‘Knock Knock’s alternative ending could have provided better closure than the original

A remake of the 1977 film Death Game, Eli Roth’s Knock Knock remains one of Keanu Reeves’ most popular yet disturbing works to date, but its ending has divided opinion.

In the conventional ending of the movie, home invaders and sexual predators Bel (Ana de Armas) and Genesis (Lorenza Izzo) bury husband and father Evan (Keanu Reeves) in a hole up to his neck, threatening to crush it with a stone. However, the girls later reveal that everything they had done to torture him was just a ploy to mess with his head, get vengeance, and prove that all men are the same (it’s implied that they experienced horrific abuse when they were younger), and their violent actions are consequences of him cheating on his wife and family with them. In the end, they kidnap Evan’s dog Monkey, upload a dubious sex tape on Facebook, and leave to move on to their next victim, with Evan left to his fate with his wife and children due to arrive.

The conclusion was met with disdain from some of the film’s viewers, who felt cheated that proper closure wasn’t given. Roth did work on an alternate ending that didn’t make the cut but might have been more satisfactory than the one the director ended up going with.

In the alternate ending, Evan tracks Bel and Genesis down to a house—possibly of their next victim—using the tracker on his dog’s collar. He then knocks on the door, and the film completes a full circle, ending where it started but with the roles reversed. The alternate ending and the potential sequel it set up would probably have helped audiences connect with the two antagonists more than the original one, which doesn’t reveal any detail about their origin and, to a certain point, their intentions. Evan exacting revenge for what the girls did to him would also have been a satisfactory end in comparison to the actual epilogue, which lacked nuance. Violence always produces more violence.

Knock Knock stars Keanu Reeves, Ana de Armas, and Lorenza Izzo in leading roles, with Ignacia Allamand and Colleen Camp appearing in minor roles. The script is a collaborative effort between Roth, Guillermo Amoedo, and Nicolás López. A 2015 release, the Lionsgate film was a box-office bomb, making $6.3 million against its budget of $10 million. However, it played a significant role in catapulting de Armas towards getting more prominent and mainstream Hollywood projects, with Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 being the best example.