There Comes a Knocking

Ryan Connolly's latest film is his most potent and captivating to date. Incredible visuals, enthralling sound design, and a great performance left me wanting to explore more of the story. This proof of concept has promise and I would gladly pay to see a feature film based on this.

Folks, its classic film riot. Looks great. Story lacks. I understand it's a concept for a feature but Ive seen film students tell better stories then There Comes A Knocking. Full of cliches. Nothing new or refreshing. Well made however, looks like something you would see in a theater.

You will finish the short and want there to be more after a major cliffhanger. I don't want to spoil it. It's not very scary so I think this would be good for people who like non scary things. It is very well written (No surprise because its Ryan Conley.) and acting was very good as well.

Left me wanting more to explore more of the story.

If you're taking time out of your day to scroll to the reviews section, chances are you are a Film Riot fan like myself. This man puts out great quality videos aimed to solely help filmmakers of all skill levels for FREE on their YouTube channel. This short has gorgeous camera movement. I mean, take pity on this short, there is no underdogs here, there's big time equipment being used, men and women with high skill level, and they all have eyes set on them to deliver. But do they? No, like Ballistic, it falls short. It's wise to mention this a condensed version of a feature film they are aiming to make, rather get funds for. That's a great idea and it has worked for many projects in the past, I just think this project was too weak. It without a doubt reminded me of the Black Mirror episode Be Right Back (who did it unimaginably better, though also flawed). So to me then just translates to a been there done that scenario. Let's get into the main piece of this short, the door. Our female lead loses a weird looking key down the bottom of this mysterious awesome looking door from inside her home while she's setting it up and is somehow unable to walk outside through another structure opening to retrieve it. (If this makes no sense, it's because it doesn't.) But don't dwell on it too much because the key reappears magically. Not to spoil anything, but the ending was cringe-worthy, anticlimactic, and obvious just like that god-awful hilarious title name. I wish these talented people the best of the best, they deserve big budget projects, I just hope this isn't one of them. I encourage new viewers to still watch this and all other works by this team including Justin Robinson's Guest of Honor which I am a big fan of. Shoot. Edit. Repeat. is their motto. Just gotta keep trying, with heads up.