4 star tense and gripping thriller.
Knocking is a Swedish thriller written by Emma Broström (Flocken) and directed by Frida Kempff (Winter Buoy) and is her very impressive feature debut. It is based on a short story by Johan Theorin (The Quarry, The Asylum) and is presented here with English subtitles courtesy of Signature Entertainment.
“What a journey you’ve been on this past year. Everything you’ve been through.”
Molly (Cecilia Milocco – Involuntary, The Circle) is a deeply traumatised young woman. As the film opens we see her in a psychiatric ward recovering from an undisclosed incident at the beach involving her partner Judith (Charlotta Åkerblom), who went swimming while Molly slept.
Molly feels that she is now ready to take on the world again, and steps blinking into the bright sunshine of an extreme heatwave which is sweeping Europe. She moves into a new apartment, immediately meeting Peter (Krister Kern – Border, The Unthinkable) the building super.
Her new home seems a fine to begin with but she soon begins to hear an incessant knocking sound coming from her ceiling. She asks Kaj (Ville Vertanen – The Longest Day) her upstairs neighbour if he is knocking but he denies all knowledge, as does everyone else in the building. As the knocking escalates and becomes crying, she becomes increasingly desperate to find out what is happening.
“I hear knocking in my ceiling. It sounds like it’s coming from here. From your apartment.”
Knocking is a deeply claustrophobic film, very well filmed so that we share Molly’s discomfort at every step of the way. We begin to doubt her sanity right along with her as the evidence builds in her mind but is constantly denied by all around her. Is she as well recovered as she thought she was?
There are some excellent acting performances, helped out by clever camera angles, especially when we see Molly through a go-pro style camera as she desperately tries to get attention. The fact that much of her background is never revealed serves to increase the anxiety of the viewer as we wonder what is real and what is not.
Really well made and absolutely well worth a watch.
“But, there is a woman in my building and she is dying. What do you not understand?”
Signature Entertainment presents Knocking on Digital Platforms 15th November
| Director | Frida Kempff |
| Author | Johan Theorin |
| Genre | Horror, thriller |
| Starring | Cecilia Milocco, Ville Virtanen, Charlotta Åkerblom, Krister Kern |