Knock Knock

Horror has always been a huge part of my life. I remember as a little girl the first horror movie I ever saw was Dolly Dearest. That movie turned me into a life long horror fan. It wasn't long before I discovered IT, one of my favorite movies of all time. Now while I love all horror I have always had a fondness for slasher films. Something about the way these films of the late 70's and 80's were made just clicked with me. The weird morality tales and karma that always seemed to shine through.

Leprechaun, Halloween, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Child's Play and Texas Chainsaw Massacre were just a few of the series that helped form my obsession with the genre. But as time has gone on horror has evolved and not for the better. It seemed for a long time all we got were half-assed remakes or possession movies. Not really my cup of tea.

But lately a new sub-genre in the horror vain has started to emerge. These are hyper realistic films with a darker hue to them. Among these are films like Lights out and Don't Breath. These are films that could be the modern generations slasher films. I decided to write this blog to shed some light on these films and others like them.

For today's blog I thought we could talk about Knock Knock. While not really a slasher film, it does fit in the this new sub-genre. Going into the film I didn't know what to think, but seeing as it was Keanu Reeves I decided to give it a shot.

The movie started off a bit slow, made all the worse by how bad everyone's acting was. Now I know what you're thinking, I'm a slasher fan, what do I know about good acting and to that I just shake my head. Some of today's greatest actors got their start in horror films, Johnny Depp and Kevin Bacon to name a few. So when this movie started and the acting was so wooden it turned me off of the film right away. But I decided to push through and I'm glad I did.

It wasn't long before Keanu's wife and kids left to go on vacation and left him alone. That is when the movie really starts to pick up. There is a knock at the door and waiting for him in the pouring rain are two young women. They ask to come in and use the phone. He lets them in.

The two girls hit on him none stop but he keeps resisting. He loves his wife and wants no part in them or what they offer. He orders them an Uber and starts to befriend them. The Uber comes and the girls lock themselves away. A pissed off Keanu storms into the room and tells them to leave but the girls have nothing on and seduce the man.

This night of lust costs him everything! The girls won't leave and start to destroy his wife's art work. He threatens to call the cops and the mind games start. The girls tell him they are under age and he is going to jail. It's all too much for them but he calls their bluff and they leave. Or so he thinks.

This is where the fun starts. The girls break back in that night and capture him. Tying him to a chair and making him watch as they ruin his house. The girls force him to sleep with them again and record the whole thing. They kill a family friend and put the whole thing on him.

The torture that this poor man goes through is insane, but so much fun to watch. He keeps trying to figure a way out of it all but every time you think he might the girls just redouble the emotional pain they inflect on him. That seems to be their thing, emotional pain. It cause so much more damage than physical pain and they know it. They get off on it.

The longer the movie runs the more you see just how crazy these girls are. They bury him alive, leaving only his head above the surface of the ground and force him to watch the video of him having sex with them, now posted on his facebook page, while this is happening his wife and kids come home. That is how the film ends, it leaves you screaming for more. You want to see how the wife reacts. How it affects her. Seeing all of her art work ruined. Learning that her assistant has been murdered and her home destroyed all because her husband couldn't keep it in his pants. That would have been a movie to watch in and of itself.

The girls do this as a test. They are looking for a man strong enough to say no, that is a brilliant idea, leaving it open for future installments. This could go on forever. It could really be the start of something and while it doesn't have the crazy kills that I love from slasher films it does satisfy the twisted morality tale and karma coming in for revenge. Come to think of it, it does have the crazy kills that you love to see, just not physical kills. They are all emotional kills. One by one they take everything he loves away from him. Ruining his whole life and leaving him a bubbling wreck.  When the credits roll he may still be alive but you know that nothing will ever be the same for him again.

His life is over.

If you love horror, if you love slasher films, this is the film for you. It's everything you can want. Well if you like twisted, but who among us doesn't?