How is violence treated in ‘Knock on the door’? Shyamalan explains it

The director of ‘Knock on the Door’, M. Night Shyamalan, has spoken about his decision to remove some passages of explicit violence from his new film.

Starring an all-star cast including Dave Bautista (‘Dune’), Rupert Grint (‘Harry Potter’), Jonathan Groff (‘Mindhunter’), Nikki Amuka-Bird (‘Time’) and Ben Aldridge (‘Fleabag’), this psychological thriller deals with a central theme: Would you sacrifice a loved one to save humanity?

With four armed strangers and a terrified family at the center of the action, we will see some blood spilled, but not liters of it… Or, at least, that’s how Shyamalan explained it.

“As I bring multiple genres together, balancing them so they don’t neutralize each other (because it would be easy for them to), is important.,” Shyamalan mentioned exclusively for Digital Spy, about his cinematographic approach.

“I want to appeal to all kinds of audiences: There are 14-year-olds who say, ‘We want more blood!’ But also older people who say, ‘Wow… I’ll never recommend this movie, it’s too violent.’ .”

“I want them all to come so, for me, the solution for that is that, through their imagination, be how violent each one considers.”

Reflecting on the effect that this approach has on the public, the director of ‘El Protegido’ and ‘Múltiple’, continued: “In the case of 14-year-olds, whether I walk away with the camera or show something, their mind is going to do the rest.. They realize that their imagination is working and that they are making up this terrifying image, so they are satisfied when the adrenaline kicks in.”

“By your side, older people feel safe knowing that they can reduce that image if they want to because they are not really seeing it.”

“There is a balance in everything, in humor, in how much humor you get out of it; Same with drama, violence… Everything.”

‘Knock on the Door’ opens in theaters on February 3.