'A knock at the door': the apocalypse according to M. Night Shyamalan

M. Night Shyamalan's films tend to navigate between mysteries and moral dilemmas that connect with the pathologies of contemporary society.

If in his previous film,

he focused on a universal obsession that in some societies borders on the grotesque, the terror of growing old and the passage of time, in his new proposal,

he points to that collective psychosis that, supported by by technology, runs like wildfire: the imminence of the apocalypse.

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They Knock on the Door

is directly connected to the trappings and bewilderment of the present and, incidentally, with that self-interested mistake in which no one knows what is true and what is a lie.

Through seven characters and almost a single space, the film begins with an eight-year-old girl in the middle of a forest hunting grasshoppers to put them in a glass jar.

With his usual narrative pulse, which even manages to keep a series of

about the main family not too screeching, Shyamalan once again assumes his role as storyteller and, hand in hand with that initial image of kidnapped nature, delves into a game symbolic against the backdrop of the end of the world.

The film adapts the 2018 novel

by mystery author Paul Tremblay, which presents a contemporary family picture, two men and their adopted daughter, cornered by a group of fanatics who believe their apocalyptic delusions may be left behind. solved thanks to this randomly chosen family in a lonely forest.

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As in the

in which Shyamalan serves as executive producer and director of several chapters,

functions as a tabletop with few tiles moved by the dark power of a mysterious force.

The use of sound and music, the close-ups of its performers to delve into mental terror and the audacious use of television as a source of reality, but also of confusion and fantasy, make up a psychological suspense film that is enjoyed jerk.

The disconcerting character played by Dave Bautista, that actor and professional wrestler who seems to have come out of a

at night and Shyamalan serves as a tribute to the myth of Frankenstein, leads the charge of a delirium with newscast mystique.

And although each character represents different answers to the same problem, in the end the one that stands out the most is that of the girl, perhaps because it best suits Shyamalan's schematism.

summons many of the ghosts of our society, such as the mental health crisis and the loss of the notion of reality.

Although it all seems like a simple child's game, the question of what we are willing to give up to save humanity prevails beyond the credits.

knock at the door

Directed by:

M. Night Shyamalan.

Cast:

Dave Bautista, Jonathan Groff, Rupert Grint, Ben Aldridge, Nikki Amuka-Bird.

Genre:

United States, 2023.

Duration:

100 minutes.

Premiere: February 3.

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