Knock at the Cabin

Wen, a seven-year-old, is vacationing with her adoptive parents, Eric and Andrew, at their remote cabin in Burlington County, New Jersey.During her stay, Wen is approached by a mysterious stranger named Leonard. Initially charming, Leonard explains that he needs Wen and her parents’ help to save the world. While the two spend time together catching grasshoppers, Wen becomes suspicious when three other people show up with makeshift weapons. Wen flees to warn Eric and Andrew but the visitors break into the cabin before tying them up, with Eric sustaining a concussion.Leonard and his companions-Sabrina, Adriane, and Redmond-claim to have never met before this day and have no intention to harm the family, but in the last week, they have been compelled by visions and an unknown power to find the family. The group foresee an upcoming apocalypse in which Leonard claims oceans will rise, a plague will descend, the sky will fall, and finally an unending darkness will descend. This can only be averted if the family kills one of their own as a sacrifice. They are warned that, while they will survive the apocalypse, if they do not choose, they will be doomed to be the last people alive. Eric and Andrew believe the group is lying and the attack is rooted in hate and delusions.When the family refuses to choose, the visitors conduct a strange ritual in which they cover Redmond’s head with a cloth and beat him to death with their weapons. Eric, who is concussed, believes he sees a figure of light as Redmond dies. On the TV, media reports devastating tsunamis, which Leonard says is the start of the apocalypse. Andrew comes to believe that Redmond is actually Jeff O’Bannon, a homophobe who assaulted him in a bar years ago, for which he went to prison. Andrew believes O’Bannon tracked him down as revenge. Leonard, Sabrina, and Adriane question if Andrew is right and struggle with their guilt, but maintain that they believe their visions.