Knock Knock (2015 film)

Knock Knock

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Eli Roth
Produced by
Written by
Starring
Music by Manuel Riveiro
Cinematography Antonio Quercia
Edited by Diego Macho
Production
companies
  • Camp Grey
  • Dragonfly Entertainment
  • Sobras International Pictures
Distributed by Lionsgate Premiere
Release dates
  • January 23, 2015 (2015-01-23) (Sundance)
  • October 9, 2015 (2015-10-09) (United States)
Running time
 99 minutes[1]
Country United States
Language English
Budget $3 million[2][3]
Box office $5.2 million [4]

Knock Knock is a 2015 American erotic horror thriller film directed by Eli Roth, who also co-wrote the script with Guillermo Amoedo and Nicolás López. The film stars Keanu Reeves, Lorenza Izzo, and Ana de Armas. The film was released on October 9, 2015, by Lionsgate Premiere, and it is a remake of Peter Traynor's 1977 film Death Game.[5]

Plot

Architect and happily married man Evan Webber (Keanu Reeves) has the house to himself and his dog Monkey on Father's Day weekend (due to work and a physical therapy appointment due to a shoulder injury) while his wife and children go on a family-planned beach trip. His wife Karen (Ignacia Allamand), a successful artist, leaves their assistant Louis (Aaron Burns) in charge of her sculpture that needs to be moved to an art gallery. Alone in his beautiful and expensive home, Evan works on renderings for an ongoing house project.

That evening, two women, Genesis (Lorenza Izzo) and Bel (Ana de Armas) knock on his door. He opens the door and they say that they are looking for the address of a party, but since their phone died, the taxi driver dropped them off. As they have no means of communication, Evan allows them in to use the Internet and get hold of the party's host. Once they find the right address, Evan offers to call an Uber driver for them, but the closest driver will take 45 minutes to arrive. Meanwhile, the girls make themselves at home and Evan plays a few of his old vinyl records he has from when he was a disc jockey. The conversation quickly turns into their opinions about human polygamy and they tell Evan about their jobs as flight attendants as well as how they engage in sexual activity with a new man in every city they fly to. They then disappear to the bathroom and when their driver finally arrives, a circumspect Evan finds them in the bathroom, naked and lusting for him. Outraged, Evan tries to convince them to leave, but as they start forcing themselves upon him, he gives in and has a threesome with them.

The following day, Evan finds them eating breakfast and watching Family Feud, not worried at all about leaving. He loses his patience and offers to drive them home, since they have not taken the cab. Evan returns indoors only to find out that his wife's sculpture, which Louis was supposed to collect for the art gallery, has been vandalized. When Evan threatens to call the police, the girls reveal they are underage, showing they have control over him or risk charges on sexual conduct with a minor. Vivian (Colleen Camp), a friend of Karen's, stops by to see if Evan needs help. Seeing Genesis, Vivian angrily leaves, thinking that Evan is cheating on Karen. A shocked Evan tries to make sense of the situation, since he realized that everything the girls had said was a lie in order to get him in bed. When Evan threatens to report a break-in, they give in and agree to be taken home. He drops them off at an upscale neighborhood where they supposedly live.

He then returns home, cleans the mess, and tries to go back to his work. Just as he is getting closer to completing his project, he hears a shattering noise. He goes looking for the source of the noise as he is supposedly alone indoors. He finds a broken picture-frame of his family and Genesis knocks him out with one of his wife's sculptures. They tie him up and go through his family's belongings. Bel climbs onto him trying to arouse him while role-playing as a school girl in his daughter's school uniform. Evan initially refuses, but the girls threaten to FaceTime his wife with him in a compromising position. Even though this disgusts him, Evan realizes that by moving on the bed he can loosen his binds, so he plays along and has intercourse with her. Bel rapes him, and unbeknownst to him, Genesis records everything. When Evan finally releases himself, he jumps at Bel and knocks her off. He charges at Genesis, who stabs him in his wounded shoulder with a fork. She then pins him to the ground and both girls proceed to tie him up to a chair with electrical cord.

