Keanu Reeves plays a forty-something architect whose family has gone on vacation without him so that he can focus on a project for his job. Later that night, a couple of young women show up on his doorstep, seduce him, then refuse to leave his home. When he threatens to call the cops, they giggle and say they’ve got a good story to tell: “You want to check her ID?” asks one of the women. “She’s too young to have one.”
From that point forward, Keanu’s character is forced to take part in their sick games. After tying him to a bed, one of the women wears his daughter’s clothes and rapes him while the other woman videotapes. At various points throughout the movie, Keanu gets the opportunity to make a run for it, but he chooses not to, hoping until the bitter end that he’ll find some way to fix this problem and keep his wife from finding out about his infidelities.
I’d like to point out that I’m a fan of Keanu Reeves, who the internet seems to think is a joke. Not many movie stars would do a picture like this. Hell, most stars would have run the other way when offered The Matrix, especially after getting burned by the Johnny Mnemonic movie. Judging by some of the roles he’s chosen to do, he’s a genuine fan of genre films. Knock Knock is obviously not a movie he did just for the paycheck—the entire film budget was less than most movie star’s salaries. It’s a brave move to take a role like this and I’m sure his agent tried to talk him out of doing it.
Knock Knock is probably Eli Roth’s best-looking film, but it’s also the least entertaining. Maybe I would have liked it more if I had seen Death Game, which Roth apparently wanted to remake, but I missed the old Roth—the fun Roth—and he doesn’t get up to his old tricks until right before the credits roll. There’s actually a very funny bit towards the end involving Facebook. Had the rest of the movie been like that, I probably would have been able to recommend it.
My biggest complaint is the movie doesn’t seem to have a message. When you subject viewers to this kind of humorless violence, you should either have a reason or make it entertaining. This is like Funny Games without the point. I’ve always enjoyed Eli Roth’s films, but this one’s a misfire. It’s a shame, man. A downright shame.
Come back at midnight Central Time for the next movie.
The Goug' Blog 