Don't Knock Twice (2016)

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

Director:

Caradog W. James (as Caradog James)

Writers:

Mark Huckerby, Nick Ostler

Stars:

Katee Sackhoff, Lucy Boynton, Richard Mylan

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Katee Sackhoff	...	Jess
Lucy Boynton	...	Chloe
Richard Mylan	...	Ben
Nick Moran	...	Boardman
Pascale Wilson	...	Ginger
Javier Botet	...	Ginger Special
Pooneh Hajimohammadi	...	Tira
Sarah Buckland	...	Louisa
Jordan Bolger	...	Danny
Ania Marson	...	Mary Aminov
Callum Griffiths	...	Michael Flowers
Lee Fenwick	...	Middle Aged Man
David Broughton-Davies	...	Caretaker
Melissa Woodbridge	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Michael Lindall	...	Additional Voices (voice)

Storyline

The sculptor Jess unsuccessfully tries to retrieve the custody of her teenage daughter Chloe. During the night, Chloe and her boyfriend Danny play a prank challenging an urban legend: and they knock twice on the door of the witch Mary Aminov. Soon Danny is hunted down by a fiend and vanishes. When Chloe is haunted by the evil spirit, she flees to the house of her estranged mother and her husband Ben to stay with her mother. Soon the demon finds her and haunts the house while Ben is traveling. Jess' model Tira sees darkness around Chloe and she researches the Internet about the mystery. Meanwhile Detective Boardman is investigating the disappearance of Danny and suspects Jess is manipulating her troubled daughter.

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Plot Keywords:

overalls | three word title | british | abandoned house | house | 

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Taglines:

Pray she doesn't answer

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Genres:

Horror

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for horror violence and language

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

3 February 2017 (USA)

Also Known As:

Don't Knock Twice

Filming Locations:

Wales, UK

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$2,081,591

Company Credits

Production Co:

Red & Black Films, Seymour Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When Jess destroys the door with an axe it seems to be a nod to "The Shining" (1980) since the perspective and the unusual camera movement are exactly the same.

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Connections

Referenced in 31 Days of Horror: Quick Takes (The Rejects) (2018)

User Reviews

Meh

A troubled teen is released into the custody of her estranged mother, but a demon from the past comes back to wreak deadly havoc.

Dramatic horror with a completely incoherent mythos, but an iron determination to ramp up the tension in every scene. The daughter's peril is introduced immediately with the urban myth key to the plot, then we switch to the mother's predicament, and nothing is normal or easy going - every scene infested with unsettling '80s synth. It ends with flash-back reminders of how the plot is supposed to make sense, culminating in a clumsy twist.

The mother is well played, with good emotion in her regret at being inadequate yet loving. The detective is poorly played, and there's hardly any point in the character of the husband. The initial feel is London soap opera, and at various points tributes to The Shining, Ju-On, and Time Bandits.

There's one interesting sequence in the photography, when the cliché of ghost passing in the background is repeated three times - otherwise it's ordinary. Bad judgment on the music, but it fits the story telling style of constant huffing and puffing to maintain interest.

Overall: meh.