In co-writer/director
Eli Roth’s
hormone horror story “Knock Knock,” Keanu Reeves plays Evan, a loving father
and husband who’s
given an offer he should have refused. When alone at his house for the weekend,
two young women appear at his door, Genesis (Lorenza Izzo) and Bel (Ana de
Armas). They are lost and rain-soaked but eager to party, even with a former
DJ/modern-day dork like Evan. His attempts to be hospitable while respecting
his vows are continuously defeated, as the duo’s
flirtatious joie de vivre only gets more aggressive. When Evan finally embraces
the Sirens’ temptation,
he is soon haunted by their permanent presence, with passing-by family friends
played by Aaron Burns and Colleen Camp caught in the middle. Waging
unpredictable anarchy this side of Michael Haneke’s “Funny
Games,” Genesis and Bel set out to destroy Evan’s
house, his relationships and Evan himself.

“Knock Knock” is the
latest project from “Chilewood,” a title for the filmmaking family started by
Roth and Chilean writer/director Nicolás López, along with their frequent
co-writer Guillermo Amoedo. Roth’s first film to be
shown at Sundance, “Knock Knock” was bought during the festival by Lionsgate
for distribution to the price of $2.5 million.

The morning after “Knock
Knock’s”
world premiere, RogerEbert.com talked with López, Burns, de Armas, Izzo and
Reeves to discuss the horror-comedy, the appeal that its wacky narrative had
for its actors, and the movie’s warning about free pizza.

“Knock Knock” is
distinctly set in Hollywood, but was shot entirely in Santiago, Chile. “Our
goal is to make one or two movies per year,” says Lopez. “Non-stop, and in
Spanish. The first movie we did was ‘Aftershock,’ which
I directed. Then we did ‘The Green Inferno,’ which
Eli directed. And then Amoedo directed ‘The Stranger’ which
will premiere at this year’s Fantastic Fest. But
while we were waiting to figure out what was happening with [the
still-unreleased] ‘Green Inferno,’ we
wanted to make a movie right away.”

And thus, “Knock
Knock” was born, after the three co-writers viewed 1977’s “Death
Game,” which Roth stated himself during the previous night’s
Q&A to be a huge influence. “We were like, ‘the premise of this movie is so
clean,’ López confirmed. “‘That’s the kind of movie
we should make.’”

“Knock Knock” challenges
the expectation of seeing Reeves with the heroic upper-hand, and instead has
him playing the role he himself called “the sacrificial lamb.” When introducing
the film, Roth stated that this film was a turning point in his own career and
that of Reeves’,
comparing the latter to how Clint Eastwood fully harnessed his image to become
an even stronger on-camera presence. Lobbing that comparison back to Reeves in
an interview, the film’s challenge of expectations for Reeves doesn’t
seem intentional to the actor.

“Well, Eastwood never
did ‘Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure’ or
a ‘A Scanner Darkly,’” answered Reeves. “I don’t
really play with my image. But I was sent the script by [producer] Cassian
Elwes, and I responded to the material; the idea of playing this guy who goes
through this journey, who is really guilty and innocent, but mostly guilty, and
gets punished. And, in a way, he kind of grows up. But that’s
just one aspect of it. I enjoyed the script because it was funny, and I liked
the suspense that Eli was playing with. I’ve always wanted to
work in a different genre, and I love when films can entertain but have ideas
in them.”

López and Burns
remarked that this role is a distinctly different one for Reeves, namely that
the action star plays an ordinary, boring dad. “It
was the first time that Keanu’s played a character
who has kids,” López stated. “So when we gave him a gun it was no big deal to
him, but when we told him to interact with a kid, he was like, ‘Oh, how do I do
that?’ And
seeing him nervous, freaking about these two girls, was awesome. He wasn’t
being the cool guy, but a normal guy. We even had to dial down his cool and
tell him, ‘Keanu, this is how a normal guy interacts with two hot girls!’”

