Featuring artwork by Krzysztof Domaradzki, the 2015 remake of 1977’s Death Game is presented in 4K with Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos audio.

Special features:

• Audio Commentary with Director Eli Roth, Actor Lorenza Izzo, Writer-Producer Nicolás López, and Actor-Producer Colleen Camp
• The Art of Seduction: Looking Back on Knock Knock (new)
• Establishing Shot with Director Eli Roth (new)
• The Art of Destruction: The Making of Knock Knock
• Deleted Scenes
• Stills Gallery
• Theatrical Trailer

Devoted family man Evan is home alone on a stormy night when two stranded, mysterious women show up asking for help. Opening the door to the them, Evan becomes trapped inside his own home as his kind gesture leads to a sadistic, twisted game of seduction, manipulation, and temptation.

Keanu Reeves, Ana de Armas, and Lorenza Izzo star in the psychosexual thriller.

Roth directs from a script he co-wrote with Nicolás López and Guillermo Amoedo.

Daniel Kurland wrote in his review, “Even though the film might feel like director Eli Roth’s most accomplished picture yet, a number of issues hold it back from being the great definitive genre piece that it wants to be.”

The post Eli Roth’s ‘Knock Knock’ Celebrates 10th Anniversary with 4K UHD Release Next Week appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Though it may not be a horror film per se, the correct place to start is 1991 with Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey. If being murdered by your future selves trying to steal your babes, going to literal hell and being forced to play the Grim Reaper in a series of childhood games isn’t horrific, what is? Okay fine, Keanu’s technical first foray into the genre began with 1992’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula. A performance that felt really strange in a movie that felt ultra strange. You know when you have a job interview and you don’t want to show too much of your own personality? So you try to act like you’re not a gigantic weirdo for a few minutes and it’s physically painful? That’s what this must have been like for Keanu at this point in his career being directed by Francis Ford Coppola opposite Gary Oldman. Who could blame him? This particular performance just didn’t have that “one of one” Keanu DNA to it.

My personal Keanu in horror favorite, The Devil’s Advocate came next in 1997 with Reeves as young superstar defense lawyer Kevin Lomax. Wall Street in Hell paired Reeves with Al Pacino at the peak of Pacino’s over the top, scene stealing capabilities (a compliment). A movie that if you were alive at the time you most certainly owned the cheap, plastic one sided-clip DVD case of. Yet, despite its popularity The Devil’s Advocate remains under appreciated on the quality aspect.

Not only was Advocate actually scary in spots – particularly when Kevin’s wife Mary Ann (Charlize Theron) was experiencing escalating mental breakdown episodes caused by Satan himself – it was also super entertaining. The beneficiary of a fiery performance by Reeves who seemed inspired by an even more batshit than usual Pacino. The Miltonian storytelling mixed with the over the top monologues and gnarly horror make The Devil’s Advocate feel like a collaboration between Martin Scorsese and Sam Raimi and I can’t think of anything cooler than that.

In 2000, Reeves played an extremely against type role in The Watcher as a sadistic serial killer. It’s not as fun as it sounds. The movie wasn’t all bad. It had that early 2000s dark, yet commercialized vibe. It was as if there was something special there but the film just wasn’t able to execute on it. Like if you took a fancy steakhouse steak dinner and nuked it in a microwave. The same can be said for Reeves’ performance (he received a Razzie nomination) but there was more than meets the eye happening at the time. It turns out Reeves was tricked into playing the lead by the director Joe Charbanic after offering to do a small role to help his “friend” secure financing. He was allegedly forced to do The Watcher for fear of being sued; then made to promise Universal he wouldn’t speak publicly about the ordeal until the film had been out for at least a year. I probably wouldn’t be out there trying to win an Oscar for those folks either.

Again in 2000, Keanu goes off type with a small role in a star studded cast as a wife beating, child threatening, trailer park redneck for Sam Raimi’s The Gift. It’s very easy to dismiss his performance as “I just can’t buy Ted Theodore Logan as a shitty human” but Reeves really goes for it and makes the character work. Let’s be honest, whoever came up with the name Donnie Barksdale deserves some credit too. That just sounds like a guy who’s gonna bust a beer bottle over your head all revved up on Toby Keith and cheap whiskey on a Saturday night.

One of Keanu’s most well known horror forays came in 2005’s Constantine where he played a chain smoking exorcist dealing with the battle between Heaven and Hell on Earth. Constantine comes right off the heels of Keanu’s insane success with The Matrix movies and landed with a pretty weird reception. The kind of film many couldn’t appreciate as a blockbuster but are much kinder to years down the road once expectations lower. Against the backdrop of a not-all-that accessible, fantastical superhero horror story and some very dated CGI, Reeves’ performance still manages to come across as badass and fun. He stomps his way through the flick with a solid “Who gives a fuck? (cigarette drag) I guess I do.” attitude. Understandable for a character who’s just been told he has terminal lung cancer and knows for a fact he’ll be spending eternity burning in Hell. If anybody can be punk rock in a suit it’s Keanu Reeves giving Satan the finger in slow motion.

After the massive success of the first John Wick film, 2015’s Knock Knock teamed Reeves with household horror name Eli Roth (Cabin Fever, Hostel) in a role that surprisingly showcases Everything Keanu. His character Evan is seduced by two attractive women played by Ana de Armas and Lorena Izzo while his wife and kids are away. By seduced I mean he found himself stuck in a sexy version of one of Jigsaw’s impossible to escape Saw traps. As Evan ends up saying about his entrapment in what may be my favorite Keanu quote of all time: “It was free pizza! Free fuckin’ pizza!”

Once the girls successfully entrap him in infidelity, they instantly flip, refuse to leave and begin to systematically destroy his life. Ultimately this ends in a little bit of actual torture and the threats to kill him by dawn for cheating on his wife and hurting his family. A remake of the ’70s movie Death Game, it’s very much Funny Games if the home invaders were supermodels using sex as their way inside rather than political correctness. The best part about this underrated film, apart from the questions it makes the viewers ask themselves, is watching Reeves chew the scenery. From being the kind of chill, eclectic guy who you’d totally have a beer with to completely off the rails in a “crazy Cage”-esque monologue bordering on camp that you rarely get to see Keanu cut loose for.

A year later Keanu returns to horror with 2016’s The Neon Demon directed by Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive, Only God Forgives). In a theme you’ll see throughout his career he has a surprisingly small role in the film. You come away with the idea that Reeves just loves to work with interesting people and take on interesting roles, regardless of where his name appears on the poster. His character here, Hank, is who I imagine his character in The Gift would be were he born in Hollywood instead of the holler.

Hank runs a seedy motel in Los Angeles that Hollywood hopeful Jesse (Elle Fanning) is staying in out of necessity while she climbs the social ladder. She comes home one night to an actual MOUNTAIN LION on her bed (just go with it, it’s a Winding-Refn film. We’re lucky the animal wasn’t doing cocaine with hookers in a Turkish bathhouse with Moby blaring in the background). Hank immediately blames the sixteen year old girl for leaving the door open and intimidates her by shoving her and demanding payment for her mistake. Later on we’ll find out that not only does he dress like a pimp from Grand Theft Auto but in a sense he’s actually a sort of video game boss; something that forces our lead to grow into the person she’s going to be. It’s exactly the opposite of the person you see Keanu Reeves playing and that brings a whole new level to a character that could have easily been formulaic and forgettable.

Finally, we have 2016’s The Bad Batch featuring Keanu in yet another role you would never read the script for and come away saying “That sounds like a role for Keanu Reeves.” Which again makes his character one of the most (if not the most) interesting parts of the movie. In a cannibalistic post-apocalyptic world Keanu plays “The Dream,” who is basically Immortan Joe from Mad Max: Fury Road only much handsomer, well spoken and nicer (if you can overlook the whole sex cult thing he has going on). In this future those deemed unsavory are cast out to this sandy hellscape where cannibals run amok. “The Dream,” who I can only describe as Keanu Reeves literally playing Pablo Escobar, gives them running water (or as he puts it “something to take their shit away”) but also provides drugs and parties. It’s strange. It’s fascinating.