Later on, Louis arrives to collect the sculpture Karen left him in charge of. The girls take Evan's phone and text Louis saying his niece and her friend are staying over. They hide Evan in a room. Louis enters using his keys. He panics upon finding the vandalized sculpture and immediately realizes these girls are lying about their relation to Evan. Louis then finds Evan tied up to a chair, but before he can help him he hears the girls smashing the vandalized sculpture. He runs to stop them, but then has an asthma attack, and realizes they took his inhaler. The girls play monkey-in-the-middle with his inhaler, and as he tries to get it back, he slips on a piece of the sculpture and knocks his head on the edge, killing him. They turn Louis' body into a red sculpture and dig a makeshift grave in the backyard meant for Evan. They also reveal to him that they had been spying on him all along. He fails in his various attempts to make an emergency call and to escape from the house. They tie him up with a hose, then bury him in the hole, leaving only his head above ground. Genesis shows Evan the video she recorded earlier with his phone of him and Bel having sex. As a horrified Evan watches on, she uploads it to his Facebook profile. Ultimately, they spare Evan's life, going against the idea of killing him in the same fashion they had killed Louis. Revealing that it had all been a "game" and that they're used to tricking fathers into this type of situation, they finally depart and take Monkey with them, leaving a broken Evan to his fate in trying to dig himself out of the hole he is buried in while watching the uploaded video with comments coming in. Karen and the kids arrive home to the entire house ruined. Evan's son says "Daddy had a party" as Karen and the kids remain speechless, apparently ending the movie.

However, in an alternate ending, Evan arrives at the girls' house, putting on black gloves. He walks up to the house where the girls are inside torturing their latest victim. Upon hearing the sound of knocking they both tense up and ask: "Who's there?". What happens in terms of his wife and kids is left unknown.

Cast

Production

On April 4, 2014, Keanu Reeves was added to the cast to play Evan Webber, a happily married family man and architect.[6] Chilean actress Ignacia Allamand also joined the film.[7][8]

Release

On January 26, 2015 Lionsgate acquired the distribution rights to the film.[9] Knock Knock premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2015.[10] The film was released on October 9, 2015 in the United States.[11]

Critical reception

Knock Knock received negative reviews from critics. Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports a rating of 33%, based on 60 reviews, with an average rating of 5.2/10. The site's consensus states: "Knock Knock brings a lot of talent to bear on its satirical approach to torture horror, but not effectively enough to overcome its repetitive story or misguidedly campy tone."[12] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 55 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[13]

Dread Central awarded it a score of four out of five, saying "what we do have is a home invasion film for the social media generation (yes, it does feature social media in its plot) that should make you think twice before offering warmth and shelter to a stranger on a dark and stormy night."[14]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "KNOCK KNOCK (18)". British Board of Film Classification. June 11, 2015. Retrieved August 11, 2015.
  2. ↑ Sneider, Jeff (02-21-2014). "Eli Roth to Direct, Co-Write Horror Movie ‘Knock Knock’ (Exclusive)", www.thewrap.com. Retrieved 28-06-2015.
  3. ↑ Jagernauth, Kevin (04-04-2014). "Keanu Reeves Joins Eli Roth's 'Knock Knock,' Benicio Del Toro Joins Denis Villeneuve's 'Sicario' & More", blogs.indiewire.com. Retrieved 28-06-2015.
  4. ↑ "Knock Knock (2015)". the-numbers. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
  5. ↑ Ben Kenigsberg (2015-01-24). "‘Knock Knock’ Review: Keanu Reeves Stars in Eli Roth’s ‘Death Game’ Update". Variety. Retrieved 2015-05-22.
  6. ↑ Fleming Jr, Mike (April 4, 2014). "Keanu Reeves, Eli Roth To Team On Thriller ‘Knock Knock’". deadline.com. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  7. ↑ Phillips, Chaka (April 14, 2014). "Eli Roth New Movie: 'Knock Knock' To Star Keanu Reeves; Film To Debut In September?". latinpost.com. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  8. ↑ "Keanu Reeves finished filming his movie "Knock Knock" in Chile". twitter.com. May 11, 2014. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
  9. ↑ Fleming Jr, Mike (January 26, 2015). "Lionsgate Closes Eli Roth-Keanu Reeves Thriller ‘Knock Knock’ At $2.5 Million". deadline.com. Retrieved January 27, 2015.
  10. ↑ "Jason Segel’s 'The End of the Tour' wows at Sundance". NY Daily News. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
  11. ↑ "Lionsgate Publicity". Lionsgate Publicity. Retrieved 2015-08-29.
  12. ↑ "Knock Knock (2015)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved October 7, 2015.
  13. ↑ "Knock Knock Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  14. ↑ Gelmini, David (2015-07-02). "Knock Knock (2015)". Dread Central. Retrieved 2015-08-29.

External links

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