Knocking – Review [Fantastic Fest] (4/5)

KNOCKING is a Swedish psychological horror movie (org. title Knackningar) that works extremely well. And don’t worry about any language barrier since there isn’t much dialogue. We screened this at Fantastic Fest 2021. Read our full Knocking movie review here!

KNOCKING is a psychological horror movie from Sweden with a tight story and a runtime of just 78 minutes. While it is a bit of a slow-burn style of storytelling, it never gets too slow or even remotely boring.

I had no idea what to expect from this movie when we watched it at Fantastic Fest 2021, but I was very pleasantly surprised, This is the kind of movie that is officially labeled a “thriller” but plays out more like a psychological horror movie. So that’s the description we’re going with for this little Swedish gem.

Continue reading our Knocking movie review below.

How do you know what’s real?

A woman has just left a psychiatric ward after having had a nervous breakdown. Just arrived in her new apartment, she immediately starts hearing strange knocking sounds in her apartment. Could it be Morse code from a trapped woman or is our main protagonist still in need of being in a psychiatric ward?

Obviously, this is a great setup for any horror story. After all, going around claiming to hear someone knocking and raving about wanting to save someone, who is trapped, does not make you popular with your brand new neighbors. As the viewer of Knocking, you won’t know what’s real either.

What you will know is the fact that our main protagonist Molly (played beautifully and vulnerably by Cecilia Milocco) has stopped taking her medication. But still, those knocking do seem to make sense maybe?!

Watch Knocking in theaters and On-Demand from October!

Frida Kempff is the director of Knocking (org. title Knackningar) and it’s actually her feature film debut. She has been directing short films and documentary shorts since 2006, but with this movie, her feature film debut has finally arrived. The screenplay was written by Emma Broström (Flocking) and is based on a novel by Johan Theorin.

While this is a Swedish production, you shouldn’t worry about dialogue. Molly (Cecilia Milocco) is on her own most of the time, so there isn’t much dialogue. Instead, you’ll need to pay attention to what’s going on around her rather than listening to longer spans of dialogue in Swedish.

While we screened this movie at Fantastic Fest, it is also playing at various LGBTQ film festivals as well as genre film festivals. The obvious reason is that the main character is gay. This is just a fact and not anything that plays a larger part in the story. Still, it is a very welcome detail which will be evident from the opening scene.

We screened KNOCKING at Fantastic Fest, but it will be out in select US theaters on October 8, 2021, and on-demand from October 19, 2021. It will also be added to Shudder on February 14, 2022.

Details

Director: Frida Kempff
Writer: Emma Broström
Stars: Çecilia Milocco, Albin Grenholm, Alexander Salzberger, Krister Kern, Ville Virtanen, Charlotta Åkerblom, Naida Ragimova