It’s Keanu Reeves doing cool shit. And isn’t that just the best?

The post Serial Killers and Chain-Smoking Exorcists: A Look at Keanu Reeves in Horror Cinema appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Bloody Disgusting can exclusively report today that Grindhouse Releasing is proud to present a special double-feature screening of Peter S. Traynor‘s classic 1970s psycho-thriller Death Game and the modern remake it inspired, Eli Roth’s Knock Knock (2015).

The special event will take place Saturday, March 26 at the Esquire Theatre (320 Ludlow Ave., Cincinnati, OH). Grindhouse plans to take this terrifying double-feature to more theaters across America in support of its upcoming Blu-ray release of Death Game.

Death Game stars John Cassavetes veteran Seymour Cassel as George Manning, a family man whose perfect life is turned into a nightmare of sex and torture when he allows himself to be seduced by two young strangers (Sondra Locke and Colleen Camp) who show up at his door on a rainy night.

Knock Knock updates the story with Keanu Reeves starring as the married man who falls prey to temptation opposite Lorenza Izzo (Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood) and Ana de Armas (No Time to Die) as the deranged duo who arrive on his doorstep with a special delivery of seduction and destruction.

Eli Roth says, “I found an old copy of Death Game starring my friend Colleen Camp, and was completely blown away by what an incredible film it was. I made Knock Knock (produced with Colleen Camp and Sondra Locke) in the hopes people would rediscover what I believe is a lost gem of completely insane and masterful 70s cinema. The level of talent in front of and behind the camera is staggering, and the film really holds up on every level, especially for the low budget they made the film on. Death Game is truly one of those movies you have to see to believe – it’s that wild. Both Knock Knock and Death Game never got decent theatrical releases, so I’m thrilled fans can enjoy both on the big screen the way they were meant to be seen.”

Tickets for the double feature are on sale now!

The special collector’s edition 2-disc Blu-ray of Death Game, limited to 2000 copies, is shipping this month to customers who order directly from GrindhouseReleasing.com. A mass-market edition will follow later this year. No street date has been set.

The post ‘Death Game’ and Eli Roth’s Remake ‘Knock Knock’ Getting a Double Feature Release in Theaters appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

That’s why we’re back with another six critically panned horror movies that are still worth a watch, this time focusing on underrated gems from the 2010s. These films might not be that old, but enough time has passed for horror fans to re-evaluate some of the negative criticism that was thrown their way by mainstream reviewers.

Like last time, we’ll be using Rotten Tomatoes scores to try and measure how harshly these films were treated upon release, though readers should try and remember that this list is based purely on personal opinion. That being said, don’t forget to share your own unfairly maligned favorites with us in the comments below, as one horror fan’s trash might be another horror fan’s treasure.

Now, onto the list…

6. The Strangers: Prey at Night (2018) – 40% on Rotten Tomatoes

Bryan Bertino’s The Strangers wasn’t exactly a critical darling back in 2008, but Johannes Roberts’s underrated sequel had trouble finding support even among die-hard fans of the original. I think that’s a huge shame, as The Strangers: Prey at Night is one of the most entertaining Slasher flicks in recent memory, pitting a likable family against genuinely threatening killers in a thrilling love-letter to 80s horror.

While it’s an entirely different beast when compared to Bertino’s somber take on masked home invaders, there’s no denying that the flashy thrills of Prey at Night make it a must-watch for fans of classic Slashers. Hell, that unforgettable pool scene was the last time I heard a theater audience audibly cheer for a horror movie protagonist, so I think it’s safe to say that this one is worth the price of admission.

5. Hell Fest (2018) – 39% on Rotten Tomatoes

Some of my favorite movie-going experiences involve showing up for a film I don’t expect to be good, only to be pleasantly surprised by the filmmakers. Hell Fest may not be a masterpiece, but it was definitely one of those experiences, providing tons of bloody fun all wrapped up in a nice and creepy bow.

Hell Fest doesn’t necessarily reinvent the Slasher wheel, telling a familiar story about teenagers being pursued by a deranged killer in a spooky carnival, but the creative kills and atmospheric setting make this a consistently entertaining romp that’s sure to get you hyped up for any Halloween season. As if that wasn’t enough, the movie also benefits from memorable performances by both Tony Todd and the always-lovable Bex Taylor-Klaus, plus a killer score by Bear McCreary!

4. Knock Knock (2015) – 38% on Rotten Tomatoes

Featuring practically no gore, Knock Knock is one of Eli Roth’s most subdued productions, but it’s also one hell of a weird movie that I think deserves more love. A stealth remake of Peter S. Traynor’s 1977 erotic thriller Death Game, Roth’s take on the story follows Keanu Reeves as he’s tested by a pair of sociopathic party girls played by Ana de Armas and Lorenza Izzo.

The film’s uncomfortable undertones may not be to everyone’s liking, but I think most horror fans can appreciate how it slowly builds to a terrifying crescendo by misleading audiences with sex and humor. If you’re still not convinced, I’d recommend checking out GoodBadFlicks’ deep dive into the movie’s production, as there’s a lot to unpack about this throwback to the exploitation flicks of yore.

3. Exists (2014) – 33% on Rotten Tomatoes

Directed by Eduardo Sánchez, one half of the duo behind The Blair Witch Project, Exists might not boast the cultural significance of its Found Footage predecessor, but it’s still one hell of an entertaining monster movie about everyone’s favorite bipedal cryptid.

A fun yet straightforward creature feature boasting effective scares and a memorable finale, not to mention some genuinely convincing practical effects, I honestly don’t get why Exists didn’t make a bigger splash when it came out back in 2014. Good Bigfoot movies are few and far in between, so I’d recommend this one to any fan of cryptozoological terrors.

2. The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) (2011) – 29% on Rotten Tomatoes

Despite its exaggerated reputation as one of the most disturbing movies ever made, Tom Six’s original The Human Centipede isn’t as graphic as its detractors would have you believe. The sequel, on the other hand, features disturbing amounts of gore and gruesome body horror in a nightmarish depiction of fandom gone wrong.

Famously crowned as the worst film of 2011 by Roger Ebert, Full Sequence‘s reliance on shock value won’t be to everyone’s liking, but I’d say that Six’s meta sequel is obviously using the absurd levels of violence to comment on violent media itself. The excessive brutality also provides the film with some memorable moments that will likely haunt viewers long after the credits roll, making it a legitimately effective horror flick. Just don’t watch this one on a full stomach.

1. As Above So Below (2014) – 26% on Rotten Tomatoes

Brilliantly combining an Indiana Jones styled adventure with the real claustrophobic horror of Paris’ underground catacombs, John Erick Dowdle’s As Above So Below is a must-watch Found Footage movie with more than a few occult tricks up its sleeve. That’s why I think it’s absurd that most mainstream critics dismissed the film as a yet another generic scary movie back when it first came out.

While there’s no accounting for taste, I think the negative reviews were mostly a case of bad timing, as many critics had grown tired of the Found Footage trend after the yearly entries in the Paranormal Activity franchise. Regardless, As Above So Below is a highly effective supernatural horror flick and a worthy successor to Dowdle’s other Found Footage classic, The Poughkeepsie Tapes.

The post 6 Critically Panned Horror Movies from the 2010s That Are Worth a Watch appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

THE LAST DOOR (The Game Kitchen)

Most of the games I chose for this list are side-scrolling puzzle platformers, but The Last Door deserves a shoutout creating a chilling point-and-click adventure in a mostly 2D realm. Taking heavy inspiration from the works of Edgar Allen Poe and H.P. Lovecraft, The Last Door tells the story of an ancient evil being summoned into Victorian England. Told episodically over two seasons, the plot revolves around your character being called by the last words of his childhood friend, putting him on a collision course with a mysterious supernatural force. 

