Knock Knock (2015)
Staci Layne Wilson
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Starring Lorenza Izzo, Keanu Reeves, Ana de Armas
Directed by Eli Roth
Knock, Knock!
Who’s There?
Buster!
Buster who?
Buster Cherry! Is your daughter home?
The knock-knock joke is the simplest of them all, and Eli Roth’s new movie Knock Knock is right in line with the expected one-two punch formula.
Keanu Reeves plays Evan Webber, a happily (if sexually foiled) married architect with a beautiful and talented wife (Ignacia Allamand), two adorable moppets, a cute lapdog and a showplace estate that’s to die for. And of course, he just might die defending hearth and home when two hellbent invaders slip in and shake things up.
The story opens on a stormy Father’s Day weekend, when Evan is left alone by his reluctant family – he can’t go with them to enjoy the fun, due to a shoulder injury. He needs to get some work done anyway, so it’s all good. He’s ensconced in his blueprints and enjoying some music and wine when there’s a knock-knock at his door. It’s a pair of soaking-wet women, Genesis (Lorenza Izzo) and Bel (Ana de Armas) – they’re lost, their cell phones are soaked, and they need refuge. Evan is a nice guy, so of course he lets them in to dry off, use his phone, and… well, let’s just say his hospitality doesn’t end there.
After a night of wild three-way sex, the sun comes up and the girls are still there. They’ve made themselves at home, and they refuse to leave. When Evan presses the point, they play the blackmail card – revealing a sinister agenda and adding that they’re both under the age of consent. Evan winds up tied up (not in a good way), as Genesis and Bel make his once happy life a living hell, wreaking delicious havoc on everything he holds dear. It puts a whole new cast on the term “home-wreckers.”
As someone who has watched every single Eli Roth film made, I must say it’s a pleasure to finally see some different characters – not just variations on the Cabin Fever kids. What’s more, Knock Knock is a complete 180 from the abominable, cannibalized Green Inferno; which is not to say it’s wholly original — it’s sort of a post-modern twist on Natural Born Killers, but the focus is less on the media’s glorification of violence and more about its effect on individuals — but at least it’s got a voice of its own.
Reeves is hilarious as the whiny, feeble victim, and Izzo and Armas are the most vivacious villains to come along in some time. Their chemistry sizzles, and their comic timing is spot-on. Most of the film is centered on this unholy trinity, but the occasional appearance of outside characters is welcome – especially in the person of Louis (Aaron Burns), Evan’s wife’s art agent who comes a’knocking at the worst possible moment.
If a Showgirls-era Paul Verhoeven had directed a Funny Games/Fatal Attraction mash-up in an alternate universe populated by disaffected hipsters, Knock Knock would be the result. It’s terrifically terrible, and I kind of loved it.
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Film
Categorized:News
