No one home in ‘Knock Knock’
In the next few weeks, horror hounds will have a few box-office options to satisfy their craving for carnage. From family-friendly frights such as “Goosebumps” (which joins similar milder fare “Hotel Transylvania 2” and “The Visit”) to more mature mayhem such as the gothic “Crimson Peak” and the most recent “Paranormal Activity” installment, the theaters will have their share of shivers.
But there are more days in the month, and there is a glut of new gore released direct to video in days and weeks ahead, some of which you may be tempted to purchase for a night of homebound haunts. Two titles have had their share of press: one because of its famed director and its big-name leading man, and one for its acclaim on the festival circuit in the past few months.
“Knock Knock” was introduced to audiences at this year’s Sundance Film Festival in January, and it was just recently released for streaming and on demand Oct. 9. Keanu Reeves stars as a Evan, a loving husband and father who is left alone for the weekend by his family so he can complete an architectural project while wife and children enjoy their beach house getaway. But as he is busy building a house for work, his actual home starts to crumble, thanks to an unexpected visit by two rain-soaked hotties claiming they’re looking for a nearby party, but are clueless as to the actual address.
Evan generously open his door to allow the girls use of his phone (since theirs is now drenched) and allows them to contact a new Uber car to come pick them up (the countdown for its arrival is one of the only clever devices the film has up its sleeves). Immediately, Genesis (played by Lorenza Izzo) and Bel (Ana de Armas) begin flirting with Evan, becoming increasingly more aggressive until he finally succumbs to the seductive sirens.
After a raunchy romp, the two vixens immediately turn into full psychotic feminist warriors/spoiled schoolgirls, threatening to destroy everything and watch him squirm for their own sadistic jollies. The twist is … there is no twist. That’s really about it.
And that is perhaps the most maddening thing about “Knock Knock.” Director Eli Roth, who earned some horror clout with “Cabin Fever” and “Hostel” a few years back, has arguably not made anything of real substance ever since. He’s clearly shooting for an over-the-top B-movie here (with Reeves giving one of his jaw-droppingly worst performances ever put to film), and it seems Roth may be heading into much darker waters, only to return to its simplistic setup and shrug of an ending.
By the end, after witnessing the senseless destruction of the two preening party princesses and the hyperventilating histrionics from Reeves, we are left with no one to root for in this battle of the sexes. And Roth, who was credited for pushing boundaries in the past, reveals that there is no one home in “Knock Knock.”
There are countless others looking to vie for the horror crown Roth once wore, and the creative team behind “The Final Girls” (a nickname given to the surviving females of horror films) deserve to have their chance at entering the contest, as they have created what only a few have successfully achieved in the past - an agile, fun and inventive take on the horror comedy (which was released for on demand Oct. 9).
Director Todd Strauss-Schulson's last big-screen endeavor was “A Very Harold & Kumar 3-D Christmas,” a film that was far more entertaining than it deserved to be, and he works wonders behind the lens here as well. He is given a consistently funny, loving script from M.A. Fortin and Joshua John Miller, in which “The Final Girls” sends up '80s-era horror films (in particular, the original “Friday the 13th"). The result is earnest in its intent and surprisingly fresh.
In front of the camera are a number of actors recognizable for their smaller roles in comedic projects: Nina Dobrev (“Let’s Be Cops”), Alia Shawkat (“Arrested Development”), Thomas Middleditch (“Silicon Valley”), and Adam DeVine (“Modern Family,” “Workaholics”) all add more comedy to this mix of clever and cleaver.
A young woman, Max (played by Taissa Farmiga), recently lost her actress mother in a horrific car crash. When Max’s college hosts a special screening of one of her mom’s enduring horror flicks from the '80s, “Camp Bloodbath,” they ask Max to attend in her honor. Before you can say “Purple Rose of Cairo,” Max and her friends are pulled into the on-screen action, reuniting Max with her teenage mom. The only problem? They are all being stalked by a masked, machete-wielding killer and are prone to doing all the stupid things '80s-era horror-film teens do.
The bond Max shares with her mom serves to ground “The Final Girls” with an emotional core, which is often left behind in films that try to play their horror for humor. It also manages to steer the film from the path of its similarly themed predecessors, “Scream” and “Cabin in the Woods,” providing it with a fresh coat of paint on a time-worn bodycount.
The PG-13 rating does hamper the film from giving purists what they went to see these films for in the first place (copious blood and boobies), but it maneuvers deftly around these limitations. By the time the final credits roll (while the actual film is still taking place, it should be noted), “The Final Girls” demonstrates that its writers clearly thought this film’s central conceit all the way through, even setting up the inevitable sequel, which I honestly would love to see happen.
