Director: Caradog W James
Writer: Mark Huckerby, Nick Ostler (Screenplay)
Starring: Katee Sackhoff, Lucy Boynton, Richard Mylan, Nick Moran, Pascale Wilson
Plot: A mother desperate to reconnect with her troubled daughter becomes embroiled in the urban legend of a demonic witch.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Good Horror
Story: Don’t Knock Twice starts as Jess (Sackhoff) is desperate to reconnect with her daughter Chloe (Boynton) who she left at a children’s school/home years before. Chloe not wanting to return home finds herself involved in an urban legend game with a friend about knocking on a mysterious door.
Soon after Chloe’s friend vanishes (we do see what happens to him but she doesn’t) leaving Chloe only have one place to turn to as a ghost figure starts to haunt her, Chloe must go home to her mother. With the mother and daughter trying to rebuild their relationship, Jess must face the demons off her past which led to her giving up Chloe but together they must face the unknown enemy haunting them both.
Thoughts on Don’t Knock Twice
Characters – Jess is the damaged mother that has made mistakes in her past which has caused her to give up her child, cleaned up and back on the right path she offers a home to her daughter again but finds herself needing to battle an evil spirit out for vengeance against her daughter. Chloe is the daughter of Jess, raised in a home very insecure with commitment issues, she finds herself targeted by a spirit which has a connection to her past. Boardman is the cop who led the investigation to what happened with the ghost figure.
Performance – Katee Sackhoff is somewhat of a favorite in the geek community for her work in sci-fi but over the recent years she has stepped into horror effortlessly and stands out as a great lead and this is no different. Lucy Boynton, we saw make a splash last year with Sing Street enters into horror here and she is good through the film even if the character feels slightly flat. Nick Moran as the detective is a character we would have liked more from but he does well with what he had to do.
Story – The story side is split into too, the first is showing the difficult side of parenting, the sacrifice the mother must make to overcome her personal demons to make sure she is safe but we follow the rebuilding process which is an important stage of this film. the horror side of the story is one of my favourite, it follows a ghost haunting that leads to our character needing to solve a case to be free of the hauntings, while not everything is explained as smoothly as it could have been it does work watching it all unfold. The mix of the two stories does work to show how the relationship between mother and daughter though strained needs to remain strong.
Horror – The horror used throughout is mostly jump scares but not false jump scares, this is a good thing because too many would ruin the film. a lot of the film is also well built up moments of horror.
Settings – The everyday settings for the film show us just what could happen to non-believers suddenly when they stumble into urban legend.
Special Effects – The effects being used through the film are all good, we get a mix of practical and what feels like CGI to create the ghost figure haunting the family.
Scene of the Movie – The first kill on the laptop, mostly because it is a surprise.
That Moment that annoyed me – One twist too many.
Final Thoughts – This was a good horror, it does create a good ghost investigation film but tries too hard to shock us with twists.
Overall: Good late night horror experience.
Rating
