Jonathan Groff And Ben Aldridge Play Gay Dads In M.Night Shyamalan’s New Queer Horror Film

Actors Jonathan Groff and Ben Aldridge are co-starring in the latest queer horror film, Knock at the Cabin where they will be playing gay dads. 

The M.Night Shyamalan film is based on Paul G. Tremblay’s novel, The Cabin at the End of the World which won the Horror Writers Association’s Bram Stoker Award for Novel in 2019. The screenplay is written by Shyamalan, Steve Desmond, and Michael Sherman. 

Knock at the Cabin follows gay couple Andrew (Jonathan Groff) and Eric (Ben Aldridge) who bring their seven-year-old daughter Wen (Kristen Cui) on a family vacation to a cabin in the woods. 

The movie’s synopsis reads, “While vacationing at a remote cabin, a young girl and her parents are taken hostage by four armed strangers who demand that the family make an unthinkable choice to avert the apocalypse. With limited access to the outside world, the family must decide what they believe before all is lost.” 

Other actors who will be joining the cast include Dave Bautista, Harry Potter star Rupert Grint, Abby Quinn, and Nikki Amuka-Bird. 

Stopping An Apocalypse

Author Paul G Tremblay spoke of his excitement for the adaptation of his novel in an interview with The Boston Globe. 

“To say it’s really exciting would be an understatement. Especially seeing the trailer, it’s such a minor detail, but seeing the grasshoppers and Wen keeping notes on [the insects], it’s just so wild,” he said. 

When asked his thoughts on Shyamalan contacting him to request using his novel as the basis for the film, Tremblay called the experience a “strange thing”. 

“Like so many people, I first saw or heard of M. Night with “Sixth Sense” [in the late ‘90s], and I was just barely starting to mess around with writing. I was very much a hobbyist at that point. So, to be on the phone with him it was definitely like, ‘Wow, I am on the phone with M. Night Shyamalan, this is pretty crazy’,” Tremblay said. 

Gay Dads

Fans shared their enthusiasm for the project, with one user tweeting “Knock At The Cabin Has Gay Dads!!!!!! I Repeat Knock At The Cabin Has Gay Dads As The Protags!!!”.

Another twitter user posted “Well, this definitely looks good. And not just because the main characters are a gay couple and their daughter, although that was a welcome surprise”, followed by the hashtag ‘KnockAtTheCabin’. 

Tremblay described the experience of hearing lines from his novel being portrayed by Dave Bautista as “very exciting” and that the film “looks like it’s been shot beautifully. I think it’s going to be a super intense, beautifully shot film.” 

Knock at the Cabin is set to debut in theatres on February 3, 2023.