Instead of directly adapting Lovecraft mythology, like so many games tend to do, The Last Door keeps the themes that Lovecraft explored rather than the iconography, replacing tentacled monsters with creepy bird imagery. Its heavy pixel-art style does a great job of being suggestive of things without explicitly showing you the horrors, allowing your mind to fill in the gaps. I’m not always a huge fan of point-and-click adventures, but this one ticked all the boxes, making one of the most memorable horror experiences of the decade.

KNOCK-KNOCK (Ice Pick Lodge)

While it’s one of my favorite gaming experiences, sometimes I find it hard to recommend Knock-Knock to people. Much like Ice-Pick Lodge’s other famous series, Pathologic, the game defies easy description with its distinct and surreal mood. The gameplay somewhat resembles playing hide and seek with surreal monsters in an old, ever-expanding house while trying to figure out the proper ritual-like actions needed to move on to the next night. 

Perfectly capturing the feeling of waking up in the middle of the night and trying to figure out what the hell is going on while still groggy, Knock-Knock creates a strange dreamlike tone, embracing repetition to give the player a feeling of anxiety and madness. It doesn’t do anything particularly innovative gameplay-wise, but it manages to evoke a feeling in the player like no other.

INSIDE (Playdead)

Playdead studios struck a chord with their excellent 2D puzzle-platformer Limbo at the beginning of the decade, but their follow-up Inside improved on everything their debut did and then some. Once again, they created a tale of a child wandering through increasingly strange and hostile circumstances, giving the player plenty of interesting puzzles to try to solve as they progress.

While not black-and-white like Limbo, the game still has a striking art style, using color sparingly to highlight specific elements on screen. Inside continually adds interesting and surprising mechanics while presenting a beautifully surreal story that never fully explains itself, but doesn’t confuse the player. The ending of the game is one of the most strange and satisfying sequences in a 2D game since the end of Braid. You can sit down and beat this game in one four-hour sitting, so you’ve got no excuse not to try it.

LONE SURVIVOR (Jasper Byrne)

Do you miss Silent Hill? Well then Lone Survivor may be the next game you need to try. Developer Jasper Byrne did an excellent demake of Silent Hill 2 called Soundless Mountain II, and it’s clear that he carried over the mood of that project into Lone Survivor. You control an unnamed protagonist who believes he may be the last survivor of an infection that has turned people into horrifying mutants. Forced to leave your apartment by a shortage of resources, you explore your complex trying to escape the madness going on around you. 

Much of the game is focused on keeping your character well-fed and rested, while also trying to manage his fragile mental state. It’s unclear what is real and what is a hallucination as you scrounge for supplies and hide from the horrors wandering the halls. Much like The Last Door, the pixelated art style of Lone Survivor also does wonders in showing just enough to get your fear centers working without giving you all the gory details. The game lasts about five hours, but with five different endings to uncover, there’s always a reason to go back. 

DARKEST DUNGEON (Red Hook Studios)

Another one on this list that’s not a puzzle-platformer, Darkest Dungeon provides one of the deepest and most expansive turn-based RPG experiences I’ve ever played. The game is notorious for its brutal difficulty, but this challenge is perfectly in line with the tone and world presented. You select a party of adventurers from your pool of characters and send them into terrifying dungeons in an attempt to cleanse your estate and the surrounding areas of unspeakable evils. 

These evils not only physically threaten your characters, but can also threaten their mental state, making them a danger to themselves and their party. Characters lost in battle are lost permanently, making you question how far you push each venture into the dungeon. Each section of the dungeon is explored on a 2D plane, forcing you to pay close attention for traps you might walk into. Combat also makes interesting use of the 2D environment, putting a heavy focus on positioning for both who you can hit and what attacks you have available to you. Even without the excellent DLC, there’s so much to do in Darkest Dungeon that it could really be your forever game, always offering one more run to challenge yourself.

The post 5 of the Best 2D Horror Games of the Past Decade appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

For starters they nailed the location. Hollywood Theatre is a wonderful movie theatre and basically my favorite place in Portland. I’ve been living in Portland for about three years now and Hollywood is definitely the best place to go to see the best movies. So in terms of venue, they crushed it. Then there’s the turnout, which was great. I’m not sure how much of crowd they anticipated, but I have to think they exceeded expectations. It wasn’t a sell out, but the theatre was packed with very good crowd on hand. And the most important thing for an attendee is the films and they were quite good. The two features were so-so, but the shorts were awesome!

Both days of the festival followed the same format – open with a block of shorts, followed by a feature film and close out the night with another block of shorts. Today I’m going to review the short films. I saw all the shorts, except for about four or five of them. The two features, The Dark Tapes and Daylight’s End, I will review in the coming days.

Eat
Dir. Carl Shanahan
UK

Eat was a fairly disturbing look at a family enjoying dinner. At least I think it was a family, of some type. Four children, who don’t appear to be related by blood at least, are sitting at a table getting ready for dinner when their “mother” comes in and joins them. This mother figure is way too old to have kids as young as these and she’s wearing an oxygen mask that is attached to a tank. The kids sit in silence, afraid to make a wrong move while the mother watches over them constantly breathing very loudly. Once the food is served you get a sense that it may not be your typical meal.  This one leaves a bit to the imagination, but it’s moody and effective.

Daddy Dearest
Dir. Fiona Fright, Stacy Buchanan, Andrea Wolanin
USA
**Winner – Abby Normal Award (Innovation from Rising Filmmakers)

Daddy Dearest is definitely going to be most talked about because the film’s writer, co-director and star Fiona Fright (this is a stage name) is a 10-yeard old girl. That’s certainly worth talking about but I hope it doesn’t overlook the short which is a lot of fun. A young girl’s father dies in war when she’s still a baby. As she gets older she develops a time machine to go back and save him. It’s adorable with a lot of imagination and an ending that may just surprise you.

Last Caller
Dir. Jared Steiner
USA

This short is based off the famous Coast to Coast AM call that Art Bell took on September 11, 1997 in which a former Area 51 employee called in and was extremely upset. At some point during the call the show went off the air briefly due to satellite failure. There are a ton of theories about this call and whether or not it was a government cover up and so forth and that’s basically what Last Caller. A radio host similar to Art Bell has lost his drive and passion for the paranormal but then he gets a strange call from a man who is very panicked. The ideas are good and there are some fun moments, but overall this one missed the mark a bit for me.

Hypogeum
Dir. Alessandro Della Villa
Italy

This was one of the most ambitious, polished shorts to play at the festival. A couple that appear to be on some sort of vacation get into a fight. We don’t get all the details but basically we know that at some point the boyfriend cheated on his girlfriend. The young lovers make their way to a local bar that is completely empty aside from two attractive waitresses. We get some seriously dark vibes from this place and when the girlfriend goes to use the restroom she’s lured into an underground tunnel where very strange things happen. This gives off some serious Jess Franco vibes.

Blurred Vision
Dir. Michael Giannantonio
USA

Michael Giannantonio’s Blurred Vision is a like a short segment from an episode of Criminal Minds. A copycat killer is in the process of torturing his latest victim when he gets a visit from a detective who delivers some shocking news. This is a gritty, dark look at the world of a serial killer. Like I said it reminded me of Criminal Minds and that’s a good thing.

Mirrored
Dir. Ryan Shovey
USA

Mirrored was one of the most enjoyable entries at the Portland Horror Film Festival. A loser that just sits at home playing video games gets a new bathroom mirror installed. With the new mirror in place he can get back to playing video games and everything seems good and well. Things take a turn for the worse when he turns the light off in the bathroom and we learn this isn’t your normal mirror. Apparently this mirror is a portal to hell and looking back at our slacker is a demon version of himself that looks a lot like Howie Mandel in Little Monsters. This was very funny and the mirror effect was well done. Oh and the production company behind this one is called Carpenter Hill Productions so that’s a quality nod.

Woods
Dir. Sean van Leijenhorst
Netherlands

This one was one of the longer shorts, coming in at just about a half hour, and that’s actually a little unfortunate. A writer in the midst of a bit of a writing block begins to get paranoid that his past actions are going to come back to haunt him. There are a couple of good moments, but this just felt a little long and dragged.

