“Knock at the Cabin” is an apocalyptic psychological horror film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan.
So let’s find out some trivia and facts about the new film.
- Knock at the Cabin is a 2023 American apocalyptic psychological horror film
- It is written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan
- He wrote the screenplay from an initial draft by Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman
- It is based on the 2018 novel The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul G. Tremblay
- This marks the first adaptation of one of his works
- The film stars Dave Bautista, Jonathan Groff, Ben Aldridge, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Kristen Cui, Abby Quinn and Rupert Grint
- In the film, a family of three are vacationing at a remote cabin, but they are suddenly held hostage by four strangers
- The strangers demand they sacrifice one of their own to avert the apocalypse
- Knock at the Cabin premiered in New York City at the Rose Hall on January 30, 2023
- It was theatrically released in the United States on February 3, 2023, by Universal Pictures
- The film received mostly positive reviews from critics
- Knock at the Cabin is an adaptation of the 2018 horror novel The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay, who had signed an option with FilmNation Entertainment in late 2017, prior to the book’s publication
- He had to keep secret that the film was based on one of his novels until July 2022
- The Black List and GLAAD List listed the initial draft by Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman as one of the most popular unproduced screenplays of 2019
- While another director was briefly attached, M. Night Shyamalan read the original screenplay and grew interested in producing
- Shyamalan later rewrote the script and came on board to direct the project as part of the two-film partnership between Universal Pictures and his production banner Blinding Edge Pictures
- Old (2021) was the first film in that deal, with Knock at the Cabin being the second
- The first draft was halfway completed by July 2021, and the title was revealed in October
- Shyamalan said the script was the fastest he had ever written in his career
- Castings were announced from December 2021 to July 2022
- They included Dave Bautista, Rupert Grint, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Ben Aldridge, Jonathan Groff, and Abby Quinn
- Shyamalan cited Bautista’s performance in Blade Runner 2049 (2017) as the reason he wanted him to star in Knock at the Cabin
- Principal photography took place in Burlington County, New Jersey, from April 19 to June 10, 2022, with cinematographers Jarin Blaschke and Lowell A. Meyer
- Shyamalan shot the film with 1990s lenses to give it an “old-school thriller” look
- During post-production, Herdís Stefánsdóttir composed the score
- The film received an R-rating from the Motion Picture Association for “violence and language”
- Making it Shyamalan’s second film to receive that rating after The Happening (2008)
- In the United States and Canada, Knock at the Cabin was released alongside 80 for Brady
- It is projected to gross $15–17 million from 3,643 theaters in its opening weekend
- The film made $1.45 million from Thursday night previews
- On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 68%
- Based on 203 reviews
- With an average rating of 6.3/10
- The site’s critical consensus reads, “Although it’s often less than scary and parts of the story don’t bear scrutiny, Knock at the Cabin is a thought-provoking chiller and upper-tier Shyamalan”
- Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 63 out of 100
- Based on 54 critics
- Indicating “generally favorable reviews”
- Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of “C” on an A+ to F scale
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