One of the most eagerly anticipated movies of the year arrived a couple of weeks ago, and M. Night Shyamalan’s Knock at the Cabin has been released for a few weeks now. It has garnered mostly positive reviews (66% Metacritic, 68% RT) and has pulled in a very respectable $54 million at the box office worldwide, after a month of wide release. Eric, in particular really enjoyed this and this is reflected in the Scariest Things Review.

For Liz, however, this was a chance to see one of her favorite horror novels of all time, Paul Tremblay’s The Cabin at the End of the World, put to the big screen with a good ($20 million) budget behind it. And… she hated the ending, which is very different from the book. Mike found both the book and the movie enjoyable. So, on what basis do you review a movie relative to its source material? The expectation levels were sky high, and in this case failed to deliver, for Liz.

Eric, coming in cold, really enjoyed the performances, and the fundamental aspects of the movie, as well as the craft of setting up the mystery of these apocalyptic strangers. But there is no doubt that there is a powerful version of the story out there that was left on the writing room table.

The Scariest Things dedicated the whole episode to this topic. SPOILER ALERT: We talk about the ending, and the woulda, coulda, shoulda nature of the screenplay. One thing I think we all could agree on… the title of the book is much better than the movie’s title.