10 Movies That Ought to Have a Villain But Don't
9. Knock at the Cabin (2023)
Knock at the Cabin, M Night Shyamalan's return to form, brings four seemingly suicidal strangers (including Leonard, a surprisingly tender Dave Bautista; and Redmond, a surprisingly haggard Rupert Grint) into a gay couple's holiday home, armed with home-made weapons and apparently representing the four horsemen of the apocalypse.
Yet, despite their sinister bearing, and the fact that they physically compel the family to stay put, the four strangers profess to have no intention of causing their captees harm. Yeah, right. Right?
Well, turns out they are telling the truth, as over the course of 100 nail-biting minutes, the only persons the horsemen harm are themselves, ritualistically sacrificing their troupe as the clocks count down to an impending apocalypse. They posit that, if the family sacrifice one of their own, the end of the world will be avoided.
While we would expect to take this line with ten pinches of salt, it is borne out in the film's conclusion, when the sacrifice of dedicated co-dad Eric (Jonathan Groff) by his loving partner Andrew (Ben Aldridge) does indeed put a stopper in an armageddon that has planes falling from the sky and megatsunamis chomping off great chunks of coastline.
The four horsemen are the good guys, and the sweet family are the good guys, and God or whoever sent the horsemen their visions is a good guy. So, blame the weather, or...?