One way or the other, M. Night Shyamalan is set to tread familiar ground this weekend when Knock at the Cabin roles out to theaters everywhere. Indeed, whether the film is a home run or his second strike after Old, it will continue to be business as usual for the ever-elusive Shyamalan.
But Knock at the Cabin will be something of a first for the filmmaker, namely in the sense that it’s his first film that was adapted from pre-existing material. The 2018 horror novel The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul G. Tremblay serves as the source material for Shyamalan’s latest venture, with the filmmaker reportedly taking a few creative liberties regarding its ending ⏤ an unsurprising move if you’re familiar with either the deeply depressing novel or the twist-happy writer-director.
As the world awaits the verdict on Knock at the Cabin, the film has gained a prominent supporter in the aforementioned author, with Tremblay taking to Twitter in hopes of speaking early positive sentiments into existence while simultaneously trying to wrap his head around what we presume is Shyamalan’s film-exclusive ending.
It’s always good news when the person whose work you’re adapting offers up a seal of approval, especially when it manages to have such a visceral effect on them, as Tremblay alluded to in his tweet.
One Twitter user expressed excitement at Tremblay’s thumbs-up, suggesting that the author’s bibliography should be mined a bit more for film adaptations, starting with 2015’s A Head Full of Ghosts, which, like The Cabin at the End of the World, was crowned the winner of the Horror Writers’ Association Bram Stoker Award for Novel.
Knock at the Cabin centers on the plight of couple Eric and Andrew and their young adopted daughter Wen, whose family vacation takes a turn for the deadly when four intruders hold them hostage at their remote holiday cabin, demanding that one of them be sacrificed in order to stop a worldwide apocalypse.
Knock at the Cabin will release in theaters on Feb. 3.