This review of Don't Knock Twice is spoiler free
** (2/5)
Don't Knock Twice is a lot of things: a supernatural legend about a witch, has murky shadows for intent on better impact just to name a couple of points, but is it original? No. There are so many things this could have been, even scary but unfortunately it isn't. Among the flaky jump scares that hit you with a seemingly decent flow but you rub them off without a shudder; it's also a warmed hash-over of Candyman, Oculus, Insidious and a half-dozen other spook-shows, in addition there is no recollection as to where this is going. With that and the slower than usual pacing this is about as interesting as watching a hamster on a wheel.
The demon is also a rehash, from Lights Out it lurks in the shadows chasing after its victims slow at first but gains speed over time, this speed of course is still slow. Director Caradog W. James (The Machine) seemingly didn't know now what he wanted to do here whether he wanted to make a drama about a depressed mother reconnecting with her estranged daughter, or if he wanted to make a supernatural horror about an urban legend instead it's a mixture of the two. Although that is an interesting touch he forgets to go back to its original idea, the concentration on the two central characters sculptor Jess (Katee Sackhoff), and her artsy daughter Chloe (Lucy Boynton) is also the problem it tries too hard to make their story interesting, they both have a past filled with neglect, drug addiction and later regret, and for a while it has a decent flow, they're wobbly chemistry shatters it to pieces.
The idea comes early into the film when Chloe knocks on the door of a thin house in the middle of London, in a belief that a witch resides there "Once to wake her from her bed," her friend says "twice to raise her from the dead." Of course as is the idea with these supernatural horrors she wakes up and steals anybody who wakes her up, one gets away and she chases down the one who got away. It's the same, all this is, is just a horribly thought out rehash of other spook-shows and although there are some decent scares in place, the rest is a flaky, sadly clichéd mess that means nothing in the world of horror. Miss this one out, it'd be better to watch the original, if you can figure out what the original is.
VERDICT: Don't Knock Twice is an awfully thought out horror with an all too familiar story at other spook-shows. Ultimately leaving it as a shallow attempt at flaky scares, murky shadows and atmosphere. Miss.
