M. Night Shyamalan Says KNOCK AT THE CABIN Is Most Like SIGNS Compared to His Previous Work
Director M. Night Shyamalan is a master of suspense, having given us movies like The Sixth Sense, Signs, The Village, The Visit, and Split, so it’s fun to see him bringing us a new mind-bending thriller with a killer cast and twisty-turny story.
In this month's Total Film, Shyamalan sat down to talk about his new film, Knock at the Cabin, and he was asked which of his past thrillers this new one is most like. He responded:
"Which of my other movies is Knock At The Cabin in the ballpark of? The closest, I think, is Signs, because both movies are confined, to some extent, and they’re both populated by such loveable families at the center of apocalyptic events. I do think that you fall in love with both of those families. You laugh with them, are scared for them. You feel connected.
He went on to talk about the story, which was adapted from the book The Cabin at the End of the World:
"You know, the author of the book, Paul Tremblay, wrote it right around the time Trump was elected. He was feeling certain things about the world. It’s really interesting that maybe he wrote it then, and I’m making a different version of the story here. It’s a wonderful discussion that we’re all going to have when you watch the movie. Is humanity worth saving? Are we good? The human experiment – is this working? The story is about a girl [Kristen Cui] and her parents [Jonathan Groff, Ben Aldridge]. They’re vacationing and they answer the door to four strangers [Dave Bautista, Rupert Grint, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Abby Quinn] who give them a terrible choice to make. I think the things that I’m drawn to when I think of my own ideas, or, in this case, an adaptation, it’s taking genres and then bending them in new ways, or changing genres from what you thought you were watching. That’s the fun of audiences, for me. They come in thinking they’re watching something, and it changes and moves.
I think this is the best part about the movies that Shyamalan makes and the stories he tells. There’s always something held back, always a twist that binds the story together perfectly in the end. He went on to talk about marketing a movie that is based on his deceptive storytelling style:
"How much do we give away? That is always the conversation as I’m making something, and then when I’m talking to Universal, because they’ve released a lot of my movies recently, the last four or five. The conversation is: 'Hey, these are the things that are for the audience when they go to the movies, and these are the things that you can sell the movie on.'
"There are ‘cards-up’ high-concepts and ‘cards-down’ high-concepts that are in the movie. The ‘cards-down’ high-concepts are for the moviegoing experience. So we have those clear discussions, and even if the marketeers are going, 'Wow, if we took that cards-down thing, and just put it up...' I’ll be like, 'No, no, no. That’s not how we do it. You guys are part of the storytelling.'"
Knock at the Cabin stars Dave Bautista (Dune, Guardians of the Galaxy franchise), Jonathan Groff (Hamilton, Mindhunter), Ben Aldridge (Pennyworth, Fleabag), Nikki Amuka-Bird (Persuasion, Old), Kristen Cui, Abby Quinn (Little Women, Landline) and Rupert Grint (Servant, Harry Potter franchise).
Here’s the synopsis:
“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.”
Universal will release Knock at the Cabin in theaters on February 3rd, 2023.