Here Be Monsters
Dir. Alexander McKee
USA

A couple of friends get together a summer lunch outdoors when they engage in a conversation about their past. Some dark secrets come out and the two begin to argue about the best way to deal with them. Here Be Monsters tries to take that idea we so often see with vampires where they live amongst regular people and try to do their best to blend in, but instead of vampires we have cannibals. That idea is pretty interesting, but this is basically just two girls talking as they eat. Eh.

Clear Toxic
Dir. Marc Riordan
USA

In Marc Riordan’s Clear Toxic a woman returns to a strange building in search for her missing glasses that she claims to have left behind. The night watchman, who seems to have some issues of his own, doesn’t fully trust her and does some snooping. The end result spells trouble. This is a very classic film festival short. What I mean by that is that the film has a very polished look and feel but due to time restrictions there isn’t a lot in the way of story, but there is enough of a mystery to keep you engaged and since it is a horror short you get some solid gore. Very solid entry.

The Barber’s Cut
Dir. Mark Brocking
UK
**Winner – Bloody Judge Award (Guest Judge’s Award)

It came as no surprise to me when it was announced that The Barber’s Cut walked away with an award at the Portland Horror Film Festival. This is a short straight out of  the world of Re-Animator. Two people wake up next to each other in a refrigerator, the only thing is they’re not really people anymore and just heads. They’re not dead though, but they are just heads. The refrigerator door opens a bit and they see a back chopping their bodies to bits. Once the man lives the room they plan an epic escape. This was easily one of the festival highlights. A very fun film that nailed that 80’s horror-comedy hybrid vibe.

Pigskin
Dir. Jake Hammond
USA
**Winner – Main de Gloire (Special Jury Award)

Pigskin is another award winner that is no shock whatsoever. This one has a strong 80’s film and starts off pretty light hearted. A high school cheerleader has a crush on the star quarterback and when he asks her out things seem perfect. Then things take a turn as the girl begins to struggle with her body image and attempts to fix it with very gory results. Reminded me very much of Xavier Gens entry into The ABCs of Death. Great short film.

Hada
Dir. Tony Morales
Spain

Hada is absolutely terrifying. This is what of those short films that leads to the director getting a feature gig so I’d expect something to come from Tony Morales soon. A little boy is going to sleep by terrified of what comes in the dark, but little does he know that what comes in the light is worse. This one freaked me out.

Motto
Dir. Peter Hearn
UK

A group of scouts are having fun in the woods when someone with a mallet decides to have some fun of his own. This one was just crazy. I can’t even fully tell you what was going on, but it was most certainly interesting.

Larry Gone Demon
Dir. Matthew Lawrence
USA
**Winner – Funny Bone Aware (for Horror Comedy)

Larry Gone Demon takes the classic story of a terrible roommate to new heights. Three friends have a roommate who hasn’t paid his share of the rent in over a month. They also notice that he’s started to act very strange. They finally decide to approach him and realize he’s now a zombie-esque creature. This is hilarious and very messy thanks to some great practical effects. It’s like a Troma short, but better made.

The Bends
Dir. Christoff Molesworth & Bryan Hiltner
USA

A single father is having dinner with his late teens-twenty-something daughter who surprises him by inviting her new boyfriend over. The daughter seems very wholesome while her boyfriends seems quite sinister, so naturally the father doesn’t approve. Things begin to take a dark turn and her father’s past is brought into question. This short was part of a 72-hour film competition and you wouldn’t know it. It’s incredibly well done and a pretty dark story.

An Affair of 7 Nights
Dir. Orphee Yang
Taiwan

This short was incredibly ambitious which in the end was it’s downfall. The story is about a boy going to some type of night school. After he begins doodling on the desk he begins to communicate and connect with the girl that uses the desk during the day. I didn’t quite understand how this worked. I think they’re just leaving each other notes. This goes on for a week until it ends terribly. Shot well and has some interesting ideas at play, but overall a really tough one to take in and fully understand in the short format.

Hunting
Dir. Zahara Jafari
Iran

This is a super short coming in at just about two minutes. A woman has her camera set up looking outside her window and takes pictures of those passing by outside. One day she notices someone she’s taking pictures of is taking pictures back. Not a lot here, but intriguing and gets you thinking about what you “hunt” for.

616
Dir. Victoria Howell
UK

This is brilliant, just brilliant. A young couple, Tom and Anya, is getting ready to go to a costume party when Tom’s ugly sweater begins to attack him. Then things get crazy! This is a nice mix of live-action and animation and gets pretty gory and silly.

Count
Dir. Jesse Larson
USA

In Count  a costume party is going down – lots of great costumes, people getting drunk and high – when Nosferatu shows up. No one knows he’s Nosferatu because it’s a costume party and Nosferatu has no idea what is going on. He heads to the party searching for blood but because entranced by what he sees. This is a very stylish and cool play on Nosferatu.

Eternal Coma, 1994
Dir. Riley Leggin
USA

This is a short made for Jonathan Barkan. A young kid, probably about 10, with a very strict, religious mother gets a cassette tape of a black metal band from his best friend. Soon they discover that this tape made have dreaded consequences and they must destroy tape! This is the silly fun I love to get during a short block at a film festival. So, so good.

Exposure
Dir. Ignacio F. Rodo
Spain

A woman is developing photos of what appears to have been a very sexy photo-shoot. As she develops more and more photos she begins to notice something strange about each one and before too long she realizes she’s not alone. This is a nice, clever little short, but the twist is spotted pretty quickly.

Kookie
Dir. Justin Harding
Canada
**Winner – Goule D’or (Director’s Award)
**Winner – Horde Award (Audience Choice Award)

In Kookie a little girl has a cookie addiction. Her mother tells her to stay out of the cookie jar but she just can’t help herself. In an effort to deter the little girl from eating all the cookies she gets a new cookie jar – this one in the shape of a clown’s head. And this isn’t a happy clown either, if there is such a thing. This clown is extra disturbing. The girl does not approve so much so that she goes to great efforts to destroy the cookie jar but this don’t go quite as she planned. This wasn’t my favorite but it was the only entry to win to awards and I totally get it. There’s strong audience appeal. Everyone hates clowns and everyone likes little kids. It is funny, charming and creepy but just not my favorite.

Knock Knock!
Dir. Maxence Rapp
France

A lady is in her apartment when she hears a knocking that appears to be coming from the front door. She opens the door and there’s just a package. Then she hears knocking coming from a dresser and a closet and so on. Every time she checks there’s nothing but then she hears knocking coming from the package. This is someone funny but really creepy. It had me on edge the whole time. Nice and suspenseful.

Midnight Macabre
Dir. Scott Johnson
USA

This is a bizarre, weirdly animated short. I’m not sure what it was about, but it was fascinating to watch. Felt like it should have been an 80’s music video.

At that concludes the shorts I saw at the Portland Horror Film Festival. A really great collection of shorts. Usually at these festivals I come across at least a handful of shorts that I just can’t stand but that wasn’t the case here. I liked some least than others but I didn’t hate any. I’ve been to a lot of film festivals and I can tell you that is rare and considering this was a first year festival that’s all the more impressive. Year 2 of the Portland Horror Film Festival can’t get here soon enough!

The post 2016 Portland Horror Film Festival – Recap: The Shorts appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The Knock Knock home entertainment release includes audio commentary with the cast and crew, deleted scenes and a behind-the-scenes featurette.

One of the deleted scenes in an alternate ending, which we can now share below.

Knock Knock stars Keanu Reeves as the family man who falls into temptation and Lorenza Izzo and Ana de Armas as the seductresses who wreak havoc upon his life, turning a married man’s dark fantasy into his worst nightmare.

For those who have seen the movie, it extends the finale, and shows Keanu preparing for revenge on Izzo and de Armas. The interesting addition, though, is the intentionally on-the-nose button – after Keanu knocks on the door, the girls both exclaim, “Who’s there?”

