Don't Knock Twice

The Caradog's movie is trying to find a balance between being an indie horror movie and typical, wanting to be, scary pseudo-blockbuster.

Unfortunately, because of hesitancy of director, the movie fails, by being too much, or not enough, of everything.

We have great shots, cold atmosphere, really climatic music and sound effects. But on the other hand, film is attacking us with cheesy dialogues, not so original scenes (don't want to say clichés)and really rushed ending.

To end on a positive note, I must say, that movie is better than most of nowadays horrors, and it can scare you with a few scenes.

I do enjoy a good scare and a proper horror movie. I had not known about "Don't Knock Twice" prior to finding it by random luck. And being the horror aficionado that I am, I did of course sit down to watch it.

And it turned out that "Don't Knock Twice" was genuinely creepy and had a very compelling and immense storyline. So the movie instantly reached out and pulled me in, and I enjoyed every moment of it.

The storyline shown in "Don't Knock Twice" was unpredictable and director Caradog W. James was doing an excellent job of building up suspense and keeping the audience in the dark. And these build ups of drama and suspense were always well-finalized with fulfilling results as the climax of such a moment was reached.

"Don't Knock Twice" has some good acting performances by the cast hired to portray that various characters and roles throughout the movie. And it was nice to see some unfamiliar faces in a movie, and especially so when these actors and actresses were doing such good jobs at bringing the characters to life in the creepy story.

The characters in the movie seemed fairly well-enough fleshed out, although you could of course always argue for characters needing more time on the screen to evolve and show more aspects of their personalities. But in overall, the character gallery in "Don't Knock Twice" was good and deep enough in terms of characteristics and personalities.

Now, this is not the type of horror movie that depends much on having an impressive and in-your-face display of effects and such. No, this is more of a deep-rooting horror movie that plants a seed and lets it fester and slowly sink into your psyche. And for me, at least, it was a nice switch of approach to a horror movie. And I ended up being quite entertained by what director Caradog W. James mustered here.

I will say that "Don't Knock Twice" was actually one of the more interesting and entertaining horror movies to make it to the screen in 2016. And if you haven't already seen the movie, I can highly recommend that you take the time to do so. I was genuinely entertained by it and it turned out to be a nice surprise of a movie.

The ever-likeable Katee Sackhoff strands herself in a well-made but trite Candyman knock-off that desperately strives to franchise itself out, but leans back on moldy haunted house tropes for the majority.

The movie is marketed as a supernatural horror thriller yet is nearly totally devoid of horror. What is in abundance is creepiness - but that alone cannot carry a movie.

Underpinning the movie's plot are child abduction/ murders and on one level I will admit that this an effective mystery as we are left to wonder whether this is simply an organic serial killer or some demonic force at play.

Katee Sackhoff, whom I remember from the 24 TV series, provides a credible performance what with very little to work with. Daughter Lucy Boyntin is charming yet frankly has little to do but get freaked out by bumps in the night. Husband Ben conveniently is absent for nearly the entire movie because has to go on a business meeting. Why was his character even in the movie?

The director apparently believes that you can generate suspense by playing creepy atmospheric music throughout the ENTIRE movie regardless what's going on in the movie - rather than rely on actions and storytelling.

We're given internet mythos - which as moviegoers we're taught to simply accept because the movie says so - but wait? Inexplicably knowledgeable closet demon slave Tira shoots that down and gives the "real" mythos. Ok. But wait. We learn that Tira's mythos was a lie too, to trick Sackhoff to do her bidding. All the while, daughter Boyntin, who had first hand knowledge of the actions of suspected demon slave Mary and intentions of suspiciously-acting Detective Boardman inexplicably shares little of this until the final minute of the movie.

In the end, we're left trying to sort out all the different mythos and why exactly people committed suicide, or were offered up to Baba Yaga, or were murdered - all in the space of about 2 minutes. The movie will leave you scratching your head.

Worth a watch. Good storyline, good twists and keeps you guessing! Some scary parts.