Natty Knocks

I had not heard about this 2023 horror movie titled "Natty Knocks", prior to sitting down to watch it. But seeing that the movie had Bill Moseley and Robert Englund on the cast list, and it being a horror movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I had to sit down and watch it.

Well, the storyline in "Natty Knocks", as written by Benjamin Olson, turned out to be a rather mediocre and generic one. Sure, "Natty Knocks" was watchable for what it was, but Benjamin Olson brought nothing to the horror genre that hasn't been seen or done before in other movies, and more often done better and more successfully. So yeah, the overall impression of "Natty Knocks" was a bland and mediocre one. It is a movie that came and went without leaving any lasting impression, and come next week, I will most likely have forgotten about it.

The acting performances in "Natty Knocks" were actually fair enough. And yeah, it certainly was good to see the likes of Bill Moseley and Robert Englund, two horror icons, together on the screen, though they had nothing much to work with in terms of script, characters and storyline.

Visually then "Natty Knocks" was a very mundane movie. There were special effects, sure, but they were hardly memorable or outstanding.

"Natty Knocks" is the type of movie you watch once, then shelf it and never look at it again.

My rating of director Dwight H. Little's 2023 horror movie "Natty Knocks" lands on a four out of ten stars.

After watching 4 or 5 stinkers in a row, this one stood out as actually... good, at least in relative terms. This has a lot going for it in competent direction, good audio/lighting, stable camera, scene framing that made sense, and better than average acting. The story was homage-good, although a little leaky- but actually having one was a nice touch. Besides a few veteran greats in here with Harris, Moseley, and Englund, the young leads were far better than expected. Charlotte as Britt is very charismatic and delivers well. Thomas Robie as Wyatt showed good restraint in places where young actors typically overdo it. The one distraction was the age issue. I was trying to overlook that Wyatt looked basically the same age as Britt, and even Jolie was too old for a high-school sitter and to be crying often. But hey, the skill trade-off was worth overlooking this. This is more of a family-friendly (PG13) homage horror than say, the Hatchet series, but it's still better than quite a few I've seen lately. I recommend it if you try to catch all the new lower/mid budget offerings or indies.

No pun intended - I really did not want to think too much about my summary line. Casting wise this really made some great choices (even in smaller roles like Englund). But even with Moseley in a bigger role (and he is giving it his all, no holding back punches then). The story is quite simple and I think quite predictable to say the least.

The movie also looks good and it has nice effects, but I am quite certain it will leave you cold - shame because there was something there, with a "new" story to tell. We have seen the revenge angle before - but you can twist and tweak things. Try to find something unique maybe .. or at least focus on one thing or another.

Add to that quite the convoluted and bad ending too ... well I may have been too nice again .. but it is Bill Moseley ... and he is really good, no matter what.

Why spend this kind of money and production only to have the actors act like idiots and do and say unrealistic things. The ONLY character that seems realistic is the KILLER. All the other characters seem like high school theater kids. Although it is somewhat enjoyable to watch them get killed to stop the inanity. The utter narcissism and vapid discussions make you root for killer to take them out. WHY is this babysitter acting like the mother of these kids while the realtor mother is never home but never selling a house. She shouldve been the older sister. This wouldve been better as a black comedy since the stilted cliches dialogue already comes off as un self aware as it is. Babysitter is also moronically acted and her motivations are stupid. This is why People have no faith in Hollywood types. Clearly this was never test screened or it never get released.

It's good to see Halloween 4 director Dwight Little and Halloween 4 actress Danielle Harris working together again here, and with a movie taking place during Halloween, but this movie doesn't come close to that classic. Very confusing and I did not like the ending. The whole witch (at least I guess that's what Natty Knocks is because they never fully explain) made no sense to me. How/why did she become one, and the flashback in the beginning makes me question: since when did they burn women/witches in 1976?? Perhaps in 1676, but definitely not 1976! Then we have plot holes and sudden jumps from one thing to another with filler missing. Toeard the end, I'm pretty sure a character from earlier suddenly shows up where he wasn't even there a moment before. Just very confusing and hard to follow. And I did not like the end.