The post ‘Knock Knock’: Keanu Reeves Gets Revenge in the Alternate Ending to Eli Roth’s Sexy Thriller appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The above line is pleaded by Evan Webber (Keanu Reeves) to his gleeful tormentors, and you can’t help but be reminded of how many other home invasion films—an increasingly bloated genre—begin that way. And even though the trappings of Knock Knock make it feel like this one might be different, it still succumbs to a lot the same pitfalls that previous entries in the genre have. Even though the film might feel like director Eli Roth’s most accomplished picture yet, a number of issues hold it back from being the great definitive genre piece that it wants to be.

With a plot that very much resembles a Penthouse letter, two soaking wet damsels in distress, Genesis (Lorenza Izzo, fresh off of her role in Roth’s The Green Inferno) and Bel (Ana de Armas), come upon Evan’s house and beg him for help. Evan acquiesces, but as time goes on his peaceful, humble life begins to be dismantled apart in front of him, with him never going to be the same. The film seems to be so entrenched in Roth’s usual sensibilities that you’d be surprised to learn that this is actually a remake of Peter Traynor’s 1977 exploitation film, Death Game.

Before all of the chaos breaks loose, Roth takes him time, movingly slowly to help establish a tone. It’s also appreciated that in this prelude to everything you actually get to meet Evan’s family and see him interacting with them. Instantly they have more weight and the stakes feel higher when they are at risk because they’re not just names or random photos. We’ve met them. In spite of this beginning section taking its time, you know pretty much exactly where all of this is heading. Just like how Evan is constantly moving his position in the room or switching chairs as Genesis and Bel get closer to him, we too are never fully lulled into a sense of security through this narrative. Genesis and Bel pepper Evan with compliments, playing coy, and exuding uninhibitedness with every flirty touch and smile, and yet, the hanging guillotine is always present and Evan is nearly as aware of it as we are.

Knock Knock operates how a lot of Roth’s films do where it appears that characterization it not the priority and you might not be left caring about these people (especially in the case of Genesis and Bel where most of what they say is a lie anyway). In fact, you’ll likely resent Genesis and Bel as you essentially just see them act privileged and selfish before the danger sets in. The difference here comes in the form of Reeves’ Evan who is out of the age bracket that Roth is typically playing in, adding a little more dimension and “real worldliness” that his characters can often lack.

As Genesis and Bel carry on their wanton destruction there’s a bunch of veiled dialogue between them that hints at something more from their past. Their sexual behavior is also so often steeped in heavy daddy issues and infantilization that feels symptomatic of sexual abuse in their childhood that has stunted them psychologically and manifested as mental illness. This film is not interested in being torture porn, with it instead being more messed up on an internal level, which feels like an important distinction to make.

The moments of Genesis and Bel acting out behavior that shows them stunted mentally are the ones that hit the hardest and tease a somewhat original movie, even. Home invasion scenarios have certainly been done to death at this point and the mere subversion of swapping the gender roles is hardly enough to make a film feel fresh, but the idea of two victimizers who have psychologically regressed and have no way to be logically reasoned with is something different.

The villains in Roth’s other films have been driven by things like money and power in Hostel or instinct and tradition in the case of The Green Inferno, but this is the first film of his where the antagonizers feel like they might be this way because of something that’s happened to them and shattering who they are. That they are almost just as much as victims as Evan is, and it’s in that respect that Knock Knock is fascinating to me and becomes a much deeper picture than it lets on to be. The problem is that this dimension of the film isn’t explored nearly as much as it could be, which results in more scenes of Genesis and Bel seeming like they’re putting on an act, have no history of abuse, and are in control (there are lines referring to a larger organization and clean up crew at hand, and that they have done this many times before), as opposed to two unhinged victims that are acting out of psychosis, which I think is the much more interesting (and frightening) of the two scenarios. This feels like the film that the survivors of Roth’s other films would end up making due to the trauma they’ve been through.

Bel and Genesis’ sadistic chemistry with one another is very strong and probably the best part of this film. As these two sync up together and become increasingly intimidating, you can’t help but feel frightened and outnumbered like Evan does. There’s a sly line in the first half of the film where Evan mentions not being too scared of their physical prowess and that he could comfortably take the two of them. When the shoe is finally on the other foot though, it’s not their physical strength that matters, but their mental manipulation of Evan and how they team up on him in that respect. Him being outnumbered here isn’t dangerous because it means a second set of fists to pummel him, but rather another voice to play out his insecurities and feed the lies that have been wearing him down.

In a similar vein, there’s a through line of sexual violence that the film wallows in as much as it can. One piece of Genesis and Bel’s torture to Evan is framed like a pedophile-themed game show for instance, with the punishments being like-minded accordingly. This is the right sort of idea and the focus that the film should take more often. Like a more damaged version of Hard Candy. Like if Hard Candy had two Velociraptors on the loose in the house. Even the final act is more or less turned into a big game of hide and seek. Intense violence is often being married with juvenility in what seems like the perfect representation of Genesis and Bel’s mental states.

In such a minimalistic film, obviously a lot of it is going to hinge upon Keanu Reeves’ performances, and unfortunately he’s really terribly here, which is puzzle stuff since it almost felt like the actor was having a renaissance lately with stuff like John Wick. It’s very difficult to take him seriously as he screams out lines while tied to a chair, churning out a very Nicolas Cage-like performance. Because of how restricted he is for the second half of the film, so much is dependent on Reeves’ vocal performance and he just sounds downright wooden. Major moments where he’s yelling about being concerned over going deaf or calling the police to help his friend completely fall flat. It’s painful to see Reeves delivering pivotal dialogue life, “You killed him! You killed him!” or “I’m a good father!” and it not at all being taken seriously, as you’re left thinking of the wasted opportunity on what someone else could have done with the part. In the right hands this could actually be a great role—and someone like Dan Stevens from The Guest or even Bruce Campbell would have delivered a much more interesting take on this—but instead you’re sort of left mocking Reeves, which is not at all helpful to the character. You need to be endlessly empathetic to him and want to see him escape, not get further humiliated.

There’s a moment towards the end of the film that’s Evan’s huge scene. It’s a transformative monologue that makes nothing but good points and is a staunch reminder that Evan is the hero in all of this. It’s the sort of speech that the audience should applaud at afterwards but instead I guarantee you that people are just going to laugh, or even cheer when Genesis and Bel respond how they do. I don’t mean to be harping endlessly on Reeves here, but it’s a distracting performance that he puts out, even if he does just go for broke with it all. By the time he’s barking about taking “free pizza,” it’s already too late for him.

Knock Knock’s conclusion also frustrates as Evan really doesn’t deserve the fate that he’s given. The film treats the final moments as if Evan’s angry, raging side is who he really is, whereas that couldn’t seem to be further from the truth. Evan’s more than justified for his anger. With this blunt conclusion and the film offering up no hint of seeing the lasting psychological damage that Genesis and Bel may or may not be going through, the movie as a whole certainly feels hollow and the commentary that it might have been making about abuse is muddled and lost to Roth’s typically loud style. Instead the takeaway that the film wants us to have is on men being inherently unfaithful and “evil” with these two women in fact being some sort of misunderstood angels in disguise.

While Knock Knock can successfully claim that it does present that perspective to some degree, that’s nothing to be proud of. Countless films brandish this “edgy” theme, and for this one to ride out on that makes it merely feel like another face amongst the crowd as opposed to something unique. In Roth’s defense, this conclusion could have gone down a much worse route but he instead shows restraint. His ending does have a strong impact that arguably “works,” but the problem is that Evan doesn’t seem like the terrible person that needs to learn the lesson that he’s taught.

Knock Knock is far from a good movie, but also far from a bad one, with it more than anything seeming to be an interesting piece in the filmography of Eli Roth. It could act as the turning point as he ushers in a more cerebral, psychological brand of horror as opposed to the visceral variety that he’s been focused on so far. I might have thought I was finished with Roth’s outings in the past, and even if Knock Knock hasn’t gotten me back on board with the director, it has shown me that he perhaps has a little more left to say

The post [Review] ‘Knock Knock’ Confidently Answers the Door, But at the Wrong House appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

*SPOILERS to follow***

The post 5 Amazing Home Invasion Thrillers You Need to See! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Knock Knock stars Keanu Reeves as the family man who falls into temptation and Lorenza Izzo and Ana de Armas as the seductresses who wreak havoc upon his life, turning a married man’s dark fantasy into his worst nightmare.

