A Slippery Psychosexual Thriller Spends a Raunchy Night on Streaming

Aug 02, 2023

No style, even less substance, but in a near-constant state of undress, so there's that.

Tossing multiple genres into a single movie can prove to be just as much a blessing as it is a curse, with Eli Roth biting off substantially more than he could chew when he made a rare detour away from horror in 2015’s Knock Knock, and ensuring that precisely none of them worked individually or collectively.

As well as being a remake of 1977’s Death Game, the widely-panned do-over also attempted to incorporate elements of the erotic thriller, home invasion story, twisted romance, and psychological mindf*ck all at once, only to end up vanishing without a trace at the box office in the face of a savaging from critics and crowds alike.

In addition to dismal Rotten Tomatoes scores of just 37 and 19 percent from either party, the $10 million tale could only muster $6 million in ticket sales at the box office, despite the presence of the unanimously-beloved icon of all things wholesome Keanu Reeves playing against type as an adulterer left home alone who gets a lot more than he bargained for when two beautiful strangers show up at his door.

And yet, because streaming subscribers are powerless to resist anything that shows more than a little skin, Knock Knock has been knock knocking on the on-demand charts once more. Per FlixPatrol, Starz customers have welcomed the interminable flop back into their place of residence, although there won’t be anything found within for anybody seeking an engaging narrative, any semblance of unpredictability, or even entertainment.