Knocks at the door are harmless enough. No one expects four-armed strangers to break in into someone’s home and demand that they make the impossible choice of killing their loved one. Such is the premise for M. Night Shyamalan’s “Knock at the Cabin.”
And since it’s from the director who comes up with crazy plot twists, there is more to it than what has been revealed in the trailers. But rather than reveal spoilers this early before the film’s debut, Universal has released a behind-the-scenes look at the upcoming thriller starring Dave Bautista (“Dune,” “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchise), Tony award and Emmy nominee Jonathan Groff (“Hamilton,” “Mindhunter”), Ben Aldridge (“Pennyworth,” “Fleabag”), BAFTA nominee Nikki Amuka-Bird (“Persuasion,” “Old”), newcomer Kristen Cui, Abby Quinn (“Little Women,” “Landline”) and Rupert Grint (“Servant,” “Harry Potter” franchise).
“I believe in this type of storytelling that when you come to the movie theater, you want to see something incredibly powerful, incredibly emotional, experiential, but you want it to be bigger than life and feel something bigger than life,” Shyamalan said. “I’m very drawn to stories of confinement and telling very large stories through a small window. That constriction, that juxtaposition the size of the story and the way we’re telling it is very exciting to me.”
Later on, Bautista talked about some of the film’s nuances and how the lack of places to hide provides for a more nuanced story.
Grint said the film combined two of his greatest nightmares in one place. One is thought of a home invasion, while the other is the apocalypse. Amuka-Bird said the film was brave enough to go on a spiritual journey even if it took a deeply shocking path.
All that caps off with the question: will you make a choice?
“Knock at the Cabin” is directed by M. Night Shyamalan, who also wrote the screenplay with and Steve Desmond & Michael Sherman based on the national bestseller The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay. It is produced by Shyamalan, Shyamalan, Marc Bienstock, and Ashwin Rajan, with Steven Schneider, Ashley Fox, and Christos V. Konstantakopoulos serving as executive producers.
“Knock at the Cabin” opens in theaters on February 3, 2023.
Here’s the official plot synopsis for “Knock At The Cabin:”
While vacationing at a remote cabin, a young girl and her parents are taken hostage by four armed strangers who demand that the family make an unthinkable choice to avert the apocalypse. With limited access to the outside world, the family must decide what they believe before all is lost.
