I enjoy horrors based on brilliant ideas and, for example, I don’t faint when a see a finger getting cut off in a movie. Roth may have a twisted mind, but he’s not sick or mean or perverted. I’ve had my share of horrors and I can make the difference. And believe me, there are movies out there that you cannot help but ask yourself what kind of a mentally-ill, f*cked up, garbage human being could have conceived them… And you regret watching them, because images are imprinted on your brain and it takes some time for them to fade away.

That being said, Knock Knock is no horror or gore or porn-torture. It’s “just” a thriller. And a smart one, as far as I’m concerned.

Keanu was convincing and pretty good. I didn’t find him acting over the top, as some said. Lorenza was great, the best performance in my opinion, natural and completely believable as a psychopath. I look forward to seeing The Green Inferno, with the hope that Eli decided to leave some parts of the original movie out. Ana… hmm, I felt her acting was a little forced, I’m not sure if she was supposed to play her character that way or if she simply wasn’t that good.

I liked the movie. I liked (and agreed with) the “monogamy” and “destiny” lines, Bel’s reaction when she looked at a picture and said “This is what you did to your family”, the tension that they gradually built and put him through, the irony of the ending…

I liked the girls. Yes, they’re screwed up, there’s no question about that, and what they do is extreme, but there is a motivation and there is a point to all of this that Evan fails to understand, even in the end when he’s given a lifeline and he blows it.

I didn’t like Evan. I didn’t buy the “free pizza” speech. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. He had a choice. The sympathy that I felt for him in the beginning went away quickly with every stupid thing that he said or done later on. Spoilers if I say more.

Knock Knock was not presented during the Camerimage Festival like HC, SbS and MoTC (but all in all I went there because of the interesting presentations and a lot of films).

http://angelofberlin2000.tumblr.com/post/133856246323/transcript-from-part-of-a-bret-easton-ellis

http://www.podcastone.com/pg/jsp/program/episode.jsp?programID=592&pid=565931

partial transcript, Eli Roth
[…] Knock Knock, people were, distributors were like, wait a minute, Keanu f***s two girls who then say they're underage; we can't put that on 3000 screens; I'm like sure you can, because right now on Instagram, if you look at all the cast members' younger sisters, you can't tell if someone's 15 or 25. That's what's going on in the culture now. It's that what a 15 years old girl is looking like now is very different from what a 15 years old girl looked like 25 years ago and for showing that some guy in his 40s would not be able to tell the difference and these two young girls understand how to systematically dismantle someone – because they can. Because of things that have been done to them or for whatever reason. So […] but that very theory they thought well what if people get upset? [what if]they think we're gonna promote pedophilia? I was like what the f**k are you talking about? Well I was like well there's that whole twist at the end but that's really… people freaked out about it and went like no, this should be a movie that's VOD-ed and […] and I'm like why? It's a Keanu Reeves movie, this could be Fatal Attraction. But the distributors were terrified because of that one part of the movie.

I'm glad they released it; it's always interesting to see what if and how the director made the editing choices...

At the same time, Roth said
'Well, we talked about doing a movie called "Who's there?" And that would be that. We actually shot a tag where he found them in another house, and they've switched characters, and they're doing it to something else. In the movie, in watching the editing, I thought there was nothing worse than when he liked the photo. That, for me, was the end of the film and we were starting another movie. We certainly talked about it.'

and to me, it feels right. The movie ending as it does, with Evan 'liking' that video and the 'Daddy had a party' final line. It defines the movie as dark comedy/satire.

That alternate ending goes into different territory. Which would be nice to watch, but it's indeed another movie.

The deleted scene "Destruction" and the alternate ending go straight to the torture/porn/horror place for which Roth is notorious.

And although I dislike the film - and I completely understand Keanu's interest in exploring a character that he's never been, good for him - I was mostly disappointed because when Roth holds his focus on the suspense, it's pretty fascinating. I was sorry to see that tension just unravel.

... I think I'm beginning to like Roth's storytelling style more and more.
Which doesn't mean I'm gonna watch Hostel any time soon ;)