Don't Knock Twice (2017)

Movie Name/Year: Don’t Knock Twice (2017)

Genre: Thriller, Horror

Length: 93 Minutes

Rating: R

Production/Distribution: Seymour Films, Red & Black Films, IFC Midnight

Director: Caradog W. James

Writers: Mark Huckerby, Nick Ostler

Actors: Katee Sackhoff, Lucy Boynton, Javier Botet, Nick Moran, Jordan Bolger, Pooneh Hajimohammadi, Richard Mylan, Callum Griffiths

Blurb from IMDb: A mother desperate to reconnect with her troubled daughter becomes embroiled in the urban legend of a demonic witch.

Cat’s Point of View:

I was a bit excited in anticipation of watching this movie. We haven’t landed on a horror movie in a while, after all. I’d immediately recognized Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica, Oculus, Longmire) from the trailer, and felt sure her involvement meant that I could expect something at least halfway decent.

Alas, halfway was accurate but decent was not.

In spite of some successful jump scares, an ominous background score, and creepy set pieces the movie seemed to be lacking something to set it apart from other films in the genre. It’s a shame, really. There was a goldmine of material that could have been pulled from the estranged mother and daughter story. Instead, I felt like we got too much of the same bits that get re-hashed over and over.

To be fair, it wasn’t all bad. There were some aspects of the movie that I did really enjoy. We come back to the relationship between the mother and daughter here. The twist wasn’t entirely predictable and left a bit of a stunned feeling in its wake. It wasn’t enough to keep me awake, though. I didn’t even have to watch something fluffy to take my mind off of it before sleep.

The film tries to play on the same notion as the ghostly slumber-party dares of my youth. Say ‘Bloody Mary’ in a dark bathroom mirror three times if you have the stomach for it. There’s also the Candyman (1992) series that is a tangent of that same theme. Of course, those are based on an invocation in threes. This story tried to buck that trend and go for two knocks, instead. I just don’t think that mixing an abbreviated version of ding-dong-dash and folklore was successful in this context.

I don’t think this movie would be something I would be comfortable recommending, when there are so many better options available.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 23%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 22%

Metascore – 45/100

Metacritic User Score – 5.1/10

IMDB Score – 5.1/10

CinemaScore – none

Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 2.5/5

Movie Trailer: