M. Night Shyamalan is giving Dave Bautista some high praise for his performance in Shyamalan’s new horror-thriller film, Knock at the Cabin. In an interview with ComicBook.com, Shyamalan explained how people around him were skeptical about the idea of the former WWE wrestling star starring in the dark, violent, psycho-thriller film, but Shyamalan made it clear to them – and now to all of us – that Bautista delivers nothing less than what Shyamalan calls “One of the best performances of the year,” in Knock at the Cabin!
ComicBook.com and Daily Distraction host Chris Killian got to speak to M. Night Shyamalan recently and made a point of asking how Dave Bautista did in the film. That’s when Shyamalan let open the floodgates of praise:
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“Bautista is – well I was at a dinner with some friends, and they were like ‘How is Dave Bautista? The wrestler, right? That’s crazy! How was that?’ And I was like ‘He gave one of the best performances of the year in that movie.’ And they were like ‘Hahaha!’ And I was like, ‘Nah… there’s no joke, I’m just giving you the straight on it. This dude brought it.’ Right guy. Right role. Right moment in his life,” Shymalan explained to ComicBook’s Chris Killian, adding that “He just did what you hope all actors will do for you, which is he just was completely vulnerable, completely put himself in my hands, and said ‘I trust you.’ And because of that, I felt. so much need to bring out the beauty in who he is as a human being. Just a lovely moment.”
Dave Bautista is probably the most successful wrestler to make the jump to acting, behind Dwayne: “The Rock” Johnson. Bautista really jumped into acting in the early 2010s, making appearances in B-movie genre fare like The Scorpion King 3, RZA’s The Man with the Iron Fist, and Vin Diesel’s Riddick. However, it was James Gunn who really recognized the potential of Bautista, casting him as Drax the Destroyer in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. After that, Bautista has taken off as an actor, often making bold and challenging choices. He played an emotionally-deep synthetic being in Blade Runner 2049; showed off a comedic side in family fare like My Spy, and has bolstered his own franchise with Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead. In between, he’s also played up his strong-guy persona in films like James Bond’s Spectre, Dune, and even TV (See).
Horror-thrillers will be yet another big horizon for Bautista to cross – and it sounds like Knock at the Cabin could help form a major Bautista trifecta for 2023, as he has both Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 and Dune: Part Two hitting theater screens, as well.
While vacationing, a girl and her parents are taken hostage by armed strangers who demand that the family make a choice to avert the apocalypse.
Knock at the Cabin will be released on February 3rd.
