Moral conundrum as performance art has a long history dating back to the Greeks, I believe, but that doesn’t make watching it any easier.  For viewers understand quickly that in these parables everything pales to the central question the story is presenting.  In this case the viewer is asked to decide whether he or she would sacrifice a family member in order to save the world’s populace.  And while the question is made more questionable because it is so difficult to believe, made more so by the appearance and actions of the instigating characters, the question remains.  I find it to be a trick question.

M. Night Shyamalan’s film finds two dads, passive Eric (Jonathan Groff) and aggressive Andrew (Ben Aldridge), taking their daughter Wen (Kristen Cui) to a remote cabin near a lake for a vacation.  Four strangers arrive and demand to be let in; the dads protest but are no match for teacher Leonard (Dave Bautista), nurse Sabrina (Nikki Amuka-Bird), technician Redmond (Rupert Grint) and cook Adriane (Abby Quinn).  The strangers tell the dads that they must sacrifice one or the other, or their daughter, or the world will end in apocalyptic horror.  Neither dad believes them, and people begin to perish as deadlines are passed with no decision.  Eventually they become convinced, but it may be too late to save anyone.

The drama inherent in this situation is obvious, but how can strangers convince strangers to believe such a wild tale — especially when one of the dads recognizes one of the strangers as a bigoted jerk who once broke two bottles over his head.  The dads have to disbelieve for as long as possible, otherwise there would be no movie, but who would believe that they were being asked to determine the fate of the big wide world?  The strangers are very eloquent, especially Leonard, and the way that they meet their fates bolsters their presentation considerably.  Yet the film’s violence is restrained and even classy given all the bloodletting that the story demands.  Truth be told, director M. Night Shyamalan does a nice job with the material and it is thought provoking.

However, I find it rather morally offensive.  Not because of the violence but because of the implication that a rational God would present innocent people with such a tragic, sorrowful situation.  Sure, this is just a made-up story, but in this story the fate of the world is to be determined by a trio of people, two of which have to kill the other in order to save humanity.  What kind of a God would demand such a thing?  I’m afraid under those circumstances humanity would be damned and I and my loved ones would be walking the Earth for eternity, damning the screenwriter who put us there.  ☆ ☆ 1/2.  21 February 2023.