Movie Review – Knock Knock (2015)

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Lorenza Izzo, Ana De Armas, and Ignacia Allamand

After watching Knock Knock‘s first teaser, I found my interest incredibly peaked. You had brash director Eli Roth’s name in the credits of something that seemed more nuanced and grounded than the torture porn master director has come to be known for. The initial teaser built mood, and it seemed that Roth had matured to the point of making a movie that did not rely on shock to move the plot forward. And of course, prominently displayed, is Keanu Reeves. Fresh off last year’s career renaissance John Wick, Reeves (whose name is also on Knock Knock‘s marquee as executive producer) seemed intent on trying to capitalize on that film’s success by putting his career in Roth’s still not proven to be capable hands. I am here to say that after one viewing of Knock Knock, I have absolutely no intent of giving Roth anymore chances, and I dare you to not watch the clock during its entire 96 minute running time.

The real tragedy of Knock Knock is that its first third is actually quite good. We are introduced to Evan Webber (Reeves) as his family wakes him up to tell him that they are going out of town for a few days so that he can have alone time and get work done. At this point of the film, Roth does a (gulp) credible job of establishing that Evan is a good family man. Almost to the point of stuffing it down our throats. Will Evan smoke a joint to relax himself? Nope. Even though he’s tempted, he never lights up. Instead, loud music takes weed’s place, and Evan is portrayed as one step away from being an obedient stay at home dad. Suddenly, there is a knock on the door. He opens it up, and sees two beautiful rain-soaked women named Bel (Armas) and Genesis (real life Mrs Roth Izzo). Telling Evan they were stranded while on their way to a party, he allows them to stay as long as it takes for an Uber to come pick them up. Even after learning the wait time for the next Uber’s appearance is 45 minutes, Evan reluctantly goes against his initially established inhibition and lets the two flirtatious women stay until they’re picked up.

Now believe it or not, I was with the film in these parts of its narrative. Roth does a (double gulp) nice job of establishing Evan’s attempted avoidance of the inevitable situation before him, and all scenes leading up to the girls’ arrival leads us to believe Evan will come out without committing adultery. Of course, this being a Roth film, we know things will turn out differently, and all assumptions I’ve had of this being a ‘more mature’ Roth film go right out the window when the two women play ‘monkey in the middle’ with Evan’s inhaler.

After telling the Uber to leave, Reeves eventually succumbs to the women’s advances, and Roth chooses this moment to pretend he’s arty by filming part of their threesome through steamy shower glass. The next morning, Evan wakes up to the women tearing his place apart and defacing his wife’s art work. Where Knock Knock goes wrong is Roth had many opportunities to explain what Bel and Genesis’s motives were for doing this, but instead chooses to have them do stupid things such as make jokes about Evan’s hair. I didn’t want a Bond villain type reveal of their plot. But something, SOMETHING for us to gnaw on would have been nice. Nope, what little explanation we get is the lazy work of a man directing his first film. But the year isn’t 2003. And Roth isn’t directing Cabin Fever anymore. What’s worse, Roth goes for a lighter version of the torture porn that made him so successful with 2007’s Hostel. Though instead of ripping out eyes, he painfully (for the viewer) has his antagonists bring the film to a grinding halt by playing a stupid pretend game show with the protagonist.

Roth doesn’t help his cause by making the two girls far from menacing. They turn their types of performances on a dime, and a better director could have minimized how badly the women come off. Instead, it looks like he pulled a Rob Zombie and just told Izzo to shriek and act like Sherri Moon. Armas is slightly better, but it is of no use. In other words, their performances are so broad that any form of anti-infidelity statement Roth seems to be trying to convey is offset. After all, here is a movie where the guy we supposedly want to get out of the situation he’s in…calls the two women ‘fucking cunts’ and ‘bitches.’ So this is the more mature Roth I’d heard about, huh?

Don’t see this movie. Stay far away from this movie. Reeves is much better than this. That being said, I can see him in a role like this had the movie been directed by almost anyone else. He could absolutely start taking the types of roles Michael Douglas did in the late 80s through the mid 90s. For example, I think Reeves would make the great protagonist of a Basic Instinct type plot. But under Roth’s direction, Knock Knock -a pseudo remake of 1977’s Death Game– Reeves’s characterization, and more importantly the film’s narrative, fails miserably.

Keep telling us how screwed you were out of Green Inferno‘s release, Roth. Piles of manure like this are tough enough to swallow without you trying so hard to shovel us more.

3 out of 10