Film Review: The Knock at the Door (short film) (2018)

SYNOPSIS:

A man appears at the locked door of a shop and demands entry. When he is refused, things get violent.

REVIEW:

This short film really got to me just by how real most of it felt. Our main protagonist was earnest, I felt like she could be me or any one of my friends, and I was invested very quickly. The fact that she was also looking after a child just added to my intense need for her to survive.

The plot is as simple as the title suggests – a man knocks at a shop window after the shop has closed and asks if he can use the phone. What was nice here is that, like any sensible person who has seen even a trailer for a horror film, she told him he could not come in. The man (played by Fred Galyean) does an excellent job of putting forth a false-sincerity and, when he does eventually get into the shop, the change in his facial expression is brilliant as he suddenly shows himself to be a a psychotic killer.

The conclusion is a tad unbelievable and strangely suffers from a lack of build up (which I never say for horror shorts as I usually feel it’s better to just get to the point when you have such a short story to tell) but I’ll let it slide because the majority of this short is really well executed and very scary.