Director M. Night Shyamalan reveals why Dave Bautista gave him flashbacks to The Sixth Sense while filming Knock at the Cabin. Shyamalan got his start in Hollywood in 1999 with the release of The Sixth Sense. The hit movie stars Haley Joel Osment and Bruce Willis and tells the story of a young boy with the ability to communicate with the spirit world who seeks help from a child psychologist. After The Sixth Sense essentially launches his career, Shyamalan would go on to write and direct a host of other well-known films, including Unbreakable, Signs, The Village, Split, Glass, and Old. The filmmaker's next project, Knock at the Cabin, a home invasion horror thriller, is scheduled to release later next month.
Many mysteries remain about Knock at the Cabin, but Shyamalan now shares that Bautista, who plays one of the film's home invaders, gave him flashbacks to The Sixth Sense. In a recent profile on Bautista for GQ, Shyamalan dishes on what it was like to direct the wrestler-turned-actor in his mysterious upcoming film, praising Bautista's dedication to the role and the purity with which he approached his character. According to the director, it's a quality that he last saw from Osment on The Sixth Sense. Check out Shyamalan's full comment below:
“It felt more like working with Haley [Joel Osment] in Sixth Sense than anything else. When Haley came on set, the set would become reverential—even though he was 10, he was approaching it with an importance, all of his cells were going toward the emotion of his character. Dave conveyed that same thing. All the other actors fed off his purity of intention. It was infectious in the best way.”
What To Expect From Knock At The Cabin
In addition to Bautista, Knock at the Cabin stars Jonathan Groff, Rupert Grint, Ben Aldridge, Nikki Amuka-Bird, and Abby Quinn, telling the story of a young girl and her parents who are taken hostage and forced to make a choice that could seemingly prevent the apocalypse. The first Knock at the Cabin trailer has already teased that the film, which is based on the book The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul G. Tremblay, will be a dark and potentially violent mystery, with Bautista's character, Leonard, and his companions wielding some scary-looking weapons. In true Shyamalan fashion, the movie is also sure to have some major twists.
The central question as highlighted by the trailer is not only what choice the victimized family will have to make, but whether Bautista is telling the truth about the fact that he and his cohorts are attempting to stop the end of the world as we know it. Shyamalan is a writer and director well known for his surprising twists, from the reveal in The Sixth Sense that Willis' character has been dead all along to the revelation that the aliens in Signs are deathly allergic to water. With Bautista's character revealing that he's trying to prevent the apocalypse, the stakes in Knock at the Cabin could actually be higher than in any other Shyamalan movie, if, that is, he's telling the truth.
Thankfully, trailers for Knock at the Cabin have kept much of the mystery alive, with many questions remaining regarding how the conflict between the home invaders and the home invaded will resolve itself. Although clearly presented as a villain, if Leonard is telling the truth about his mission he could actually be revealed as a hero of sorts, especially if he succeeds in stopping the apocalypse at the end of Knock at the Cabin. Alternatively, of course, Leonard could just be a very unwell and misguided man who has somehow roped several others into carrying out what is sure to be a violent and scary crime.
This article was originally published at Screen Rant.
