The Knocking, 2022.
Directed by Joonas Pajunen & Max Seeck.
Starring Inka Kallén, Saana Koivisto, Pekka Strang, Niko Saarela, Janina Berman, Saana Koivisto, and Olga Temonen.
SYNOPSIS:
Three siblings return to their secluded family home after the murder of their father with the intent of selling up, but the forest has other ideas.
Finland is not a country known for its horror output but, as with most European countries, it is ripe with folklore, has a lot of huge forests and can be a very spooky place when shot correctly.
The Knocking is the debut feature for the directorial duo of Joonas Pajunen and Max Seeck, and sees three siblings – Mikko (Pekka Strang), Maria (Inka Kallén) and much younger sister Matilda (Saana Koivisto) – returning to their family home set deep within a dark forest fifteen years after the murder of their father (Niko Saarela) and the disappearance of their mother (Olga Temonen). Mikko and Matilda are very keen to sell the surrounding forest with the property, but Maria is reluctant, knowing that the land would be sold to give way to development.
However, Mikko is a dendrochronologist and believes that something within the trees is not right as the rings in the bark do not correspond with regular patterns. As he airs his concerns, other things come to light as the siblings relive their past traumas, old secrets come to the surface and the three realise that they don’t know as much about each other as they thought they did, and the atmosphere of the surrounding forest seems to be amplifying this tension.
Coming under the banner of eco-horror, The Knocking is a slow-burning descent into a dysfunctional family’s darkest memories and superbly sets up an atmospheric and, at times, creepy horror full of mystery and dread. Unfortunately, the movie does not keep up this creeping sense of menace into its third act, culminating in an underwhelming payoff that undoes most of the good work that the first two acts set up so masterfully.
Naturally, the biggest star of this movie is the forest setting, the huge trees and limited lighting used to great effect to create a sense of isolation, and the old house that serves as the family home is perfectly placed to be the centre of all this mayhem. The way the siblings are introduced and then given a backstory through flashback is superbly written, with Mikko being the eldest but with an obviously uneasy relationship with his father, Maria facing potential trouble with a teenage pregnancy and young Matilda taking an interest in her mother’s devotion to the surrounding forest, along with her mother’s mysterious friend who comes to visit. The trouble is, all the threads that are suggested throughout the flashbacks and through exposition in the present day are never fleshed out properly, with most of them never going anywhere at all.
For example, it is established early on that the father is a disciplinarian, rules with an iron rod and is quite unpleasant to his family, but we never really get any reason as to why. A line of dialogue suggests problems in the marriage, with Matilda possibly being a reason as to why; was she the result of an affair? Did they have her to try and save their marriage? Was she an accident? We never really find out but the fact she is so much younger than her siblings suggest something untoward.
And despite being so much younger – the two older actors are in their forties, whilst Saana Koivisto is in her mid-twenties – it is only when they are adults that the age difference is so visible, the gap not being so obvious when they were younger; looks to be a deliberate choice on the part of the filmmakers but there is no payoff for it. The writing also hints that the age difference could be because Matilda is in fact Maria’s daughter, but that idea is soon debunked when it is revealed that their father took care of Maria’s teenage pregnancy.
There are other things that suggest more than they show or tell, but don’t worry because the third act will prove to be worth the wait and reveal everything, except it doesn’t. What it does do, however, is take a bit of a swerve from the drama as the film takes on a red filter and the inevitable forest coming alive to protect itself from those who don’t have its best interests at heart plays out in a way totally at odds with what the first act implies. It looks suitably arty and brings in a bit of gore to end on a visceral gut-punch as opposed to an emotional one, but having sat through an hour of character building and setting up something dark and disturbing it just feels like an anticlimax.
Nordic folk horror always has a dark fairy tale vibe to it and The Knocking does keep up that tradition with some fancy camerawork and deep storytelling, but the ending feels like it was tacked on to please audiences looking for a traditional supernatural ghost story rather than something a little less predictable or obvious. At 87 minutes long it doesn’t take up too much time, and there is a lot to like about it during the first half, but, sadly, The Knocking never quite hits the highs that reaches for.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
