What's the deal with the Knock at the Cabin post-credits scene as M Night Shyamalan movie stuns fans

M. Night Shyamalan’s latest thriller, Knock at the Cabin, is enthralling fans and critics alike but all watchers have the same question in mind: what’s with the movie’s post-credits scene?

Following the success of his movie The Visit, we are not surprised to hear that the director’s latest effort has majorly paid off - especially considering the enticing premise of Knock at the Cabin, which is now out in theaters.

Written and directed by Shyamalan, the apocalyptic psychological horror film is based on the 2018 novel The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul G. Tremblay.

WHAT IS KNOCK AT THE CABIN ABOUT?

The film kicks off with Eric (Jonathan Groff), Andrew (Ben Aldrige) and their seven-year-old daughter Wen (Kristen Cui) embarking on a vacation at a remote cabin in rural Pennsylvania. 

Suddenly, four strangers - Leonard (Dave Bautista), Sabrina (Nikki Amuka-Bird), Adriane (Abby Quinn) and Redmond (Rupert Grint) - break into the cabin, tie up Eric and Andrew and warn them that all four of them have been plagued by recent visions foreseeing an upcoming apocalypse unless the family members kill one of their own as a sacrifice. 

The four intruders also explain that, if the family doesn't choose a sacrifice, they will live through the world-shifting events but be doomed to be the last surviving people on planet Earth.

Andrew and Eric don't believe the home invaders, who end up sacrificing Redmond to prove their point. Following his death, the first of four warned-about disasters takes over the world and the characters see it all unleashed on television. 

The family continues to stand by its choice the next day, at which point Sabrina and Leonard kill Adriane and a horrible flu spreads around the world. 

Still clinging on to the idea that the disasters are all coincidences, Andrew manages to escape, get his hands on a gun from the car and shoot Sabrina, who runs away. 

He then locks Leonard in the bathroom with Eric's help, right before Sabrina breaks back into the house and tries to hurt them. Andrew shoots her. 

Leonard is then able to lure the couple into the bathroom, leading them to believe that he escaped from the window, and steal their gun. He sacrifices Sabrina and the third disaster seemingly takes over the world as planes start to spontaneously crash in the sky. 

Warning them about the consequences of their decisions, Leonard decides to kill himself, at which point darkness falls upon the globe. 

Eric is now convinced that the threats were real and that the intruders were actually the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. 

Refusing to let his daughter survive in a destroyed world, Eric offers himself as a sacrifice and actually tells his husband that, the moment Redmond was killed, he saw a vision of Andrew alongside an adult Wen. 

Andrew takes the gun and shoots Eric, who dies. 

Wen joins her surviving father in the invaders' truck and the two drive to a diner, watching TV reports confirming that all the disasters have finally ended. 

The movie ends with the father and daughter duo in the truck listening to Boogie Shoes by KC and the Sunshine Band, which is the exact song that Eric played while they were all driving to the cabin at the beginning of the film.

KNOCK AT THE CABIN POST-CREDITS SCENE EXPLAINED

When the movie ends, the credits roll but folks who stick around the theater will notice that, at the very end of the sequence, the title of the film appears once more alongside the sounds of an actual knock on a cabin door - the same sound made by Leonard at the opening of the production as he initially knocks on the door of the family's vacation home.

What that sequence means is up to interpretation. Perhaps, it suggests that a new family has been selected to avoid the apocalypse or, maybe, that it was all a dream? Viewers will get to decide for themselves. 

HOW TO WATCH KNOCK AT THE CABIN

Knock at the Cabin was released in theaters this month and is currently only available to be seen at the actual cinema. 

However, you can expect it to hit Peacock some time in the near future based on a deal between Universal Pictures, the film's distributor, and the streaming platform. 

No word yet on when, exactly, the horror film will be available on Peacock but, given the deal, it will probably be some time in May.