Knock Knock stars Keanu Reeves, Lorenza Izzo, Roth’s wife, and Ana de Armas, is Eli Roth’s remake of Death Game, which was already remade in Spain under the title Viciosas al Desnudo, Vicious and Nude, and neither preceding film is available for home viewing. Reeves plays Evan, a forty-two year old architect who stays home to work Father’s Day weekend and an unexpected turn of events threatens to destroy everything.
Knock Knock ended up in my queue because I have a decades long, unconditional (remember he went through a puffy phase and most of his movies were not masterpieces) crush on Reeves, but when I realized that it was a Roth film, I was slightly worried because I’m not a fan of his films, especially since his greatest fear seems to be vagina or traveling. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself somewhat reversing my position by the end of the film. I thought Roth did some of his best work ever and wished that a more versatile actor than Reeves were playing Evan to bring out his character’s dark side more when he finally has verbal outbursts. Reeves sounds more impotent, panicked and shrill than hinting at a latent potential for violence that would erupt under slightly different circumstances.
Knock Knock is primarily a psychological horror film, and it is an extremely uncomfortable film to watch, which means that Roth succeeded. The dog never gets hurt. It is divided into three parts: the ordinary, superficial life, i.e. the should portion, the porn fantasy and the nightmare for Evan. We primarily see things from his perspective. In the first part, Roth repeatedly takes the viewers on a tour of the house without the family, the façade, and while the family inhabits the space. Evan seems happy but also isolated, primarily lined up with the dog in photos or as a joke, attacking his family. While everyone is pleasant to him, there is a sense that at any minute, a disagreement will explode, and a general suspicion that he is slightly rebelling from his duties as a husband and father: not wanting to be with the family with the veneer of wanting to be a provider, impressing other people and hurting himself in the process, keeping his hair long, treating his wife as a sex object. I initially thought his wife’s rebuke was disproportionate to what seemed like a reasonable, expressed desire (your husband is Keanu Reeves!), but given what subsequently unfolds seems more tolerable. She is expected to prepare for an opening and take care of the kids while he needs alone time to work. Evan is as conciliatory as he needs to be, but despite the affable façade, is tired of his inadequacies being pointed out and needing to step up his game to do better by his family.
I’m not a porn consumer (I watched a couple during college for film class-no, seriously), but Knock Knock’s second section seemed ripped right out of a porn trope. Two hot, young, scantily clad, hypersexual girls end up on Evan’s doorstep, and all they want to do is compliment and sleep with him—no judgment, biological imperative. Evan is no Joseph, y’all, though he does attempt a valiant impression of him. This section is pure fantasy, but it also speaks to something broader about male privilege. He thinks that he still has it and deserves their attention. He misses all the foreboding moments (“warning: hot surface”) and never sees them as a threat, just a sexual opportunity, which most women would not if two hot young men suddenly appeared on their door step. Also maybe it is because I’m a woman or a New Yorker, but if I’m not expecting you, I’m not answering the door, and if I do answer the door and help, you’re not crossing the threshold. I don’t know you. (For the sake of science, if anyone wants to test this theory by reaching out to Reeves and giving him my address, please feel free.) People unwilling to leave your house and respect your boundaries are not sexy.
The third section is brilliant and discomfiting. In echoes of the opening of the film when his kids interrupt his fantasy of what his day is going to be like, he awakens to peace, but discovers that the two hot girls have become like unruly children, which makes them seem insane, especially making a mess of the kitchen, openly miming sexual acts in the daytime and eating out of the dog bowl, but they snap right back into calculating mode when they see a feasible threat. What made this section terrifying to me was I had no idea what they wanted until the end of the film, and they seemed completely capable of anything. Izzo is terrifying and dominates Knock Knock because she is inscrutable and as close to unhinged as a rational, brilliant person can be. Her eyes made it clear that she was constantly assessing the situation and adapting to stay on top. I never bought de Armas’ cover story and thought it was part of the mind games, but who knows. Whether that is a flaw in her depiction or the script is uncertain.
There is an interesting scene when Evan begins to call their bluff and picks up a rotary phone to call the police. Up to this point, everyone has used cell phones and iPads to communicate. It is emblematic of how the old standard plays out. Evan expects things to go a certain way, but his ideas are obsolete. If you really break down what they do, they want what happened in secret to be open and known, and they accomplish it by weaponizing gender expectations about women and sexuality and amplifying his family’s earlier, more loving criticisms of his behavior. They want the real Evan to come out and destroy the nice guy. They want the home to look like what it is underneath. If there was a narrative flaw in Knock Knock, it is lack of restraint. I wish there was some way for them to accomplish this act without physical violence to Evan so as viewers, while we are rooting for Evan to stop them, if we look back, we could argue that his potential physical response is disproportionate to the actual threat that they pose to him.
Knock Knock would have been a stronger story if the only threat that they posed was a social threat of being indiscreet and exposing him as a faithless man by messing up his house and not hiding. He consented to them being in his house, and while property damage isn’t good, it is also not something that can’t be recovered from. If you can make the audience even briefly empathize with Evan’s desire to stop them by any means necessary then have us reflect on why we are empathizing with Evan when what they want is actually not bad, but real, it would succeed in helping us question the rules of social life and appropriate behavior; however, they are a legitimate physical threat so that trenchant questioning is not possible. At one point, castration seems like it is an option so Evan may be imperfect, the real dog in the film, but he is a victim, and they are perps, possibly sociopaths, and show no concern for anyone else’s welfare, particularly his kids and wife.
My favorite scene in Knock Knock is when someone actually does pass their test and does not fall for their helpless, sexual girl act. I rewound the scene several times. “Bitch, you’re barking up the wrong tree. I’m from Oakland, ho! I know two ghetto ass hoes when I see them!” I love this person! You deserved your own movie! Call Jordan Peele! I left the movie wanting to know more about these two women, but I’m glad that I didn’t because an explanation would cheapen. How did they meet? Why do they do this? What do they do when they aren’t being sexual vigilantes? It seems like a big commitment to have sex with dudes that you want to punish unless that is part of the fun like rapists. They seemed like a sidequel to Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac.
Knock Knock is not an enjoyable movie to watch. It actually left me feeling queasy and uncomfortable, which is how I know that it worked. So kudos to Roth for finally harnessing his fear of vaginas into a well crafted movie, but Reeves’ limited range detracted from the film’s resonance. Side note: if the original and first remake ever become available, please let me know!