We’ve been enjoying the recent M. Night Shyamalan renaissance, which has seen the director of The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable win plaudits for modestly budgeted, high concept thrillers like The Visit and Old. His latest offering looks to continue that trend, and expectations are high for Knock at the Cabin, which debuts in cinemas on February 2.
Adapted from the (very good, it must be said) novel The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay, Knock at the Cabin presents us with a particularly horrifying scenario. A couple, Andrew and Eric (Jonathan Groff and Ben Aldridge) and their daughter Wen (Kristen Cui) are chilling in their vacation home when quartet people break in—and one of them is big Dave Bautista, looking more terrifying than usual (the others are Rupert Grint, Nikki Amuka-Bird, and Abby Quinn).
The invaders have a grim agenda: they believe the apocalypse is upon us, and only by sacrificing one of the family can it be averted. And they want Andre and Eric to choose who…
Tremblay’s novel is, as the kids say, an absolute banger, and Shyamalan certainly knows his way around a high concept horror scenario, so this one looks like a match made in heaven in terms of artist and material. It’s certainly an interesting role for Bautista; while he looks like he could snap you in half without noticing, he’s rarely played villains and this kind of character, a quasi-religious fanatic bent on murder, is pretty far outside his usual roles. But the big guy is certainly an impressive screen presence and he comes across as genuinely menacing in the trailer.
Whether the world really is coming to an end is, of course, up for grabs, but we can expect Shyamalan to milk the situation for maximum tension and frights. We’ll be there day one.
