Knocking

I recently watched the Swedish film 🇸🇪 Knocking (2021) on Shudder. The storyline follows a woman who has recently been released from a psychiatric ward and is beginning her new life in a new apartment. However, she hears strange knocking from the ceiling and walls. Is she losing her mind, or is her apartment haunted?

Directed by Frida Kempff (Winter Buoy), the film stars Cecilia Milocco (The Circle), Ville Virtanen (Bad Family), Charlotta Åkerblom (Agent Hamilton), and Emil Almén (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo).

This movie focuses on a woman's deteriorating mental state with little else driving the plot. While the acting is solid and the ending is very good, it's a long, slow, laborious journey to get there. The film offers a unique depiction of an individual's mental state, and the special effects at the end are effective in portraying the struggle between truth and reality. It's a poignant reminder of the battles many people face, with or without paranormal phenomena.

In conclusion, Knocking has some interesting elements but not enough to stand out in the genre. I would score it a 5/10 and recommend skipping.

Knackningar (or Knocking for the English title) is a Swedish mystery/thriller. It's also categorized as a horror movie but that is absolutely not the case, not a bad movie but just not a horror. Although the running time is rather short (78 minutes) the story development was slow paced and made the movie seem longer. But the ending made up for that, not bad at all. During the entire movie there is a mysterious vibe that keeps you guessing and interested in the story. Cecilia Milocco was good, very believable in her performance. There's only a handful of actors and they all did good. Overall not a bad movie but with a faster pace it could have been better.

Knocking, directed by Frida Kempff, is a slow-burning psychological thriller that is equal parts haunting and frustrating. The film follows a woman named Molly who is released from a psychiatric hospital and moves into a new apartment, only to be tormented by a persistent knocking sound that nobody else seems to hear.

The film's cinematography and sound design are excellent, with Kempff using close-ups and atmospheric soundscapes to create an eerie and unsettling atmosphere. The film's lead actress, Cecilia Milocco, also delivers a strong performance, conveying both the vulnerability and the resilience of her character.

However, the film's pacing is a major issue, with the slow-burn approach feeling unnecessarily stretched out and repetitive at times. The film also struggles to balance its psychological and supernatural elements, with the latter feeling tacked on and underdeveloped.

The film's themes of trauma and gaslighting are timely and relevant, but the film's execution falls short of fully exploring them in a meaningful way. The film's ending, while intriguing, is also frustratingly vague and leaves too many unanswered questions.

Great movie. I worked at a Psychiatric Hospital and the character Molly, magnificently played by the actress Milloco, is an example of how a psychotic in crisis lives. Perfect direction, congratulations.

A psychological thriller that is handled with a certain suspense, although from the visual point of view it does not have bright ideas. The story benefits from an adequate length (short film based on a short story), although it gives the impression that the path takes us not very far from where we were at the beginning. Good performing by Cecilia Milocco, which is above the predictability of the story.