The Plot

When his wife and children are away for the weekend, family man Evan (Keanu Reeves) is visited and promptly seduced by two young girls, Genesis (Lorenza Izzo) and Bel (Ana de Armas). But the weekend takes a turn for the worse when they return the following night to wreak havoc on his life.

The Good

Eli Roth’s latest horror is perhaps his most mainstream yet. With it’s strongest asset being Keanu Reeves who, fresh from his turn as ass kicking John Wick, gets to sit back on the action in a role which at times allows us to see him in a much more restrained situation. And we’re not just talking about his being tied up for most of the film.

Of course, with this being an Eli Roth film, the gore is still very much around, however for the less trained stomach, Knock Knock is undoubtedly the safest option from Roth’s every growing back catalog of torture porn.

The Bad

For fans of Roth’s previous films however, the lack of gore is the least of it’s problems. Knock Knock is essentially a film of two halves, both of which are just as bad as each other. After a cringe worthy opening scene thanks to the over-use of an incredibly awkward ‘monster voice’ which Reeves’ Evan uses firstly to scare his children but then embarrassingly continues to use to try to seduce his wife into bed – A tactic which thankfully doesn’t work – the dialogue barely picks up.

Once the wife and kids are out of the story and the femme fatale duo of Lorenza Izzo and Ana De Armas enter, the film takes a turn for the worst in an incredibly long seduction sequence which feels like dialogue has been taken from an extremely painfully written porn film. It’s a sequence written so badly it makes Fifty Shades feel like Jane Austen.

The latter half thankfully picks up a bit in its dialogue, but unfortunately feels like it would be much better suited in a straight to dvd thriller. It’s almost a shock to the system to know that this came from Eli Roth and is especially disheartening to know that this came after the incredible The Green Inferno – one of the highlights of last years Film4 Frightfest and a film that to this day still hasn’t had a proper release in the UK, while Knock Knock is allowed to almost ruin the good name of Roth in a mere 99 minutes.

The Ugly Truth

Keanu Reeves is arguably the only good thing in this poorly written film that somehow came from the mind of a director who was at the top of his game last year with The Green Inferno. Unfortunately Reeves is unable to do much with his character thanks to the story which screams potential, leaving for an unimpressive feeling that hopefully won’t completely ruin Roth’s career…

Review by Johnny Ellis