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Sweden · 2021
1h 18m
Director Frida Kempff
Starring Cecilia Milocco, Krister Kern, Albin Grenholm, Ville Virtanen
Genre Thriller
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Molly, a young woman living in a psychiatric ward after a traumatic event, returns to the outside world feeling like she's on the brink of recovery. She moves to a new apartment and attempts to restart her life. Then one day, she starts to hear an incessant knocking sound from above.
Slashfilm by Chris Evangelista
As a sensory experience, Knocking is stunning. The heightened sounds mixed with a stuffy, collapsing ambiance create an unforgettable experience. Pity that the narrative in the midst of all of this fails to match that power.
Crisply made and gutsily performed as it is, this slender 78-minute film too often feels like pointed social allegory in search of a really good cover story.
Knocking is an uneven film. Despite strong direction by Kempff in her feature debut and a daring, go-for-broke performance by lead actress Milocco, there’s just not enough weight in these hollow knocks and the payoff doesn’t feel earned or substantial enough.
Few contemporary horror films start this strong to end so poorly, and with such a lack of ease. Molly deserves answers, but “Knocking” forgets what the questions were in the first place.
The horror in Knocking isn’t supernatural or down to mental illness: it’s societal. The clever switch in perspective leaves a haunting impression and makes Kempff’s segue into fiction a triumph.
Film Threat by Matthew Passantino
Kempff walks the fine line of being frustratingly vague and trusting the audience to grasp the film fully. Knocking, for the most part, lands in the latter category.
The Film Stage by Michael Frank
[Kempff] crafts a film that grabs hold of you and doesn’t let go, one that’s equally absorbing in look and performance, despite a diminished importance mere hours after it ends.
The New York Times by Nicolas Rapold
The film does strike one long, nerve-jangling note, but the style leaves Molly with nowhere to run.
The Hollywood Reporter by Sheri Linden
First-time feature director Frida Kempff embraces and revamps genre tropes, casting them in a trenchant feminist light and a character-specific poignancy. The action unfolds entirely through Molly’s perspective, and Cecilia Miloccco’s performance, by turns guarded and explosive, is gripping from first scene to last.
Milocco’s performance manages to walk a thin line between credibility and delusion, a line which is less successfully negotiated by other aspects of the film.
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