Roth isn’t
the first director that one would associate with Reeves, especially as Reeves’ filmography
seems to favor horror the least of other genres. But, the actor says that he
dug Roth’s
movie-lover perspective: “I always think of him as a cinephile—his training,
his background. Whenever I’ve seen him speak, or
whenever I see his films there’s a lot of
referencing in dialogue between the audience and the movie, there’s a
conversation happening.”

Opposite Reeves in “Knock
Knock” are the two femme fatales played by de Armas and Izzo. Their characters
are playful and fickle, and with extreme over-sexualization. What excited these
two actresses about playing these characters?

“It was so refreshing
to see a script where there were female leads,” said Izzo. I know the story is
about [Evan], but it’s also great to find a script where the
powerful emotions and roles are played by women, where women can take over and
show vulnerability, love, and insecurities in such a palpable way.” De Armas
added, “I loved the tone, and the comedy…it was very funny and very sad, that
these girls are looking for someone who says, ‘No, I’m
not going to fuck you.’ And they can’t.
That’s
why they keep looking; they are broken.”

With far less
decimation to human flesh than Roth’s previous adventures
of hormonal comeuppance (“Hostel”), “Knock Knock” speaks mostly in comedic
beats despite the dark psychological places it inhabits. As Izzo described, “It’s
tricky because there’s so much comedy, which makes it natural,
because as humans we deal with dark things and emotions with laughing and
uncomfortable jokes. But we’re talking about
young girls at the end of the day, and it’s such an interesting
script because of that.”

The discomforting
comedy of “Knock Knock” can be quite vivid, and within the fetishistic nature
of Roth’s
unabashed storytelling. Incest and pedophilia are just a few of the elements
that “Knock Knock” brings into its horrifically awkward playtime. While one can
assume that nothing was out of bounds for a Roth set, who came up with these
weird bits of charcoal comedy?

“All of those jokes,”
answered de Armas, “you can ask Eli.” To which Izzo interjected, “Actually, I
did come up with a few. I mean, I did marry him.”

The downfall of Evan’s
character and the catalyst for the film’s “Funny Games”-like
shenanigans is summated with the term/future-Twitter-trending-topic “free pizza.”
It makes for the movie’s most unforgettable passage, as expressed in
a monologue from an uncharacteristically impotent Reeves. Who do we have to
thank for this bizarre, quaint metaphor?

“It’s a
theory that I’ve
had,” stated López. “If you’re with somebody, you’re
not supposed to cheat. But if you’re at your house and
you just ate, and if somebody came to your door to give you free pizza, you’re
going to have a slice. Evan doesn’t want free pizza, he
didn’t
ask for free pizza, but it’s free pizza.” “You can
throw the pizza box away,” Burns added. “And nobody would ever know!”

“The
whole thing about the movie being called ‘Knock Knock’ is
that you decide to open the door,” concluded López. “When you open the door,
bad things could happen, because you’re playing with fire.”

With
recently-purchased “Knock Knock” proving fortuitous for both a less-torturous
director and his one-of-a-kind lead, Roth and Reeves are both headed towards
intriguing projects in the future. Up next for Chilewood is a straightforward
comedy titled “I’m
Not Crazy,” which Roth collaborated on and Lopez will direct. And by the end of
2015, Chilewood hopes to be working on Roth’s
next directorial project, “The Hive.” A horror sci-fi about the disappearance
of bees, the script is nonetheless a collaboration between Chilewood and “American
Hustle” director David O. Russell.

As for Reeves, he has
a vibrant excitement regarding his upcoming acting filmography. “I don’t
have a particular genre that I’ve been looking at,” said
Reeves. “If I looked at what I’m doing [next], there’s
action, a little near-future sci-fi, there’s
comedy, there’s
medium big budget and low budget, and there’s
lead and supporting roles.” But when I told the budding filmmaker behind 2013’s
Man of Tai Chi” that I can’t wait to see what he
does next behind the camera, he offered a humble smile, and knocked on wood. 

Nick Allen

Nick Allen is the former Senior Editor at RogerEbert.com and a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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