“When a devoted husband and father is left home alone for the weekend, two stranded young women unexpectedly knock on his door for help. What starts out as a kind gesture results in a dangerous seduction and a deadly game of cat and mouse.”

The Knock Knock home entertainment release includes audio commentary with the cast and crew, deleted scenes and a behind-the-scenes featurette.

The post Eli Roth’s ‘Knock Knock’ Rings at Your Door This December appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

We landed three new clips from the remake of Peter S. Traynor’s 1977 Death Game, which tells the story of two seductresses who have sex with and thus torment a married man on one fateful evening.

The clips begin with a playful game of boxing between one of the girls and Keanu Reeves, while the second has him seduced, with the last having a messy breakfast. Fun and games quickly turn sour.

In Knock Knock, “When a devoted husband and father is left home alone for the weekend, two stranded young women unexpectedly knock on his door for help. What starts out as a kind gesture results in a dangerous seduction and a deadly game of cat and mouse.

A sexy new thriller from director Eli Roth, ‘Knock Knock’ stars Keanu Reeves as the family man who falls into temptation and Lorenza Izzo and Ana de Armas as the seductresses who wreak havoc upon his life, turning a married man’s dark fantasy into his worst nightmare.”

Lorenza Izzo, Ana de Armas, Aaron Burns, Ignacia Allamand, and Colleen Camp also star in Knock Knock.

The post ‘Knock Knock’ Clips Begin with Seduction, End with Breakfast appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Below is a quiz that asks a few basic questions that will then tell you if you could survive an Eli Roth horror film! Now, I know that many of you will assume that I’d come to a gruesome and horrific demise were I to be there…

Well, the joke’s on you! “You’d turn the tables and survive unscathed!“:

Well-done — you’ve outwitted those with sinister intentions, and made it out with barely a scratch on you! For most of your life, people have told you that you were too pessimistic, and always looking for the evil in everyone. Little did they know you were doing the right thing, because who knows if you can really trust the shady hostel owner, talking in another language while smirking at you? Overall, you’re a survivor because you’re brave, bold and know exactly when to make a break for it.

Take the quiz and let us know how you fare!

The post Could You Survive An Eli Roth Horror Movie? appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

*By official, I mean this is just my opinion and should not be taken as fact. I feel like this should go without saying, but after the comments I received on my Scream Queens post, a disclaimer is in order.

The post Ranking All of Eli Roth’s Films! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Shit gets uncomfortable in this first clip from Eli Roth’s Knock Knock (read our review), opening in limited theaters and On Demand October 9th, 2015 via Lionsgate Premiere.

Knock Knock is a remake of Peter S. Traynor’s 1977 Death Game, and tells the story of two seductresses who have sex with and thus torment a married man on one fateful evening.

The footage appears to be after their evening of bliss, where Keanu is probably soaked in guilt during a phone call with his wife. What she can’t see are Lorenza Izzo and Ana de Armas faking sex acts while Reeves tries to explain himself…

“When a devoted husband and father is left home alone for the weekend, two stranded young women unexpectedly knock on his door for help. What starts out as a kind gesture results in a dangerous seduction and a deadly game of cat and mouse.

A sexy new thriller from director Eli Roth, ‘Knock Knock’ stars Keanu Reeves as the family man who falls into temptation and Lorenza Izzo and Ana de Armas as the seductresses who wreak havoc upon his life, turning a married man’s dark fantasy into his worst nightmare.”

The post NSFW ‘Knock Knock’ Clip Gets Uncomfortable appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Knock Knock is a remake of Peter S. Traynor’s 1977 Death Game, and tells the story of two seductresses who have sex with and thus torment a married man on one fateful evening.

“When a devoted husband and father is left home alone for the weekend, two stranded young women unexpectedly knock on his door for help. What starts out as a kind gesture results in a dangerous seduction and a deadly game of cat and mouse.

A sexy new thriller from director Eli Roth, ‘Knock Knock’ stars Keanu Reeves as the family man who falls into temptation and Lorenza Izzo and Ana de Armas as the seductresses who wreak havoc upon his life, turning a married man’s dark fantasy into his worst nightmare.”

Lorenza Izzo, Ana de Armas, Aaron Burns, Ignacia Allamand, and Colleen Camp also star in Knock Knock.

The post We’ve Dug Up Some New Images from Eli Roth’s ‘Knock Knock’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The film is a remake of Peter S. Traynor’s 1977 Death Game, and tells the story of two seductresses who have sex with and thus torment a married man on one fateful evening.

The fresh trailer has more footage of Lorenza Izzo and Ana de Armas screwing and then torturing Keanu Reeves, setting up a sexy, tense thriller from the director of Cabin Fever, Hostel and the upcoming The Green Inferno.

If Roth can take what Death Game had to offer and up the ante, I think we’re in for a nasty new horror classic.

“When a devoted husband and father is left home alone for the weekend, two stranded young women unexpectedly knock on his door for help. What starts out as a kind gesture results in a dangerous seduction and a deadly game of cat and mouse.

A sexy new thriller from director Eli Roth, ‘Knock Knock’ stars Keanu Reeves as the family man who falls into temptation and Lorenza Izzo and Ana de Armas as the seductresses who wreak havoc upon his life, turning a married man’s dark fantasy into his worst nightmare.“

Aaron Burns, Ignacia Allamand, and Colleen Camp also star in Knock Knock.

The post New ‘Knock Knock’ Trailer Slaps Around Keanu Reeves appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Touting an unusual is-it-real-is-it-not backstory, developer Ice-Pick Lodge states that it developed the game from a strange email that arrived at the studio one day.

“What do you, a small-to-mid-sized indie studio, do when an e-mail pops up full of mysterious scribbles, notes, and audio files — coupled with a vague description of a possible game?” states a post on the PS Blog.

“In all honesty, more often than not you probably try to conjure up a polite and friendly response; perhaps discuss the sender’s ideas with them. But that’s not what happened at Ice-Pick Lodge studios in November 2011.”

Writer/Translator Alexandra Golubeva goes on to add that the quirky, hide-and-seek, cabin-in-the-woods story bases its central motif on the fear of the unknown.

“But that’s not all. Further to the Kickstarter and original release on PC in 2013, the “spooky sender” apparently contacted the studio again, claiming that while it had made mistakes, it got the “general gist just right.”

“We were — and still are — a bit afraid of what we’ve done, you see,” adds Golubeva. “Even those of us who were positive it was nothing more than a prank.”

The post Indie Horror Game ‘Knock Knock’ Announced for PS4 appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Eli Roth is taking a stab at telling the story of two seductresses who have sex with and thus torment a married man on one fateful evening.

We now have the full trailer for Roth’s Knock Knock (read our review), opening in limited theaters and On Demand October 9th, 2015 via Lionsgate Premiere.

In the trailer, the absolutely gorgeous Lorenza Izzo and Ana de Armas knock on the door of Keanu Reeves, who is alone for the evening. The beautiful girls seduce him, turning a quick use of this man’s phone into a threesome from hell. He’s tied up and tortured as these girls turn the tables on him, setting up a sexy, tense thriller from the director of Cabin Fever, Hostel and the upcoming The Green Inferno.

If Roth can take what Death Game had to offer and up the ante, I think we’re in for a nasty new horror classic.

“When a devoted husband and father is left home alone for the weekend, two stranded young women unexpectedly knock on his door for help. What starts out as a kind gesture results in a dangerous seduction and a deadly game of cat and mouse.

A sexy new thriller from director Eli Roth, ‘Knock Knock’ stars Keanu Reeves as the family man who falls into temptation and Lorenza Izzo and Ana de Armas as the seductresses who wreak havoc upon his life, turning a married man’s dark fantasy into his worst nightmare.“

Aaron Burns, Ignacia Allamand, and Colleen Camp also star in Knock Knock.

