They knock on the door: better not answer

There must be few film directors as mismatched as

.

The filmmaker who established himself with The

can make other great thrillers, like

or The

, and fall and collapse with

,

or

.

Well,

, he's there to join the second group.

There is always a common denominator in their achievements.

And we are not talking about the fact that he always makes a cameo, an appearance, as his adored and plagiarized Alfred Hitchcock liked.

His are intriguing suspense films, which can start with something that is disturbing (people who commit suicide just start

, for example), they always have surprises or a twist at the end.

Dave Bautista ("Guardians of the Galaxy," "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery"), one of the intruders.

Photos Universal/ UIP

Knock at the Door

, a film essentially shot in the cabin of the original title (

, also based on the novel

, by Paul Tremblay ) stars Dave Bautista (

), whose enormous build contrasts with that of Wen (Kristen Cui), the 8-year-old girl.

Leonard sneaks up on her in the woods, where she is catching grasshoppers.

Imminent danger

They talk, but Wen perceives, scents the danger when three of Leonard's companions appear with improvised weapons and start chasing her.

Wen walks into the cabin, where her parents Eric (Jonathan Groff) and Andrew (Ben Aldridge, from

, who came out a few years ago) will soon hear a knock on the door.

Eric (Jonathan Groff) and his adopted daughter Wen (Kristen Cui), inside the cabin.

And they break into the cabin, and tie them up.

They are Leonard, teacher, Redmond (Rupert Grint, from

), Adriane the cook (Abby Quinn) and Sabrina (Nikki Amuka-Bird) the nurse.

The four have a proposal to the family.

They had shared visions of global catastrophes.

The Apocalypse will come the next day, if the homoparental family does not make a sacrifice.

The parents and Wen must decide who among the three of them will die.

It will be necessary to kill him, because suicide is not worth it.

Talking people understand each other.

Well, not always.

The questions begin to add up, overlap and perhaps occupy more than the space they should.

Will the planet really succumb if the family doesn't make the sacrifice?

Do the newcomers, the quartet of death, suffer from psychosis?

How can it be that one of the attackers had a relationship with the family?

Hey?

Politically correct movie, the gay couple has been making "sacrifices" in order to maintain their lifestyle.

But what they ask of you is too much.

Among the quartet of newcomers is Rupert Grint, who was Ron Weasley in the "Harry Potter" saga.

Or not?

It's Groff who puts the most emotional charge on the matter, and Bautista, from the other side of the rift, impresses well as the intimidating but understanding guy.

Kristen Cui, in her debut as a film actress, is the daughter of a homoparental family.

As we said, Shyamalan is uneven, and he doesn't always resort to unexpected twists at the end of his films.

Here the thing is not realizing that Bruce Willis's character was dead, or who are the nice grandparents that the grandchildren visit in

.

Here, once it is discovered why the quartet breaks in, and that they will go to immolate themselves one by one if the family does not make the sacrifice, the mystery ends, expectations diminish and what happens or doesn't happen will be of less interest.

"Knock at the door"

Regular

Suspense/Mystery.

USA/China, 2023.

.

100', SAM 13 R.

M. Night Shyamalan.

Dave Bautista, Jonathan Groff, Ben Aldridge, Rupert Grint, Kristen Cui.

Cinépolis Recoleta and Houssay, Hoyts Dot, Showcase Belgrano and Quilmes.

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