M. Night Shyamalan returns to form with Knock at the Cabin

Like Taylor Swift, Shakespeare had a lot to say about reputation. In Othello, when the noble Cassio mourns the tarnishing of his reputation, which he identifies as “the immortal part of myself,” the duplicitous Iago talks him out of being so precious, saying that a good reputation is “a vain and most false imposition is, often received without merit and lost without earning.” There is some truth to both Cassio’s lamentation and Iago’s dig: reputations are hard to win and easy to lose, and there are a frustrating number of other people involved, none of whom need to be well informed, because they help make it to polish or burn. Writer-director M. Night Shyamalan has been haunted by his reputation since his breakthrough hit The Sixth Sense. His rep casts a shadow over every movie he’s made since then. But its latest Knock on the hutmay be the first in decades to actually improve its reputation.

M. Night Shyamalan returns to form with Knock at the Cabin