Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer and The Shrine director Jon Knautz is back with The Cleaning Lady, which RLJE Films released today on DVD, Digital HD, and VOD. In the film reteams Knautz with the star of his Goddess of Love, Alexis Kendra, a love-addicted woman befriends a cleaning lady, badly scarred by burns.
To celebrate the release, Knautz shares with Bloody Disgusting five horror films that helped inspire him.
Psycho: “Hitchcock at his grittiest. I love how this film just throws up the middle finger to the squeaky-clean cinema of the 1950s. Norman Bates takes psychotic behavior to a whole new level here. I wish I was around to have seen it when it first played theaters.”
The Thing: “I would usually feel relief when another human shows up in a horror film…until I saw this film. Not knowing who might be “the thing” provides such an awesomely uncomfortable sense of dread throughout. My go-to film for a balls-out, ambiguous ending.”
It Follows: “I love this film. It’s just firing on all cylinders, especially mood/tone. Its concept of an unstoppable malevolent force is realized beautifully, and it’s such a great reminder that film is truly a visual medium.”
Hellraiser: “They really don’t make films like this anymore, which is heartbreaking because it’s so delightfully imaginative. Frank’s slow return to our world through the consumption of flesh is just so friggin’ original. And the infamous “Jesus wept” moment has been burned into my mind for eternity.”
Get Out: “Probably one of the most “fun” horror films I’ve seen these days. So wickedly twisted yet socially conscious, and really funny. Mixing comedy in with horror is never easy, but this one works perfectly. We needed a good racially infused, brain swapping horror flick.”
In The Cleaning Lady: “On the surface, Alice seems like a woman who has it all: a gorgeous apartment, a booming career, a stunning physique, and a handsome boyfriend. The only problem is he’s married to someone else. Looking for a way to simplify her life, Alice hires Shelly to clean her house. As Alice begins to confide in Shelly about her illicit affair, their friendship grows… and so does Shelly’s twisted obsession with her new employer. It soon becomes clear that Shelly has motives that reach further than a normal cleaning lady. Shelly wants to cleanse Alice’s entire life and will stop at nothing until she’s done.“
Dax Ebben reviewed the film out of its FrightFest World Premiere and wrote that the thriller is “twisted on every level.”
