Review of Knock Knock (2015) by Gregory M — 08 Dec 2015

If you're Eli Roth, you know a thing or two about pushing boundaries, or buttons, depending on how fragile your moral tolerance is. When Roth exploded onto the scene with Cabin Fever (2002), a skin peeling romp through the backwoods that called to mind the likes of Tobe Hooper, fans of the genre immediately cast a keen eye on the director. It wasn't until Hostel (2005) that the filmmaker began developing a particular flair and vitality, turning towards a style many love to hate. Casting an overtly misogynistic and sophomoric tone over his films, Roth has worked to separate himself from the masses, as well as critical favoritism with a rigid focus on torture, mutilation, and sadism. It's an approach to this subject matter that I have defended countless times, firmly believing that there's more behind sliced tendons, frayed nerves and severed limbs than grotesquery and abuse for the sake of being able to show it.

In the latest entry into the home-invasion thriller genre, Eli Roth has managed to set his buckets of blood and intestines on the back burner for a slower burn that manages a spark or two before fizzling into mediocrity. Shifting focus one too many times, Knock Knock manages thoughtless provocation with its blind view on sobering acts that should turn thought-provoking corners like a skilled home-invader. What it does instead is cut itself time and time again on its many plot devices, bleeding out before it's able to successfully build on its taut story.

Quickly introducing us to Evan (Keanu Reeves), an architect who would appear to have it all; a loving wife, two adoring kids and a puppy named Monkey in a house he designed. Yet it's apparent that Evan and his wife Karen (Ignacia Allamand) don't get the intimate time they crave given her busy schedule as an artist and two children abruptly pouncing them before they can even get dressed. For a couple that's fourteen years into a marriage, it all seems like a dream come true for anyone who grew up with parents that didn't separate, and yet we're placed with a predicament. Left alone for the long weekend to work while his family departs for the beach, Evan is quickly sidetracked by knocks at his door from two innocuous women, Genesis (Lorenzo Izzo) and Bel (Ana de Armas) that are lost in search of a party in the suburban sprawl of Los Angeles. Soon he finds himself quickly battling more than worker's block as a night of unfaithfulness leads to a treacherous game of cat and mouse with his new house guests.

Quickly ratcheting up suspense, Knock Knock paces itself methodically due in part to Eli Roth's slow hand camera, floating around the house like a prowler after the lights have been turned off. We become familiar with what Evan has designed, a piece of his mind laid out and the inevitable framework for which our cat and mouse maneuver through. Once the pacing of the film breaks away from its Hitchcockian roots, we realize how small our maze is, as our chase inevitably ends short lived, despite an excellent score by Manuel Riveiro backing every false step. It's a redundant exercise that plays out in front of us, where unnecessary footwork takes precedence over dialogue. It's a shame too, since childish antics and games take a front seat to a potential psychological death-match that would have amplified the terror and enhanced the dialogue tenfold.

Eli Roth is a director that isn't afraid to show the most brutal of acts, often laying his pieces out in front for everyone to bear witness to. From diseased skin being shaved off to an Achilles heel being cut like a rubber band all the way to limbs being hacked off, Roth tends to revel in illuminating as much as possible, and with Knock Knock that's no different. Evans home is strewn with photos of his loving family, almost to the point of absurdity. His wife's sculptures stand in the backyard like sentries constructed to stand guard of the house (or keep watch on Evan). Everything that rests within Evan's design has a story, a history or personal memory that exists for us to discover. For fans of Roth's films, it's a motif that is cherished and embraced.

However, there's a moment in the film that happens that carries immense gravity yet is handled like batting eyelashes. Our intruders tie Evan down to his bed, hands and feet splayed out as he awakens from a blow to the back of the head. As Genesis puts on his wife's makeup in a garish fashion, Bel mounts their prey wearing his daughter's school uniform after removing his pants. It's evident that Evan doesn't want to be having sex, yet he utilizes this moment to loosen his restraints. The camera pans back as we view this through the lens of a phone, recording a scene of rape that is dismissed as quickly as it is shown. It's a subject that writers Roth, Nicolas Lopez and Guillermo Amoedo treat flippantly, refusing to handle with any weight or severity that further treats the idea of male rape as an anomaly. It's a device underutilized and mistreated in a film that treats its victim like a perpetrator, when it could and should embrace it as a theme, tackling a substantial and daunting reality head on.

Keanu Reeves manages to carry Evan with gentle, cool warmth that leans sympathetically heavy, sporadically tossing out fits of rage reminiscent of Nicholas Cage from The Wickerman. It brings a level of camp to the screen that feels unintentional, as Reeves borders on laudable all the way to laughable, seamlessly moving between the two once things fall through his fingertips. Lorenzo Izzo and Ana de Armas as Genesis and Bel falter back and forth between commanding and infuriating, scratching at the surface of childishly manipulating. It's a performance that certainly takes dedication, though their character's ferocity and intensity falters in the third act. Given Izzo's relationship to the director, we're lucky her range maneuvers the way it does, as we'll certainly be seeing a lot more of her, which is a lot more than we can say for Rob Zombies collaboration with his wife.

Overall it's a shame the way the story is executed and the suspense handled, which quickly peaks once Genesis and Bel begin wrecking the house with the same abandonment a six year old brings to a moon bounce. For all his praise and affection for cinema and the home-invasion sub-genre, films such as When a Stranger Calls and more recently The Collector have tackled suspense and jet-fueled terror with a better hand. One can't help but wish director Eli Roth would have taken a few tips from single set films such as Rope, or even Das Boot, which induce sweaty palms with grandeur and ease. At the heart of Knock Knock is a topic just waiting to get out, surging with demand that crackles and dances with heat, yet is unable to find a light amidst the ruckus and senseless direction that comes knocking at our doorstep.