KNOCK KNOCK CAST MOVIE

Audiences would have seen it as going too far and giving up from despair. Imagine if Shyamalan had knocked off Haley Joel Osment's Cole in The Sixth Sense, or had one of the kids bite the dust in Signs. But to kill off a kid who is perhaps the main star (heck, it's Wen on the poster, not anyone else) would have destroyed the viewing experience for such a mainstream thriller. A gut-punch of an ending like that can be effective.

To do that in the film would not have worked. It was already controversial enough in the book. Night Shyamalan was right in his efforts to change Wen's fate.

And so I said, 'You know what? I'm actually going to do it myself.' So it was very beautiful in the way it came organically back.' I'm having that irrational connection to it.' And I could see myself working on it for a year and a half from there. And then they said, 'We really believe in what you just said.' And I said, 'Huh.' Then I was thinking about it and I thought, 'I believe in this premise so much. 'Then organically, the book came back to me and they said, 'We loved what you were saying about.' I said what I thought should happen and where the story should go. And I said, 'I totally support you and I wish you the best.' And then they went, and it didn't come together, that movie.' And I think my audience, I wouldn't want to have them experience that.' That's what I said. I don't believe in this story when it went left. And I think you guys are onto something, I really do. And then I said, 'I love this premise so deeply.

KNOCK KNOCK CAST MOVIE

The movie came to me as a producing entity where the writers and the directors who were on wanted to make a straight adaptation of the book, just moment for moment, straight adaptation. Shyamalan spoke about his decision to change Wen's fate from the novel to his film in an interview with Collider, saying: What can he show us that's scarier than that? Still, it all felt meaningless without Wen, and the tension in the last act is taken away because the swelling balloon has already been popped. It's still a good read and the ending of Eric and Andrew refusing to sacrifice themselves, then walking into the end together is a brave and touching one that may even work better than what Shyamalan did with the film. That doesn't mean that the novel is horrible after that.

Innocence is dead and the excitement of the book dies with it. Who cares that the world is coming to an end? Wen just got shot to death. What was a fun mystery thriller is now a depressing horror show with a dead kid.Īfter Wen's death, everything seems to stop mattering. It's one that immediately takes the wind out of the sails of the reader. It's an even bolder move when it's not a third-act twist, but one that occurs in act two. To kill off a small girl who was such a great and pivotal character is a bold move. She is smart and funny and seemingly almost as capable as her dads. Wen was no stereotypical child character written for sympathy's sake. Just like that, the most beloved protagonist is gone, and not just any protagonist, but an innocent child. In the struggle, it accidentally goes off, and a bullet hits Wen, killing her instantly. In the novel, Andrew and Leonard fight over a gun. It's a powerful decision that plays on the theme of how much we'll give to see the ones we love safe and happy. In the film, as the world starts to crumble to an end, Eric ( Jonathan Groff) sacrifices himself, thus saving the world, and allowing his husband Andrew ( Ben Aldridge) and their young, elementary school-aged daughter Wen ( Kristen Cui) to live on with hope. An even bigger change involves that sacrifice that comes at the end of the story. It's a significant change, but one that doesn't really alter the final goal. In the book, however, he is killed by a member of his own group. In the film, Leonard kills himself after he is unable to convince the family to go through with the sacrifice. It's the last third of the movie where the big changes occur, ones that drastically alter the film from its source material. Changing that to cast a high-caliber actor like Bautista, who was perfect in the role, is understandable. Leonard's age is only mentioned once in the novel and has no importance to the part. Bautista is three decades older than that. For one, Dave Bautista's character, Leonard, the leader of a group who is trying to convince a family that one of them needs to sacrifice their lives to save the world, is just 24 years old in the novel. Sure, there are little changes throughout. The characters are all there, the setting is the same, the motivation remains unchanged, scenes play out as they did on the page, and in many cases, even the dialogue remains unchanged. The majority of the film plays out just like the novel.

Knock knock cast