M. Night Shymalan’s “Knock at the Cabin” Reveals Creepy First Trailer Starring Dave Bautista
A knock at a cabin door is never just a neighbor asking for some sugar in an M. Night Shymalan movie. So, when that first knock arrives in the trailer for his aptly titled Knock at the Cabin, it brings with it a tremor of precognition. Things are about to get very, very bad.
The first look at Shymalan’s latest reveals that the trouble starts even before that fateful knock. Leonard (Dave Bautista), a man who looks almost comically out of place taking a midday walk through a beautiful forest, comes upon Wen (Kristen Cui), the young daughter of Andrew (Jonathan Groff) and Eric (Ben Aldridge), the family renting the cabin in the woods. “Why are you here?” Wen asks Leonard. “I suppose I’m here to make friends with you. Your dads, too.” But then Leonard gives away the game when he tells Wen that his heart is broken. When she asks him why, he says, “Because of what I have to do today.” A classic Shymalan line, filled with the pathos of a man who feels he has no choice but to do the unthinkable. That’s when Wen sees more people coming through the woods towards the cabin. Talk about a ruined vacation.
It gets more unsettling from there. Leonard and three accomplices—played by Nikki Amuka-Bird, Abby Quinn, and Rupert Grint—break into the cabin and tie the family up. They come not to rob or murder (well, we’ll see about the latter) but on a solemn mission, they say, to prevent the apocalypse. Leonard informs them that their family “has been chosen to make a horrible decision.” What’s more, “If you fail to choose,” he says, “the world will end.”
And what is the choice they need to make? The trailer isn’t telling, but we’re guessing it has to do with Andrew and Eric being forced to pick a sacrifice among themselves. Yet, this being Shymalan, a master trickster, we’re also guessing it’s not so simple.
Knock at the Cabin will be an intriguing early 2023 film, hitting theaters on February 3.
Check out the trailer below:
Here’s the official synopsis for Knock at the Cabin Door:
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.
From visionary filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan, Knock at the Cabin stars 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).
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Featured image: From left: Dave Bautista, Abby Quinn, and Nikki Amuka-Bird in KNOCK AT THE CABIN, directed and co-written by M. Night Shyamalan
