The second trailer for Eli Roth’s Knock Knock makes a compelling, if awkward, case for not letting suspiciously attractive people into your home. Marking a self-described “turning point” in Roth’s career from gore-laden scares to psychological horror, the film nonetheless creates the same feeling as Hostel, where men similarly couldn’t help being seduced by a couple of pretty young things then spent the second half of the movie paying the price. So naturally, when devoted family man Keanu Reeves lets two beautiful women into his house and says, “You don’t look that dangerous,” we’re all just counting the seconds until he ends up tied to a chair and facing the barrel of a gun.
Unfortunately, the trailer is cut in such a way to make probably 50 percent of the line readings sound woefully unconvincing. Reeves screaming, “You came on to me! What was I supposed to do!” is a real groaner, and the young women don’t seem the least bit threatening, even when they’re chasing Reeves through a darkened house or digging a grave in the backyard. Still, The A.V. Club’s A.A. Dowd caught Knock Knock at Sundance and said the film ultimately works, praising a streak of outrageous humor that is barely evident in this trailer. And remember, if we judged Keanu Reeves movies by their trailers, we likely would have missed out on the awesome John Wick.
Knock Knock hits theaters on October 9.