Director M. Night Shyamalan has asked fans to please watch his upcoming horror outing, Knock at the Cabin, in theaters rather than on your phone or iPad. Speaking with SFX Magazine, Shyamalan believes that audiences are eager to get back to theaters and watch great movies (here's hoping Knock at the Cabin is one), with the filmmaker passionately making the case for why there is nothing quite like basking in the light of the silver screen with a crowd of strangers.
"Let me be super-clear, audiences are dying to come to movie theatres to see great movies. That's all there is to it. If you released Home Alone today, it would still be a gigantic hit. If you released Back To The Future today, it'd be gigantic. And I think the industry is starting to see this, after getting distracted by the streamers and the pandemic. There's nothing like it – a bunch of 500 strangers coming together to watch a story together, to not multitask and commit themselves. It's just a deeper experience."
Movie theaters have taken a major hit over the last few years thanks to the pandemic, making Shyamalan’s insistence that people are “dying” to come back perhaps not the best choice of words. While there have been some big box office numbers thanks to the likes of Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water, things are still not yet back to normal with overall audience numbers, with many people still opting to watch movies from the safety of their own home. Shyamalan is hoping that this will change with Knock at the Cabin, which is due to be released exclusively to theaters
"Do I want you watching Knock at the Cabin on a treadmill with your iPad? No, I don't."
Which begs the question, what sort of person would choose to watch Knock at the Cabin while on a treadmill?
Knock at the Cabin is an Adaptation of the Novel The Cabin at the End of the World
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan, who has written the screenplay from an initial draft by Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman, and based on the 2018 novel The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul G. Tremblay, Knock at the Cabin centers on a young girl and her parents who, while vacationing at a remote cabin in the woods, are taken hostage by four armed strangers who demand they make an unthinkable choice to avert the apocalypse. Confused, scared, and with limited access to the outside world, the family must decide what they believe before all is lost.
Leading these “armed strangers” is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Blade Runner 2049 star Dave Bautista, with the rest of Knock at the Cabin cast comprised of 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, the Harry Potter franchise).
Knock at the Cabin is scheduled to be released in the United States on Feb. 3 by Universal Pictures. So get ready to put your Ipad down.