The post ‘Knock Knock,’ It’s Keanu Reeves’ Threesome From Hell! (Trailer) appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Collider shares this new poster that takes the previous two one-sheets and tapes them into one!

In Knock Knock, a remake of Peter S. Traynor’s punishing 1977 Death Game, “When a devoted husband and father is left home alone for the weekend, two stranded young women unexpectedly knock on his door for help. What starts out as a kind gesture results in a dangerous seduction and a deadly game of cat and mouse.

A sexy new thriller from director Eli Roth, Knock Knock stars Keanu Reeves as the family man who falls into temptation and Lorenza Izzo and Ana de Armas as the seductresses who wreak havoc upon his life, turning a married man’s dark fantasy into his worst nightmare.“

Aaron Burns, Ignacia Allamand, and Colleen Camp also star in Knock Knock.

Get some stills and watch the trailer here.

The post ‘Knock Knock’ Poster Gets Taped Up appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

In Knock Knock, a remake of Peter S. Traynor’s punishing 1977 Death Game, Keanu Reeves stars as a married man who lets two attractive women into his home while his family is away, which turns out to be a bad decision. Things get hot and steamy in a threesome before the girls tie him up, play some games, and go completely nutty.

Lorenza Izzo, Ana De Armas, Aaron Burns, Ignacia Allamand, and Colleen Camp also star in Knock Knock.

Get some stills and watch the trailer here.

The post ‘Knock Knock’ Poster Promise the Kiss of Death appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

In Knock Knock, a remake of Peter S. Traynor’s punishing 1977 Death Game, Keanu Reeves stars as a married man who lets two attractive women into his home while his family is away, which turns out to be a bad decision. Things get hot and steamy in a threesome before the girls tie him up, play some games, and go completely nutty.

Lorenza Izzo, Ana De Armas, Aaron Burns, Ignacia Allamand, and Colleen Camp also star in Knock Knock.

Get some stills and watch the trailer here.

The post Foreign ‘Knock Knock’ Poster Pulls a Knife on Keanu Reeves appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

In Knock Knock, Keanu Reeves stars as a married man who lets two attractive women into his home while his family is away, which turns out to be a bad decision. Things get hot and steamy in a threesome before the girls tie him up, play some games, and go completely nutty.

Lorenza Izzo, Ana De Armas, Aaron Burns, Ignacia Allamand, and Colleen Camp also star in Knock Knock.

“Evan Webber (Keanu Reeves) is living the dream. Just look at his beautiful, successful wife, his two wonderful kids, and his truly stunning house—which he designed himself. Of course he did. Things are going so well, Evan doesn’t even mind spending Father’s Day alone while the rest of his family heads out for a beach weekend. And then there’s a knock on the door.

The two young women (Lorenza Izzo and Ana de Armas) standing on Evan’s doorstep are where Evan’s dream takes a nightmarish turn. Given co-writer/director Eli Roth’s well-deserved reputation for creating cinematic discomfort, it should come as no surprise what happens next: Things get weird, and then dark, and then much, much, much darker. But this is no splatter film, so Roth keeps the horror nice and psychological as Evan’s life—and house—get ripped apart, piece by beautiful piece.”

The post ‘Knock Knock’ Women to Torment Keanu Reeves This October! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

In Knock Knock, Keanu Reeves stars as a married man who lets two attractive women into his home while his family is away, which turns out to be a bad decision. Things get hot and steamy in a threesome before the girls tie him up, play some games, and go completely nutty.

The UK quad poster, courtesy of Empire, teases that some doors should never be opened.

Lorenza Izzo, Ana De Armas, Aaron Burns, Ignacia Allamand, and Colleen Camp also star in Knock Knock.

“Evan Webber (Keanu Reeves) is living the dream. Just look at his beautiful, successful wife, his two wonderful kids, and his truly stunning house—which he designed himself. Of course he did. Things are going so well, Evan doesn’t even mind spending Father’s Day alone while the rest of his family heads out for a beach weekend. And then there’s a knock on the door.

The two young women (Lorenza Izzo and Ana de Armas) standing on Evan’s doorstep are where Evan’s dream takes a nightmarish turn. Given co-writer/director Eli Roth’s well-deserved reputation for creating cinematic discomfort, it should come as no surprise what happens next: Things get weird, and then dark, and then much, much, much darker. But this is no splatter film, so Roth keeps the horror nice and psychological as Evan’s life—and house—get ripped apart, piece by beautiful piece.”

The post Eli Roth’s ‘Knock Knock’ Stabs UK Audiences (Poster) appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Keanu Reeves has a really, really good time before everything goes to shit in this international trailer for Eli Roth’s (Cabin Fever, Hostel, The Green Inferno) Sundance hit, Knock Knock (read our review), which appears to be a remake of Peter S. Traynor’s punishing 1977 Death Game.

In Knock Knock, Reeves stars as a married man who lets two attractive women into his home while his family is away, which turns out to be a bad decision. Things get hot and steamy in a threesome before the girls tie him up, play some games, and go completely nutty.

Lionsgate acquired the film for release later this year, although a date has yet to be set.

Lorenza Izzo, Ana De Armas, Aaron Burns, Ignacia Allamand, and Colleen Camp also star in Knock Knock.

“Evan Webber (Keanu Reeves) is living the dream. Just look at his beautiful, successful wife, his two wonderful kids, and his truly stunning house—which he designed himself. Of course he did. Things are going so well, Evan doesn’t even mind spending Father’s Day alone while the rest of his family heads out for a beach weekend. And then there’s a knock on the door.

The two young women (Lorenza Izzo and Ana de Armas) standing on Evan’s doorstep are where Evan’s dream takes a nightmarish turn. Given co-writer/director Eli Roth’s well-deserved reputation for creating cinematic discomfort, it should come as no surprise what happens next: Things get weird, and then dark, and then much, much, much darker. But this is no splatter film, so Roth keeps the horror nice and psychological as Evan’s life—and house—get ripped apart, piece by beautiful piece.”

The post Girls Go Wild In Eli Roth’s ‘Knock Knock’! (Trailer) appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

According to Variety, the pic sold for a whopping $3M, making the Keanu Reeves starrer one of the biggest genre pickups at a festival in years.

Eli Roth (Cabin Fever, Hostel, The Green Inferno) directed the pic, which sounds like a remake of Peter S. Traynor’s 1977 Death Game. In it, Reeves stars as a married man who lets two attractive women into his home while his family is away, which turns out to be a bad decision.

Lionsgate recently released the must-see Keanu Reeves action flick John Wick.

The post Eli Roth’s ‘Knock Knock’ Sells to Lionsgate For Megabucks appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Eli Roth’s latest movie is his most F’ed up and his least violent, thus proving the talent was not simply for outdoing the gore. There is a masterful skill at manipulating the audience, but in a way that we trust the filmmaker to take us on that ride, and it’s not a not a one trick formula. With Knock Knock, Roth proves he can apply this skill to any genre.

Loving family man Evan (Keanu Reeves), sends his wife and kids off the beach while he stays home to work. When two lost girls, Genesis (Lorenza Izzo) and Bel (Ana de Armas) knock on his door, he invites them in out of the rain and shows them hospitality while they wait 45 minutes for an Uber. By the end of the night, the girls seduce Evan, and that’s when things get really weird.

It’s not even really a fantasy gone wrong. I mean, it’s playing on the stereotypical male threesome fantasy, but I don’t fantasize about having a threesome. I fantasize about having one woman who’ll watch movies with me. I can relate to Evan’s temptation though because I do like to make friends. What if I let the wrong girls into my house? We have to be really vigilant as a society to stick to our values. People will try to corrupt us all around, and I’ve been pressured into making bad decisions nonsexually so I’m not going to judge someone for succumbing to a very strange, unexpected situation.

Evan is punished in a taboo thriller that will put Fifty Shades of Grey to shame. It reminded me of the glorious erotic thriller genre, but with a real edge that none of the ‘90s movies could touch, not even Basic Instinct. Knock Knock is dealing with a sexual manipulation deadlier than physical violence, but when it does turn violent, the tools of the violence have been so well established that it feels more brutal than Hostel.

