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SYFY WIRE Knock at the Cabin

'Knock at the Cabin': Philadelphia 76ers in sports crossover with M. Night Shyamalan's new thriller

Doc Rivers brings tidings not of the apocalypse, but of a terrifying practice on the court.

By Josh Weiss
James Harden in Knock at the Cabin (2023)

Given M. Night Shyamalan's well-known infatuation with his hometown of Philadelphia, it only makes sense that he'd team up with the 76ers basketball team to promote his new thriller — Knock at the Cabin (out in theaters everywhere next week).

In the crossover spot below, Shyamalan sits down with star point guard James Harden for a relaxing cabin getaway that's promptly interrupted by Sixers head coach, Doc Rivers.

"James, you wanna see a horror movie?" he says, before making himself at home. "I'll show you one at practice!"

Check out the spot below:

Based on the award-winning 2018 novel, The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay, the film centers around a family of three — Eric (Jonathan Groff), Andrew (Ben Aldridge), and Wen (newcomer Kristen Cui) — who are forcibly taken hostage by a collection of seemingly religious zealots claiming that the world is about to end.

The leader of these terrifying home invaders, Leonard (Dave Bautista), states that if the family does not willingly sacrifice one of their own, humankind will cease to exist. Nikki Amuka-Bird (Old), Abby Quinn (Little Women), and Rupert Grint (Servant) take on the roles of Leonard's fellow acolytes of the apocalypse.

RELATED: 'Knock at the Cabin' reveals a deadly choice in apocalyptic new trailer for Shyamalan thriller

While the source material makes it clear that Eric, Andrew, and their daughter live in Boston, Shyamalan decided to move their place of residence to his beloved Philly for the sake of the big screen adaptation. 

"I’m drawn to things that take genres and bend them in new ways, or change genres from what you thought you were watching," Shyamalan explained to Total Film. "The architectural twist is part of the fun of it. And as I’m morphing genres, I have to move up into more high-octane genres. If you cadence down, even if you do it really well, it has a certain reducing-of-stakes quality that the audience feels." 

The director — who produced the feature alongside Marc Bienstock and Ashwin Rajan — shares screenplay credit with Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman. Steven Schneider, Christos V. Konstantakopoulos, and Ashley Fox are executive producers.

Knock at the Cabin arrives on the big screen Friday, Feb. 3. It is Shyamalan's first movie to score an R-rating since The Happening.

Looking for more horror to make your spine tingle and blood curdle? You can currently catch Jordan Peele's NOPE on Peacock. Plus, don't miss SYFY's hit horror series Chucky, which was just picked up for a third season.