Directed by:
Caradog W. JamesCinematography:
Adam FrischComposer:
Steve MooreCast:
Katee Sackhoff, Lucy Boynton, Javier Botet, Nick Moran, Richard Mylan, Pooneh Hajimohammadi, Jordan Bolger, Megan Purvis, Celyn EvansVOD (2)
Plots(1)
Knock once to wake her from her bed, twice to raise her from the dead..." So goes a disturbing urban legend involving an abandoned house supposedly inhabited by a vengeful, child-stealing witch. When troubled teen Chloe (Lucy Boynton) raps at the door one night, she has no idea the horror she's about to unleash. Fleeing to the country home of her estranged mother (Katee Sackhoff) - a recovering addict who's turned her life around to become a famous artist - Chloe must learn to trust the woman who gave her up years ago in order to stop the bloodthirsty, shape-shifting demon stalking them. This wild supernatural shocker delivers a barrage of nonstop jolts and searing nightmare images. (IFC Midnight)
(more)Reviews (3)
Don't Knock Twice was obviously made on a shoestring budget, but since the whole film takes place in the dark, the layman can't tell anything. Witches are more attractive to me than ghosts, demons and devils combined so a big plus for the leading monster. The film is very entertaining from the beginning, you don't wait for anything and the atmosphere thickens throughout. It's a pity that towards the end it stagnates rather than escalates. Still, in the subgenre definitely a better piece in recent times. 65%.
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I must confess that I really underestimated this film, but the final impression is strong to the point that it surprised me. It already gets points from its plot arc, in the centre of which is a complex (for the standards of the genre) relationship between a mother and her daughter, whom she had abandoned years before. In spooky and slasher movies the relationships between the characters are usually simple, so kudos for that. For almost the entire film I was telling myself what a shame it was that I would have to criticise it for building this ambitious arc on the skeleton of an awfully clichéd and silly horror tale with many lapses in the script. But much to my wonder, things turned out differently and I remained pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t as silly as I had expected. Add to that the fact that the scary scenes are good to excellent, and we do have a nice, little pleasant horror movie here. Recommended for genre fans, the rest can ignore it.
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The Brits don't always make good horror films, but with Don't Knock Twice I was honored that they managed to strike a very good chord, despite the fact that on the face of it this is a cheaper film. That doesn't affect the film at all, because it has a good atmosphere and can make you squirm at least a little while watching it. That's definitely something I expect from a good horror movie.
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