Movie review
February 1, 2023 · 100 min · R
Woke Score
Lower is better
Review
Knock at the Cabin is a 2023 apocalyptic psychological thriller directed by M. Night Shyamalan. A family of two fathers and their young adopted daughter vacationing at a remote cabin is taken hostage by four armed strangers who demand one family member be sacrificed to stop the end of the world. The story focuses on the tense moral dilemma of love versus survival as disasters unfold and the family questions whether the captors' visions are real or delusional. The same-sex parents and their devoted family dynamic are prominently visible throughout, along with a short backstory reference to past homophobic violence against one father.
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Knock at the Cabin.
Woke representation / casting
The central family consists of two gay fathers and their adopted daughter from China, making same-sex parenting and transracial family structure clearly visible and core to the protagonists; this matches the source novel and fits the story world without forced signaling or character mismatches, though the LGBTQ+ element adds noticeable weight per guidelines.
Woke political dialogue
Dialogue stays almost entirely on the immediate crisis, family protection, belief versus delusion, and the sacrifice choice; a brief backstory mention of homophobic assault appears but receives no extended discussion or ideological framing.
Identity-driven story themes
Family love, protection, and moral sacrifice form the emotional heart, with the gay parents shown as ordinary, devoted, and messy in a realistic way; visible LGBTQ+ family unit contributes moderate emphasis under scoring rules, but themes center on universal human dilemmas rather than identity politics, queer activism, or representation-first messaging.
Western institutional / cultural critique
The story questions religious extremism, shared apocalyptic visions, and the boundary between sincere faith and delusion or misinformation in a post-2016 context; it avoids strong anti-conservative, anti-patriarchy, systemic, or cultural-norm attacks beyond the thriller setup.
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Scattered social media and online comments criticized the gay couple as leads and the adopted child as pandering diversity, but complaints remained limited and did not generate widespread debate or significant media coverage.
Creator track record context
Key creatives led by M. Night Shyamalan (cached 14/100) and low-scoring producers show consistent focus on suspenseful, character-driven genre storytelling with no documented pattern of activist, DEI, or identity-driven work or public advocacy.
Production
