FilmSnobReviews

Title: Knock Knock
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Eli Roth
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Lorenza Izzo, Ana de Armas
Runtime: 1 hour 39 mins
What It Is: When architect Evan (Reeves) is left alone following his wife and children leaving for the beach over the weekend. Evan is not going and that has to do mostly with needed to get a ton of work done. As the rain picks up and Evan enjoys some of the warm tones of vinyl he hears a knock on the door. It’s two young girls named Genesis (Izzo) and Bel (de Armas) who seem to be lost. It is pouring rain so Evan decides to allow them to wait in his living room for a Uber he’s just ordered them. But things start to get weird as the 45-minute wait comes to a close.

What We Think: This is not a very good movie. Not only are the characters and situations despicable, but you don’t care about either because of this. Reeves is wooden as ever, but ironically that totally works. Our two young actress are just that, young and that shows in their inexperienced and not particularly good performance. They come off as super immature and their intentions are never quite clear. Why in the hell are they doing what they’re doing? This lack of understanding I believe is completely the fault of director Roth who along with Nicholas Lopez wrote the script.

Our Grade: D+, This is not the worst movie, but it is just not good. Eli Roth can be such a good director, but here he doesn’t do anything. He points the camera at stilted characters of his creation. Something like <em>Hostel </em>or <em>Cabin Fever</em> showed off what Roth can do from a creative standpoint. I’ve not yet seen <em>Green Inferno </em>but having sat through this I don’t care to. I can’t recommend this one to anyone outside the hardcore Keanu fans.