Neverknock

The Scyfy Channel are infamous for their bad films but it's rare they do horror. History has shown they can actually pull it off and within the first 15 minutes of Neverknock I was oddly gripped.

The film was tense, the concept original and I expected this to turn out to be a surprisingly entertaining little gem.

Sadly the movie runs out of steam quite early on, as if they ran out of ideas. Alas this doesn't turn around and plods along to a laughable pitiful finale that I actually did facepalm at.

Don't get me wrong Neverknock has a lot going for it and is still perfectly watchable, it's just one of those films that should/could have been so much better.

Further to its credit it actually looks great and raises the question why more Scyfy originals don't have the same level of cgi and practical effects.

Starring former child star favourite Jodelle Ferland this is still worth your time but don't expect the greatness that it failed to attain.

The Good:

Original

Fairly decent kills

Good antagonist

The Bad:

Loses steam real quick

Incredibly dumb ending

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

I suddenly want to knock on that door just to see what I'm scared of

If you don't mind B-D list actors doing super predictable things then you will not be disappointed. Some decent special effects earned this rating.

In 1986 Halloween, 3 trick-or-treaters are killed after knocking on the door of 59 Oakwood Lane. One is found with Never Never Knock carved into his belly. The case remains unsolved and the house becomes urban legend over the next 40 years. In present day, Leah (Jodelle Ferland) and her friends invite troubled Grace (Dominique Provost-Chalkley) to a haunted house show. Grace survived a car fire which killed her mother. She brings along little sister Jenna. The group decides to do the Never Knock. Jenna disobeys Grace and knocks on the door after bloodying her hand.

Daylight often kills horrors. That is the major drawback in this movie. It would help in the kills and especially the CGI monster. All the CGI looks cheap which is par for TV movies. The idea of a creature killing with your greatest fear is good. The creature design is feasible and should only come on the screen after day turns into night. The horror designs are simply not good enough. It needs more creepy atmosphere. Otherwise, it's functional as a lower grade horror. The filmmaking is inferior but passable as a TV movie.

This is a film on a far from original theme, even though it owes nothing to the "Halloween" franchise. In 1986, some kids knock on the door of a house at Halloween, something they are not supposed to do. They are murdered, and the first police officer on the scene - who reappears later in the film - sees something unreal.

Fastforward 31 years, and it's Halloween again. This time, whatever was inside emerges to wreak its horrors on the wider world. Then our first responder rescues two of the damsels, telling them this sort of thing has been happening in other locations for a long time, going back to at least the 1940s. The key to the mystery is the door to the house. And this is where the film really begins to lose its way because this line of investigation is not developed, instead the guy is killed off.

There is a bit more to it, the creature, daemon or whatever it is, feeds off fear, producing custom-made hallucinations for its victims, hallucinations that pack a punch or even burn. This could have been a decent film but it takes too much for granted, and the ending is utterly predictable.

Low budget scream fest with lots of blood and gore. But the movie goes nowhere... the characters are dull and boring; the action (if you can call it that) is limited and stereotypical. How can a house that has seen multiple murders not be thoroughly investigated, and possibly demolished? Drive-In Movie silliness for high school kids. Don't waste your time.