The Knock knocked it out of the park with the short horror-thriller that packs several horrific moments into a 4-minute span. Its writer/director, Zach Lorkiewicz, crafts a perfectly paced short that slowly builds intensity before flying off of the deep end with a climactic jump scare. If you are looking for a quickie scream then The Knock should do the trick!

A young woman is awoken from her sleep by a knock at the door and a timid voice asking for Jim. Assuring the voice that she is not Jim, the voice insists that it wants to “go to sleep”. Cautious but willing to help, the young woman reaches for the door to offer her assistance, but no good deed goes unpunished.

The Knock is very pleasing to the eye — firstly, the dark but moonlit bedroom sets an eerie “don’t look under the bed” atmosphere, the monster looks great even though I am normally opposed to CGI over practical effects, and up-close shots and enclosed setting instilled a paranoid fear in me during the viewing. The Knock all takes place in one bedroom, but with the editing of rapid cut-ins every few seconds, I felt like I saw a lot in a very short film.

Coupled with the aesthetic of the film, The Knock also had great sound design — ticking clocks, ominous knocks, soft-spoken unfamiliar voices, and a musical score that crescendoed along with the danger in the narrative, which all added to the paranoid fear vibe as well. What I appreciate most is being shown very little, or rather, having the fear of the potential danger of the monster precede its appearance in the film, which was a very effective way to have the monster’s jump scare of an entrance be a big payoff for the film.

Based on the director’s own nightmares according to IMDb, The Knock builds from a whisper to screaming madness with eerie sound, scary sight, and fear you can taste. With a suffocating atmosphere of a one-room, dark, and kitschy-decorated setting, The Knock should capture the admiration of modern horror lovers with its supernatural creature-feature theme tinged with psychological horror.

MOVIE RATING — 7 out of 10 ☠️