Eli
Roth digs Chile and they dig him back. He’s like Hasselhoff over there, so its
not surprising he shoehorned in some Chilean references, shot in Chile
(Santiago doubling for the Hollywood Hills) and featured two Chilean actresses
(one being his wife, Lorenza Izzo) in his latest film. However, the love affair
might end once they get a load of his new psycho-sexual home invasion thriller,
Knock Knock (trailer here), which premiered
at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.
Evan
Webber is an architect and a committed family man, but he still remembers his
glory days as a DJ. He is home alone working on a commission while his artist wife
and kids spend the weekend at the beach. Unfortunately, Webber’s dope smoking
is soon interrupted by a fateful knock at the door. That will be Genesis and
Bel Who, two party girl flight attendants who got lost in the rain looking for
a friend’s bash. At least that is their initial story.
As
Webber lets them in to dry off, they start flirting hard. Honestly, flirting is
not a strong enough term. They practically wrestle him to the ground and have
their way with him. Yet, the opening act is surprisingly effective pitting his
awkward attempts at evasion against their sexed-up seduction techniques. There
is a sly give-and-take or ebb-and-flow to this first half hour or so, but
unfortunately it is completely jettisoned once Webber inevitably succumbs to
temptation.
From
here on out, Genesis and Bel become moralizing fatal attractions, who declare
Webber must pay for his transgressions. Suddenly, Webber is fighting for his
life and the well-being of his family, but he never stands a chance. The ladies
just keeping beating him down at every turn. Perhaps this constitutes some sort
of subversive feminist statement, but as dramatic arcs go, it is pretty darn
flat.
One
of the biggest disappointments of Knock
Knock is the speed bump it drops in front of the Keanu Reeves comeback
express. Everyone primed for more badassery after John Wick and Man of Tai Chi,
will be let down by this Nic Cage-ish turn. Let’s face it, we don’t want to watch
Reeves losing his cool. We want him to be silent, but violent. Still, Izzo and
Ana de Armas are sufficiently ferocious and they look good soaking wet, so at
least they keep their end up, in exploitation terms.
