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Picture
A devoted husband and father helps two stranded women in the middle ​of the night, unaware that he has welcomed two psychotics into his life.
HORROR

Knock Knock ​(2015)

Directed by Eli Roth

Written by Eli Roth, Nicolás López, Guillermo Amoedo

Starring Keanu Reeves, Lorenza Izzo, Ana de Armas,
​Ignacia Allamand, Aaron Burns, Colleen Camp


Remake of 1977's Death Game

Connor Eyzaguirre
October 11, 2015
7/10
Knock Knock is a surprisingly decent psychological thriller anchored by an equally surprising performance from Keanu Reeves. This film takes the formulaic plot of the home invasion subgenre and turns it inside out, making the hot young women the villains of the movie. While the film does need some work to become a winner, it has potential.

Very few films manage to create a scenario that both terrifies and infuriates moviegoers. Knock Knock accomplishes this awfully well, delivering a well-designed plot that gives the horror genre two new memorable villains in Genesis (Lorenza Izzo) and Bel (Ana de Armas). Together, these two gorgeous psychopaths systematically destroy Keanu Reeves's life, ripping away everything he cares about in ways that are impossible for him to stop. By creating a new, horrifyingly possible home invasion scenario, Eli Roth once again proves he does actually possess the necessary skills to create a scary film.

Of course, the third act is ultimately disappointing, with the inevitable comeuppance being neglected in favor of a more comedic ending that doesn't really fit the rest of the film's tone. My guess is Roth was leaving the ending ambiguous for hope of an eventual sequel. Unfortunately, it turns the entire film into a 99 minute buildup with no payoff. While it is considerably better than some of his other films, I feel it needed a bit more to succeed. Still, it isn't terrible and deserves more attention than it will probably get.
Caleb Leger
October 11, 2015
8/10
Knock Knock is another winner from writer and director Eli Roth. After showing audiences he knows how to make people die in extraordinarily graphic situations, Roth steps outside of his comfort zone by creating a movie that is more suspenseful than anything he's done. Luckily, this works for the most part as the story is genuinely compelling and Keanu Reeves turns in a solid performance. While it could have used just a tad more work to be a truly great film, Roth has done a mostly good job in trying something different. 

The plot does a good job of handling the destruction of one man's life after making a terrible mistake. The mistake in question being that a happily married man falls for seduction and engages in a threesome with two beautiful strangers who knock on his door. This wouldn't be easy to pull of, though, without good performances. Luckily, the actors are up for the challenge. Lorenza Izzo and Ana de Armas play the psychopaths of the film, Genesis and Bel. Both actresses do a wonderful job of both seducing the main character and then systematically destroying his life. They were both sexy and terrifying, a perfect blend for a horror movie villainess. Keanu Reeves also stepped it up big time and continued to prove his worth in his recent resurgence. He played a genuinely nice guy that truly loved his family and ended up making a massive mistake. Reeves did a wonderful of portraying a man at the end of his rope and delivered another great speech while tied to a chair. Between this and John Wick, Keanu Reeves appears to be back. 

Eli Roth proves he can do more than brutally decapitate people by delivering a movie that turns a common male fantasy into a legitimately scary movie. I hope to see Roth step out of his comfort zone more often and does more films like this. While I do wish he would have gone further with the psychological torture of Reeves's character, there was still a lot to like about the movie. The actors give it their all, the plot is engaging, and there's some of Roth's humor sprinkled throughout. Another win for Eli Roth that hopefully shows his potential doing other types of films. 

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