Director: Eli Roth
MPAA Rating: R
Run Time: 99 Minutes
Horror guru Eli Roth is back behind the camera once again, directing his silliest, most over-the-top picture yet – Knock Knock, a remake of the 1977 exploitation film Death Game. But while some may find joy in the shear campiness of this home invasion thriller, I found it entirely too goofy, tedious and poorly scripted.
The film stars Keanu Reeves as Evan, an architect settling in for a weekend of work and relaxation while his wife and kids are out of town. Everything is going swimmingly for him until two attractive young women (Lorenza Izzo and Ana de Armas) suddenly turn up on his doorstep, drenched from head to toe from, looking for a warm place to dry off and make a call.
Even though he initially resists their advances, Evan succumbs to the girls’ seduction and winds up sleeping with them. The next morning they begin terrorizing him and things go downhill pretty quickly for poor Evan.
Knock Knock plays out like the quintessential male fantasy gone horribly wrong. Two beautiful and mysterious women appear out of nowhere for a wild and passionate night of libations and debauchery, but as quickly as it began, the fantasy turns into a nightmare that could cause Evan to lose everything, including his life.
Izzo and de Aramas are delightfully evil, acting like playful children one moment, and sadistic murderers the next. This is the film’s one positive element. I like that Roth (and the original Death Game director Peter Traynor) decided to turn the tables on what we typically see in these kinds of movies when it comes to gender roles.
Unfortunately, the allure of this dynamic shift quickly loses its sheen as the film gradually becomes more tedious and grating. The bulk of the runtime is Keanu yelling at the girls to stop destroying his house and to leave and then them not listening to him and destroying more stuff. It gets old real fast.
The ridiculous dialogue doesn’t help matters, as I was never sure if what I was watching was supposed to be serious or not. The actors played everything straight, but much of it was so laughably silly that it’s never clear if the comedy is intentional. Watching Reeves act in this role reminded me of Nicholas Cage in The Wicker Man, specifically the “Not the bees!” scene. It’s awful.
I have not seen the original Death Game so I can’t compare Knock Knock to it, but for me this one was a dud. It was just too campy to take seriously and presented in a much too earnest a way to simply enjoy for how silly it is.
