch above Old, but it seems that mediocrity is now the best the once-heralded Shyamalan can be expected to deliver. Knock at the Cabin might have been a serviceable episode of one of the many dark anthology shows currently streaming but, as a film, it is an uninspired home invasion where everyone is an unwilling participant, including the audience.

5/10

QuickView: Old (2021)

7 December 2021 | | Reading Time: < 1 minute | 0 Comments

“Stop wishing away this moment.”

Prisca

As a high-concept fable about time and aging, Old shows early promise with a group of strangers stranded on a beach where the flow of time means that they will age a full lifetime in the span of just one day. Sadly the writing never comes close to a coherent or thoughtful exploration of these ideas and dialogue is painfully stilted. Instead the premise gets old fast, which would be impressive were it deliberate. Although Shyamalan continues to attract talented actors, there is no depth to characters who are mere cyphers (an actuary worried about future risk married to a museum curator interested in the past) or fodder for the plot, all ultimately hapless victims as the film leans into temporal body horror. Shyamalan remains a victim of early success as — though this is not a film that relies on a grand twist — he does try to cram in narrative complexity at the end, which does little more than highlight an intriguing bioethics angle that might have been more engaging if it were more than an afterthought. Old is a tedious way to lose two hours of your life but at least it is never scary enough to age you prematurely.

4/10

QuickView: Split (2016)

28 January 2019 | | Reading Time: < 1 minute | 0 Comments
Split quad poster

“You like to make fun of us, but we are more powerful than you think.”

Dennis

The general downward trajectory of Shyamalan’s career has made him an easy target, yet two decades on he can still attract funding and acting talent. Split is, fittingly, a psychological thriller masquerading as horror. Its setup features the abduction of three teenage girls who are subjected to the stereotypical semi-exploitative treatment of horror victims. The tone swiftly shifts as the girls discover their captor exhibits multiple personalities which becomes the movie’s focus and provides for a fresher experience. Although the closing minutes of Split demonstrate it to be a stealth sequel to an early Shyamalan success, setting up a subsequent crossover, the film stands entirely on its own. McAvoy is entertaining as he enjoys chewing through Kevin’s various colourful personalities. Sadly, the remainder of the characters are one-note horror tropes, and too much of the film relies on convention rather than subverting it. Split is Shyamalan’s best work in a long time but cannot be described as a return to his early form.

6/10

"A film is a petrified fountain of thought."

(CC) BY-NC 2003-2023 Priyan Meewella

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