What is the choice they have to make in Knock at the Cabin?

Knock at the Cabin is the new horror movie from modern master of suspense M. Night Shyamalan. But what is the choice the characters have to make in the movie, and is it the same choice in the book on which it is based?

Knock at the Cabin is adapted from a 2018 novel that was written by Paul G. Tremblay and titled The Cabin at the End of the World. You can read our review of the movie here, while the book’s official synopsis is as follows…

Seven-year-old Wen and her parents, Eric and Andrew, are vacationing at a remote cabin on a quiet New Hampshire lake, with their closest neighbours more than two miles in either direction. As Wen catches grasshoppers in the front yard, a stranger unexpectedly appears in the driveway. Leonard is the largest man Wen has ever seen but he is young and friendly. Leonard and Wen talk and play until Leonard abruptly apologises and tells Wen, “None of what’s going to happen is your fault.”

Three more strangers arrive at the cabin carrying unidentifiable, menacing objects. As Wen sprints inside to warn her parents, Leonard calls out, “Your dads won’t want to let us in, Wen. But they have to. We need your help to save the world.” So begins an unbearably tense, gripping tale of paranoia, sacrifice, apocalypse, and survival that escalates to a shattering conclusion, one in which the fate of a loving family and quite possibly all of humanity are intertwined.

That’s the spoiler-free version of the story, but now we are going to get into details about the choice at the heart of both the book and the film. So BEWARE OF SPOILERS AHEAD, but only the same spoilers that appear in the trailer.

What is the choice they have to make in Knock at the Cabin?

The choice that Eric, Andrew, and Wen have to make in Knock at the Cabin is whether or not they should kill one of their own to stop doomsday. That’s the same choice the family has to make in Cabin at the End of the World.

Leonard – who is played by Dave Bautista in the movie – calmly instructs them in the trailer: “Your family must choose to willingly sacrifice one of the three of you, to prevent the apocalypse.”

He also states that: “Families throughout history have been chosen to make this decision.” While later Leonard adds ominously: “For every no you give us, hundreds of thousands of people are going to die.”

The demand is reiterated throughout the trailer, with Leonard later stating: “The rule is, that no one is allowed to leave until you choose… if you fail to choose, the world will perish.”

The trailer ends with him warning: “I will ask for the last time, will you make a choice?” Then raising a weapon.

This film version is adapted by Shayamalan alongside Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman, and while the set-up is very much the same as what happens in the book, it remains to be seen if their pay-offs are similar. We’ll find out this Friday (February 3), when Knock at the Cabin hits screens.

For more horror content, head here, while you can read our review of Knock at the Cabin here.