Film review: Knock Knock – Keanu Reeves plays victim in lame erotic thriller
Hollywood star so wooden a chair would have been more animated in this B-movie whose only merit is its male-victim role reversal
This lame erotic thriller may well feature one of the worst movie performances ever by a Hollywood star. Although Keanu Reeves has never been noted for his subtlety as a thespian, his performance as a captive husband in Knock Knock could easily be bettered by a stationary object like a chair.
Adoring husband Evan (Reeves) packs his perfect family off on a holiday and settles down to do some work. A storm breaks, and two provocative young girls (Lorenza Izzo and Ana de Armas) turn up on his doorstep seeking shelter. Evan rebuffs their seduction techniques at first, but finally falters. The girls then tie him up and punish him for his infidelity.
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The movie, shot in Chile and based on a trashy 1977 flick called Death Game, would like to claim lineage to the great Italian horrors by Dario Argento and his ilk. But in reality, it’s just a made-for-TV Basic Instinct. Horror specialist Eli Roth’s (Cabin Fever) direction is too clumsy to provide any shocks, and, in today’s age of porn, the shenanigans aren’t even sexy.
The best that can be said for Knock Knock is that it reverses the horror stereotype by having the man as the victim. The filmmakers seem to be relying on the well-known B-movie philosophy that male viewers will put up with anything if there are enough shots of girls running around in extremely tight shorts.
Knock Knock opens on November 12
