Divisive director M. Night Shyamalan has compared his latest outing, next month’s Knock at the Cabin, to one of his earliest hits: the 2002 science fiction horror movie Signs. Speaking with Total Film, Shyamalan compared Knock at the Cabin and Signs, particularly the limited locations and the way both plots center on a family.

Based on the 2018 novel The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul G. Tremblay, Knock at the Cabin begins with a family heading off on a vacation at a remote cabin. Not long after their arrival, the 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.

“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.”

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Considering how far Shyamalan has fallen since his early success with The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs, it will no doubt have fans of the filmmaker, and fans of horror, excited to hear that the director has returned to what made his first few movies work so well. Here’s hoping then that Knock at the Cabin is a true return to form for the filmmaker.

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Shyamalan Calls Dave Bautista’s Knock at the Cabin Performance One of the Year’s Best

     Universal Pictures

Even if Knock at the Cabin does not reach the heights of Signs, it sounds like audiences will still find a lot to enjoy, thanks to Dave Bautista’s central performance. A performance that Shyamalan has called one of the year’s best. Bearing in mind, it is only January. “Bautista is – well I was at a dinner with some friends, and they were like ‘How is Dave Bautista? The wrestler, right? That’s crazy! How was that?’ And I was like ‘He gave one of the best performances of the year in that movie,’” Shyamalan said. “And they were like ‘Hahaha!’ And I was like, ‘Nah… there’s no joke, I’m just giving you the straight on it. This dude brought it.’ Right guy. Right role. Right moment in his life. He just did what you hope all actors will do for you, which is he just was completely vulnerable, completely put himself in my hands, and said ‘I trust you.’ And because of that, I felt so much need to bring out the beauty in who he is as a human being. Just a lovely moment.”

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan, who has written the screenplay from an initial draft by Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman, Knock at the Cabin stars Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy, Blade Runner 2049), Jonathan Groff (Hamilton, Mindhunter), Ben Aldridge (Pennyworth, Fleabag), Nikki Amuka-Bird (Persuasion, Old), newcomer Kristen Cui, Abby Quinn (Little Women, Landline) and Rupert Grint (Servant, the Harry Potter franchise).

Knock at the Cabin is scheduled to be released on Feb. 3, 2023, by Universal Pictures.