Knock At The Cabin Trailer: M. Night Shyamalan Presents An Apocalyptic Thriller (With A Twist)

Say what you will about M. Night Shyamalan, but only he would make an alien invasion movie that largely takes place on a farm or a superhero film mostly set in a psychiatric hospital (well, okay, "The New Mutants" did that too, but technically M. Night did it first). Now, the one-of-a-kind filmmaker is back with another genre thriller featuring an unusually contained setting, this time in the form of "Knock at the Cabin."

Adapted from Paul G. Tremblay's 2018 novel "The Cabin at the End of the World," Shyamalan's latest follows a couple (Ben Aldridge and Jonathan Groff) and their young daughter (Kristen Cui) on what's meant to be a relaxing vacation to a remote forest cabin. Of course, this being an M. Night joint, their would-be relaxing getaway quickly turns into a nightmare when they're taken hostage by four mysterious strangers (as opposed to, say, a beach that makes you old). The group's leader Leonard — played by a soft-spoken Dave Bautista — then explains to the trio what's going on: Either they willingly sacrifice a member of their family or allow the world to be destroyed in an apocalyptic event.

Leave it to M. Night Shyamalan to pull the rug out from under everyone's feet and surprise-drop the final trailer for his next thriller, "Knock at the Cabin," amidst the ongoing winter holiday festivities. "I've never worked so hard on a film," tweeted Shyamalan. "Crew and cast gave their all and made something extra special."

"Knock at the Cabin" marks only the third occasion on which M. Night has adapted someone else's work for the big screen as a director, with the other two being his notorious live-action "Last Airbender" movie and "Old," itself based on the French-language graphic novel "Sandcastle." As with "Old," though, it's probably safe to assume Shyamalan and the credited co-writers on his new film, Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman, will be taking some major liberties with the source material in order to craft something that feels more like an M. Night original. Don't let the glimpses of CGI-heavy sequences in the final trailer mislead you, either; "Knock at the Cabin" will primarily be a tense, low-budget drama. It was even shot with a 1990s-era camera lens to give it more of an "old school thriller look," as Shyamalan put it.

Joining Ben Aldridge, Jonathan Groff, Kristen Cui, and Dave Bautista in the "Knock at the Cabin" cast are Shyamalan's "Servant" star Rupert Grint and "Old" alum Nikki Amuka-Bird, along with Abby Quinn ("Mad About You"). The film opens in theaters on February 3, 2023.