In yet another blow to the woodsy cabin rental industry, M. Night Shyamalan has dropped the first trailer for his latest horror film, Knock at the Cabin. The film stars Jonathan Groff (Mindhunters) and Ben Aldridge (Pennyworth) as a couple going on vacation with their adopted daughter Wen (Kristen Cui). It’s all road trip singalongs and sunny lake swims until Wen encounters a creepy stranger in the woods, played with subdued menace by Guardians of the Galaxy star Dave Bautista.
Bautista, aided by Nikki Amuka-Bird (Old), Rupert Grint (the Harry Potter films), and Abby Quinn (Mad About You), break into the cabin and tie up the couple. Then they make a hideous request. “The four of us are here to prevent the apocalypse. Your family has been chosen to make a horrible decision. If you fail to choose, the world will end,” intones Bautista. That choice isn’t revealed in the trailer, but its presumably the sacrifice of one of the trio.
Part Funny Games, part Cabin in the Woods, Knock at the Cabin offers a home invasion horror with apocalyptic leanings. Are Bautista and his crew deranged cult members, or is the fate of the world actually at stake? And does that even make a difference for the poor family held hostage? Knock at the Cabin is based on the 2018 novel The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul G. Tremblay, which won the Horror Writers Association’s Bram Stoker Award for Novel in 2019.
The film is a rare departure for Shyamalan, whose works are usually based in the supernatural. But who knows, there may be supernatural elements at play that have yet to be disclosed in the trailer. After a series of poorly received films, Shyamalan made a comeback with last year’s Old, which grossed $90 million at the box office and launched a thousand memes. We’ll have to wait and see if audiences turn out for Knock at the Cabin.
Knock at the Cabin premieres February 3, 2023.
(featured image: Universal Studios)
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