Reeves is great with the kids, which adds to our disappointment when he violates his family’s trust, but also our sympathies when he gets in so deep. There’s also something special about watching one of cinema’s greatest action heroes (yeah, I said it) become the helpless victim. Izzo and de Armas are terrifying. They are so volatile, their unpredictable personalities are even scarier than the tortures they commit.

I don’t want to spoil any of Knock Knock this early. Audiences should be able to watch it unfold the way I did knowing very little about it except that it’s Keanu Reeves, two women and directed by Eli Roth. That should be enough to get anyone in the door and I can vouch for the film and filmmakers. They went there.

The post [Sundance ’15 Review] Eli Roth’s ‘Knock Knock’ a Glorious Taboo Thriller! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

After the saddening news that Green Inferno was postponed indefinitely, it’s a bit of brightness to get a taste of director Eli Roth’s new film Knock Knock (read our review), which stars Keanu Reeves (Constantine). Roth dropped the Sundance teaser trailer earlier tonight and it gives us 30 seconds to feel the flavor of his upcoming psychological thriller.

The Sundance synopsis reads:

Evan Webber (Keanu Reeves) is living the dream. Just look at his beautiful, successful wife, his two wonderful kids, and his truly stunning house—which he designed himself. Of course he did. Things are going so well, Evan doesn’t even mind spending Father’s Day alone while the rest of his family heads out for a beach weekend. And then there’s a knock on the door.
The two young women (Lorenza Izzo and Ana de Armas) standing on Evan’s doorstep are where Evan’s dream takes a nightmarish turn. Given co-writer/director Eli Roth’s well-deserved reputation for creating cinematic discomfort, it should come as no surprise what happens next: Things get weird, and then dark, and then much, much, much darker. But this is no splatter film, so Roth keeps the horror nice and psychological as Evan’s life—and house—get ripped apart, piece by beautiful piece.

The post Eli Roth Unleashes ‘Knock Knock’ Teaser Trailer appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Keanu Reeves stars in Knock Knock, in which two beautiful young girls walk into a married man’s (Reeves) life and turn a wild fantasy into his worst nightmare.

Lorenza Izzo, Ana De Armas, Aaron Burns, Ignacia Allamand, and Colleen Camp also star.

Check out the full Park City at Midnight line-up by clicking here.

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Trevor Groth, Director of Programming for the Sundance Film Festival, said, “This year’s Park City at Midnight selections have much to offer genre enthusiasts. With everything from futuristic fantasies to paranormal nightmares, it’s an all-out trip to the cinematic edge.”

From horror flicks to comedies to works that defy any genre, these unruly films will keep you edge-seated and wide awake.

Cop Car / U.S.A. (Director: Jon Watts, Screenwriters: Christopher D. Ford, Jon Watts) — Two 10-year-old boys steal an abandoned cop car. Cast: Kevin Bacon, James Freedson-Jackson, Hays Wellford, Shea Whigham, Camryn Manheim. World Premiere

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The Hallow / Ireland, United Kingdom (Director: Corin Hardy, Screenwriters: Corin Hardy, Felipe Marino) — When a London-based conservationist is sent to Ireland to survey an area of ancient forest believed by the superstitious locals to be hallowed ground, he unwittingly disturbs a horde of terrifying beings and must fight to protect his family. Cast: Joseph Mawle, Bojana Novakovic, Michael McElhatton, Michael Smiley. World Premiere

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Hellions / Canada (Director: Bruce McDonald, Screenwriter: Pascal Trottier) — Teenage Dora Vogel must survive a Halloween night from hell when malevolent trick-or-treaters come knocking at her door. Cast: Chloe Rose, Robert Patrick, Rossif Sutherland, Rachel Wilson, Peter DaCunha, Luke Bilyk. World Premiere

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It Follows / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: David Robert Mitchell) — After a strange sexual encounter, a teenager finds herself haunted by nightmarish visions and the inescapable sense that something is after her. Cast: Maika Monroe, Keir Gilchrist, Daniel Zovatto, Jake Weary, Olivia Luccardi, Lili Sepe.

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Knock Knock / U.S.A. (Director: Eli Roth, Screenwriters: Eli Roth, Nicolas Lopez, Guillermo Amoedo) — Two beautiful young girls walk into a married man’s life and turn a wild fantasy into his worst nightmare. Cast: Keanu Reeves, Lorenza Izzo, Ana De Armas, Aaron Burns, Ignacia Allamand, Colleen Camp. World Premiere

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The Nightmare / U.S.A. (Director: Rodney Ascher) — A documentary-horror film exploring the phenomenon of sleep paralysis through the eyes of eight people. They (and a surprisingly large number of others) often find themselves trapped between the sleeping and awake realms, unable to move but aware of their surroundings while subject to disturbing sights and sounds. World Premiere

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Reversal / U.S.A. (Director: J.M Cravioto, Screenwriters: Rock Shaink, Keith Kjornes) — A gritty psychological thriller about a young woman chained in a basement of a sexual predator and manages to escape. However, right when she has a chance for freedom, she unravels a hard truth and decides to turn the tables on her captor. Cast: Tina Ivlev, Richard Tyson, Bianca Malinowski. World Premiere

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Turbo Kid / Canada, New Zealand (Directors: Anouk Whissell, Francois Simard, Yoann-Karl Whissell, Screenwriters: Anouk Whissell, Francois Simard, Yoann-Karl Whissell) — In a post-apocalyptic future, The Kid, an orphaned outcast, meets a mysterious girl. They become friends until Zeus, the sadistic leader of the Wasteland, kidnaps her. The Kid must face his fears, and journey to rid the Wasteland of evil and save the girl. Cast: Munro Chambers, Laurence Leboeuf, Michael Ironside, Aaron Jeffery, Edwin Wright. World Premiere

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“Fun Size Horror” is a horror film collective that has come together to create 31 films to celebrate Halloween!

We kick things off first this morning with Anthony Lund’s short ‘Knock, Knock…’ that begins when he hears a loud knocking from inside his closet, a young boy finds the courage to investigate.

“On a dark, rainy night, Small-fry 8-year-old Aidan is up late reading stories about his favorite thing in the whole world: brave viking warriors. Suddenly, he hears a strange knocking…. from inside his closet. Channeling the Norse heroes he worships, Aidan armors himself with his prize helmet and sword, and approaches his unseen foe. Unfortunately for him, plastic weapons will do nothing against what’s hunting him from the darkness: a creature who can tunnel through the shadows.“

“Fun Size Horror” was created by Zeke Pinheiro and is being produced by Mali Elfman, Michael May and Curtis Andersen.

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Deadline reports that Keanu Reeves has just committed to star for Eli Roth (Hostel, Cabin Fever) in Knock Knock, a psychological thriller that Roth wrote and will direct.

“Reeves will play a happily married family man who’s left alone for the weekend. Two beautiful girls show up at his house, and turn his life upside down.”

Those femme fatales will be played by The Green Inferno‘s Lorenza Izzo, adds the site, and Ana de Armas.

Ignacia Allamand, who also starred in Green Inferno, plays the man’s wife. Colleen Camp, a catalyst in assembling this film as producer, will also play a role, as will Aaron Burns, who also just worked with Roth in The Green Inferno.

Roth starts production April 14 in Santiago, Chile.

This sums up my thoughts pretty well…

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TheWrap reports that Roth is set to reteam with his Aftershock co-writers on the horror movie Knock Knock.

Roth will direct from an original screenplay he co-wrote with Nicolas Lopez and Guillermo Amoeda. Roth will also produce with Colleen Camp (Squirrels to the Nuts).

“The story follows two young girls who show up unexpectedly at the home of a married man where they seduce him and wreak havoc on his perfect life.”

Knock Knock, which is budgeted under $10 million, is scheduled to start production in April.

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Have a question? Feel free to ever-so-gently toss Adam an email, or follow him on Twitter and Bloody Disgusting.

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