Knock Knock

Based on a forgotten ’70s film, Knock Knock follows family man Evan (Keanu Reeves) as he engages in extramarital sex with two sultry, promiscuous strangers (Lorenza Izzo’s Genesis and Ana de Armas’s Bell) and is, the day after, psychologically and physically tortured by the deranged girls. It’s a fairly stupid premise that’s employed to progressively unwatchable effect by filmmaker Eli Roth, as the director, along with coscreenwriters Nicolás López and Guillermo Amoedo, proves utterly unable to elevate the narrative above its persistently one-note sensibilities – with the movie, by and large, coming off as a five minute short that’s been clumsily, brutally expanded to feature length. It’s fairly disappointing, too, given that Knock Knock does open with a certain degree of potential, with Reeves’ typically affable turn as the sympathetic protagonist certainly playing an integral role in initially capturing the viewer’s interest. The movie begins its steady turn towards total irrelevance once Izzo and de Armas’ one-dimensional characters show up, however, as the bulk of Knock Knock‘s interminable running time is devoted to the pair’s increasingly destructive antics – with the aggressively repetitive vibe exacerbated by Roth’s heavy-handed approach to the film’s “message.” The end result is a monumentally epic failure from a seriously hit-and-miss filmmaker, and it’s ultimately impossible not to wonder what drew Reeves to such misguided, puerile material.

1/2* out of ****