It’s great that we got two Eli Roth films in one year. The first was his long awaited cannibal film The Green Inferno, which was originally supposed to be released last year, but legal & distribution issues delayed it. The second film we got was Knock Knock, a satire of home invasion films more or less with the right dose of Roth’s trademark dark humor.
Keanu Reeves plays Evan Webber, a family man who stays home to work while his family goes away for the weekend. When two gorgeous girls in need of help show up at his door, Evan finds himself seduced and a victim of their cruel and sociopathic behavior.
The film sets up Evan as a decent guy, although it’s made clear he’s not completely happy. He’s struggling to balance his workload with his family and him and his wife have not been intimate in a while. When the two girls, Genesis and Bel arrive at his door one night in need of help, it’s not too much of a surprise that Evan lets them in and makes a big mistake. You might find Evan reprehensible for what he does and not feel sympathetic towards him for the rest of the film, which is understandable. Lorenza Izzo and Ana de Armas are great as Genesis and Bel, exaggerated femme fatales. They play annoying and evil so well and the fact that they’re remorseless the entire time they torture Evan is horrifying. Keanu Reeves is good in his role and hams it up quite brilliantly towards the end, but if you’ve never considered him to be a good actor, his performance here won’t change your opinion. What really made the film fun for me is that it was tense throughout. There’s great sexual tension early on and the general tension continues as the film progresses. If you’re sympathetic towards Evan, you desperately want him to get out of his predicament that grows more hopeless by the minute.
Overall, it’s a fun home invasion satire, but it’s not for everyone. It’s campy and over the top, which will kill your enjoyment if you don’t like that sort of approach. If you’re not a fan of Eli Roth, you won’t like it either more than likely.
No comments:
Post a Comment