M. Night Shyamalan’s KNOCK AT THE CABIN is not a bad movie. It’s disappointing, but not bad. Considering who co-wrote and directed it — M. Night Shyamalan (writer and director of the acclaimed 1998 film starring Rosie O’Donnell, WIDE AWAKE), I want to be wowed or infuriated by the end of the film. This is a filmmaker who is exceptional at pissing you off or making you think long after you see one of his films. KNOCK doesn’t even feel like his movie at all and I stopped thinking about it about 15 minutes after I left the theater. No twists and shouts. Just a straightforward movie. I don’t think he did it for the money because KNOCK has a great premise.

Of course, there are (very, very little) hints that M. Night throws at you that you don’t see until it’s explained. By that time, the movie has lost its thrill.

Based on Paul Tremblay’s novel, The Cabin at the End of the World, KNOCK AT THE CABIN follows a gay couple (the excellent Jonathan Geoff in a wasted role, and Ben Aldridges) and their daughter to a remote cabin for vacation. If there’s one thing we have learned about movies, it’s that nothing ever good happens when one takes place in a cabin.

Not wasting any time, Leonard (Dave Bautista), Redmond (Rupert Grint), Sabrina (Nikki Amuka-bird), and Adriane (Abby Quinn) show up knocking on their door with the most gnarly makeshift weapons I’ve seen in cinema in a while. They aren’t here for a tea party, they are here to stop the apocalypse. This can only be done if Daddy Eric (Groff), Daddy Andrew (Aldridge), and their impossibly adorable daughter, Wen (Kristen Cui), decide to sacrifice just one in their family. The four intruders strongly believe if just one is sacrificed, the world will be saved.

There are rules to this sacrifice, it must be decided. Someone can’t just off themselves and the other two live happily ever after in a cruel world that got colder.

Go see KNOCK for your curiosity. Stay for Bautista, who carries this whole film on his back. Good thing he’s in shape.

As for M. Night — I’m going to take it easy on the auteur because he’s always coming up with something different, sometimes striking out, and sometimes bashing it out of the park. But he least tries, every time.