Knock Knock (2015)
Certified: 15
Duration: 99 minutes
Directed by: Eli Roth
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Lorenza Izzo, Ana de Armas, Ignacia Allamand, Aaron Burns, Colleen Camp
KRS Releasing Ltd

I am not in love with Eli Roth’s style of horror as I find his film-making style to be too much in-your-face at times. He prefers to numb his audience rather than actually scaring them out of their seats. Having said this, the films Cabin Fever (2002) and Hostel (2005) are two very effective movies, with the only problem being that they have spawned too many inferior copycats.

Now along comes Knock Knock with Roth harking back to the campy exploitation thrillers of the 1970s, a genre I like a lot. It’s an update of the 1977 Death Game.

Knock Knock has not been made for Keanu Reeves fans. The actor, fresh from his successful stint on John Wick (2015), is here given the rough-over treatment as his role is simply there to be seduced, tantalised, punched, tormented and, most of all, be simply a pawn in two girls’ idea of fun and games.

It’s a dangerous world out there, and Knock Knock demonstrates this very well. It is basically divided in two halves: the first half is all about allure and seduction, the second part is when it goes gloriously over the top and the cruelty and violence start.

This home invasion film, that comes tinged with glimmers of the Manson murders, sees Reeves taking the role of Evans who is an ex-deejay and successful architect, happily married with children to a woman who is an artist (Ignacia Allamand). When he is left alone at home there is a knock on the door and when he opens he finds two young girls, drenched wet and barely clothed.

Genesis (Lorenza Izzo) and Bel (Ana de Armas) say they were on their way to a party and the two worm their way into Evans’s house. They flirt their way and end up seducing Evans (against his will) into a threesome. The next morning he finds them still there in his house and they carry out acts of vandalism on his property and his wife’s artwork, and that is only the beginning.

In my mind the two stars of the show are Izzo and de Armas. Izzo is married to Roth and had starred in his 2012 film The Green Inferno. The two actresses are stunning and Roth utilises and manipulates the camera to make their flirtations, sex scenes and innuendo overtly sensual.

They run away with their role as they feed off each other to make Reeves look hopelessly lost. Yet despite all their sensuality, they have written in their look and gestures – loudly and clearly – that they are dangerous and more than a little bit crazy.

This film is superior to the original. It comes complete with a sort of feminist agenda, but this is never given that much importance as we don’t really learn what makes these girls tick. We see their actions, their over-the-top games and their idea of fun, but the reason is left very much in the background. The actresses let go of quite some anger issues as the film veers from black comedy to social commentary to home invasion thriller to morality tale.

The camera simply devours and laps up the two girls, their antics, the trail of destruction they leave behind and how a life can be dismantled so systematically. Overall, Knock Knock is an interesting diversion that genre fans will enjoy.