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I am among the school of thought that if you're going to remake an old story, remake something that wasn't very good in the first place and attempt to give the material some justice. For a moment, I thought Eli Roth's Knock Knock (2015) could be a decent update to 1977's, Death Game. I was wrong. This is a case of a terrible movie being remade into a modern terrible movie -in some ways, it's actually worse.

If not for the scene in Act 3 when Keanu Reeves has his Cage-esque "not the bees!" moment ("It was free f#### pizza!") there wouldn't be a single redeeming quality. The logic is absurd; the family (especially the wife) is not believable; and the main character is just plain stupid.

http://youtu.be/O-e8cuXGwhs (http://youtu.be/O-e8cuXGwhs)

Spoilers...

I'm not sure how I feel about the ending, specifically the lack of payoff (Death Game had a nonsense payoff). On one hand, it was irritating that the villains totally got away with it all without any comeuppance, but on the other hand, not everything has to have a happy ending and it's ok that the victim is a male for a change and that the females get away with their villainy. Plus, it was Keanu, so it was hard to feel sorry for him in any way. Had it been a more likeable main (who actually does a single smart thing), part of me would have liked to have seen him have a moment where he turns the tide/tables and gets some payback (yet still have an ending where the girls "win" and get away with it).

Basically, the main comes across as stupid, weak, ineffectual, and a loser who couldn't fight back. Even if this character deserves his fate, it still doesn't make this a good film.

I give it 1 out of 5 free f##### pizzas.

It's too bad because the story premise/concept had potential.

I have yet to see the Keanu version of this story, but I have it bookmarked on Hulu.

However, I have, for a few years now, been trying to educate the world that Death Game, the film that Knock Knock is a remake of, is actually a remake of a 1973 film called Teenage Innocence, or Little Miss Innocence. The stories are very similar: Older guy takes in two "helpless" young girls who proceed to turn his male fantasies into emotional nightmares.


Here is the movie in a painfully annoying video on Youtube. And it is SERIOUSLY NOT SAFE FOR WORK (unless you work in adult films).

! No longer available (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngJIB1MoOPc#)

I liked KNOCK KNOCK.  I thought it was a seriously disturbing morality tale.
Yeah, Keanu was dumb, but what middle-aged man isn't confronted with two gorgeous, naked women?

I love the 1977 version. It was one of the better "wtf?" video rentals back in the day. Too bad Roth couldn't capture some of the intense insanity that made Death Game so good.

Who's there?

Yes, I remember reading one time that even Death Game was a remake itself -thanks for identifying it by name for me (and the link).