Knock at the Cabin director M Night Shyamalan has discussed his preference to cut away from explicitly violent moments in his new movie.
Featuring an all-star cast including Dave Bautista (Dune), Rupert Grint (Harry Potter), Jonathan Groff (Mindhunter), Nikki Amuka-Bird (Old) and Ben Aldridge (Fleabag), the psychological horror movie deals with one central question: would you sacrifice a loved one to save humanity?
With four armed strangers and a frightened family at the centre of it, there will be blood... but not tonnes, as Shyamalan explained.
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"Because I smash many genres together, how to balance them together so the flavours don't cancel each other out, because they could easily cancel each other out," Shyamalan exclusively told Digital Spy of his filmmaking approach.
"Like, for example, I'm trying to get everyone, so you have the 14-year-old boys that are like, 'More blood', then you have, like, the older women that are like, 'Oh, I would never tell Claire to come see this movie, it's too violent'.
"I want everyone and so, for me, the actually really fun answer of it is by using their imagination, it's more violent."
Related: Why Knock at the Cabin's trailers revealed the movie's big surprise
Contemplating the effect this approach has on audiences, the Unbreakable and Split director continued: "The 14-year-old boys, when I pan away or I show you something, your mind is doing the rest of it.
"They realise that their mind is working and making this horrible image and so they get that satisfaction of that adrenaline that comes.
"And then the older women, they're feeling the safety of the fact that if they chose to, they can reduce that image of violence.
"There's a balancing act to everything, the humour, how much humour to mind from it, the drama, the violence, all of it."
As for what Bautista made of the new movie? Well, he told us here at Digital Spy he had a "lot of self-doubt" over his role.
Knock at the Cabin is released in cinemas this Friday (February 3).
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Dan is a freelance entertainment journalist. Beginning his writing career in 2014, Dan's work first graced the pages of cult publications Starburst magazine and Little White Lies before moving onto Total Film, Digital Spy, NME and Yahoo Entertainment.
In the film and TV universe, he kneels at the altar of Jim Carrey, Daniel Plainview, Mike Ehrmantraut and Paulie Walnuts.
Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
