Knock Knock marks writer/director Eli Roth’s first foray into the world of remakes, not counting the one of his own Cabin Fever he sanctioned recently- and a little too soon, IMHO- but didn’t direct himself. It’s based on the obscure late 70’s exploitation-thriller Death Game, aka The Seducers, which, like many of us when it comes to lesser-known old-school flicks, Roth came across on YouTube (which is also where I saw it, for that matter).
The original stars Seymour Cassel (best-known for his work with John Cassavettes, including The Killing of a Chinese Bookie; and Wes Anderson, including Rushmore), along with Sandra Locke and Coleen Camp, the latter two of which serve as executive producers on the remake as well. If those last two names sound familiar, then you probably grew up on or are well-versed in 70's-80's era cinema, as the ladies have cropped up in quite a few well-known films from that time period.
Locke is best-known for being in a long-term, oft-messy relationship with none other than superstar Clint Eastwood, who cast her in many of his films at the time, including the Dirty Harry vehicles The Gauntlet and Sudden Impact; The Outlaw Josey Wales, Bronco Billy, and the notorious “monkey” movies starring Clyde the Orangutan, Every Which Way But Loose and Any Which Way You Can.
She’s also in some nifty indies like Willard (the original), A Reflection of Fear, The Second Coming of Suzanne, as well as the classic The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, for which she was Oscar-nominated, and she directed and starred in the oddball cult classic Ratboy.
Meanwhile, Camp started out in exploitation fare like The Swinging Cheerleaders (which I just love) and Ebony, Ivory & Jade (aka She Devils in Chains) before graduating to the big leagues in Game of Death, with the late, great Bruce Lee, and Apocalypse Now as a Playboy Bunny who runs afoul of the Vietnam War. Sadly, her part in the latter was cut out, but later turned up in the “Redux” cut.
Mere years after her role in Death Game, Camp would go, in typical Hollywood style, from the sexy siren to the mother of Deborah Foreman’s titular (and totally tubular) Valley Girl. From there on out, she went back and forth between higher-budgeted fare like Clue and Wayne’s World to the low-budget stuff she cut her teeth on in things like The Joy of Sex and The Rosebud Beach Hotel. She’s worked steadily to this day, most recently showing up in American Hustle and She’s Funny That Way, and has a cameo in Knock Knock, as well.
Knock Knock sticks pretty closely to the original, mostly only updating things to the modern era by including things like iPhones, iPads, Uber and social media like Facebook. Although Roth does tweak a few things here and there, notably the way the girls come into the protagonist’s life and the ending, which is all too abrupt and out of nowhere in that film.
In the original, the main character simply picks the girls up at a party and they come back to his place; here, they aggressively show up at his door and beg to be let in and things go from there.
In the Cassel role, we have, of all people, Keanu Reeves, in an atypical, but interesting type of role for him. Here, he plays a happily married family man that is fully domesticated and more than a little gun-shy when it comes to the ladies.
A bit taken aback by the two girls’ forward-thinking sexual attitudes and blunt talk, he keeps you guessing as to whether he will act on the girls’ advances or not, but if he didn’t, we wouldn’t have a movie, so…yeah, it’s not much of a spoiler to say that he does.
As with the original, he quickly comes to regret that choice the morning after, as it becomes all too clear that these two girls are not playing with a full deck. You’ve heard of Fatal Attraction? Try dealing with that, times two.
Essaying the crucial roles of the ladies are Ana De Armas and Roth’s real-life leading lady, wife Lorenza Izzo, who he met on the set of a movie he produced and co-wrote, Aftershock. Roth went on to cast her in his last movie, The Green Inferno, which this film also features a few vets from, including Ignacia Allamand as Reeves’ character’s wife, and Aaron Burns, as his wife’s agent.
Meanwhile, Izzo’s side-chick is played by the super-hot Ana de Armas, a real find, who also stars with Reeves in the upcoming Exposed and with Robert De Niro in the Roberto Duran boxing biopic Hands of Stone.
Izzo is the ringleader, who keeps the oft-off-the-rails Armas in line, insomuch as she can. It is intimated but never spelled out that both girls come from rough backgrounds, which involve some degree of abuse. (In the original, this is made much more explicit.)
As the girls get crazier and crazier, Reeves haplessly tries to control the situation, but it isn’t long before things get out of his hands and spiral into torture porn territory, though nowhere near to the extent of Roth’s own Hostel series.
Indeed, I’ve got to hand it to Roth, he actually reins in a lot of his worst tendencies here, down to the performances of his three main leads, which are actually less over-the-top than in the original film.
Yes, there is a scene in which Reeves has an exquisite flip-out, which will no doubt be quoted for years to come (“It was FREE PIZZA!”), but trust me, it’s nowhere near as bonkers, performance-wise, as what we see from Locke and Camp in the original.
To give you a frame of reference, I’m guessing Rob Zombie based the “Baby” character in House of 1000 Corpses on the Camp character in Death Game, so if you found Sheri Moon annoying in that film, you ain’t seen nothing yet because over-the-top doesn’t begin to cover it.
Instead, in Knock Knock, Roth carefully modulates his three leads’ performances, giving each a chance to shine here and there, before going for broke at key moments, to great effect.
The ending is also much more satisfying here, though, as evidenced in the deleted scenes, it could have gone darker. Personally, though, I think Roth made the right choice in going for something more in the dark comedy vein.
The end result is sort of like Hard Candy lite- maybe not as gratuitously satisfying as some of Roth’s earlier, more go-for-broke work, but quite possibly a step in a new direction that could be good for him, and even better for his many vocal critics. Like the aforementioned Zombie, Roth could actually benefit from learning how to take his time and not go from 0-100 and rarely anything in-between.
Put another way, sometimes it’s the quiet moments that make a film, not the action-oriented ones. Here, it’s the docile family scenes that open the film, as contrasted with the wall-of-shame, destruction-crawl that closes it, as we see the full extent of the girls’ mayhem in full for the first time.
As amusing as Reeves’ freak-out is, and as much fun as it is to see the girls go nuts in full force, it’s the moments in between that made the film for me.
Be sure to also check out the making-of doc and the commentary, both of which feature Camp comparing and contrasting the original and the remake, as well as Roth being Roth, which I gather can be a good or a bad thing, depending on your feelings about him. I’d have to say I fall somewhere in the middle, but I’d be much more on his side if he made more stuff like this.
I never thought I’d use “subtle” in regards to a Roth film, but compared to his other output, it really is, and a step in the right direction, IMHO. It’s not perfect, but it’s worth a look, if this sounds like your cup of tea. Check it out- as well as the ace soundtrack!
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