Years before they shared the screen in From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, Ana de Armas and Keanu Reeves starred together in an erotic exploitation movie directed by Eli Roth. A friend and collaborator of Quentin Tarantino, Roth had already established his genre credentials with the horror film Hostel and the cannibal survival thriller The Green Inferno — both are regarded as some of the most transgressive movies made in mainstream Hollywood. Roth’s home invasion thriller with De Armas and Reeves wasn’t as edgy, although it was still shocking enough to remain in its niche. The film in question is currently streaming on HBO Max in the United States, giving fans of genre cinema a great opportunity to check it out.
It won’t, however, be available for much longer. The movie was released a year after the first John Wick, which emerged as a surprise hit and reinvigorated Reeves’ career as an action star. The rest is history, with the John Wick franchise having generated more than $1 billion in global box-office revenue in the decade since. Reeves is set to return as the titular assassin in a fifth film, following his extended cameo in Ballerina, which was released last year.
Ballerina marked De Armas’ first time leading a potential franchise-starter of her own, after having delivered memorable performances in hits such as Knives Out, No Time to Die, and the Oscar-nominated Blonde. Despite mostly positive reviews, Ballerina underperformed at the box office, grossing around $140 million against a reported budget of $90 million. De Armas wasn’t a household name back in 2015, when she first worked with Reeves in the home invasion thriller.
Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes What Is Your Biggest Horror Nightmare? Elm Street · Chucky · Scream · The Conjuring
Four horror franchises. Four completely different ways of scaring you. One waits until you fall asleep. One makes sure nobody believes you. One is already in your group of friends. And one is in the house with your family. Answer eight quick questions about how you actually watch horror, and find out which nightmare was built for you.
😴Elm Street(Freddy Krueger)
🧸Chucky(Child’s Play)
📞Scream(Ghostface)
🕯️The Conjuring(The Warren Files)
01
Which horror scene makes you cover your eyes? Four classic images. One of them is worse than the others for you.
02
You are home alone and you hear a noise. First thought? Everybody has one. It arrives before you have decided anything.
03
Which horror movie rule would you break first? Everybody thinks they would survive. Almost nobody actually does.
04
Something genuinely frightening happens. What do you do? Not in a film. In your actual living room, tonight.
05
How do you actually watch a horror film? Be honest about this one. Nobody is checking.
06
Somebody offers you serious money. Which do you still refuse? The amount does not matter. There is one on this list you are not doing.
07
Which feeling stays with you a week after the film? Good horror does not stop when the credits do.
08
Something wakes you at 3am. What is the worst possibility? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides your nightmare.
The Lights Just Went Out Your Nightmare Is…
Four franchises, four completely different ways of getting underneath
your skin. This is the one built out of your particular fear, why it works so well on you, and what
it would leave behind.
A Nightmare on Elm Street · Since 1984
Elm Street
Your nightmare does not wait outside the door. It waits for you
to close your eyes, which you are going to have to do eventually, because nobody has ever
won that particular argument.
Freddy is horror’s cruellest idea: a threat that lives in the one place you cannot
guard, cannot lock, and cannot avoid forever.
You are the one who is fine during the film and wide awake at two in the morning. Your
own head is where this does its damage.
These films understood exhaustion as a horror engine. The kids on Elm Street do not lose
because they are weak. They lose because they are tired.
You can lock every door in the house. You still have to sleep.
Child’s Play · Chucky · Since 1988
Chucky
Your nightmare is not really the doll. It is the face of the
person you tell, and the way they decide, very kindly, that you have imagined all of it.
Chucky works precisely because he is absurd. That is the trap: the more accurately you
describe him, the less anybody is going to believe you.
You are the one shouting at the screen because the characters are not listening. You
know that feeling from real life too.
The franchise is at its best when the adults in the room are the real obstacle, and you
have met those adults.
By the time somebody finally believes you, you will have handled most of it on your own.
Scream · Ghostface · Since 1996
Scream
Your nightmare has your number, knows your name, and has almost
certainly been inside your house before. The worst part is that you already know them.
Scream is the only one of these where the killer takes the mask off and turns out to be
somebody who was at the party.
You are the person who calls the twist out loud before it lands. You watch people the
same way you watch films.
The franchise made the rules of horror part of the plot, which means the survivors are
the ones paying attention. You would be paying attention.
Everybody is a suspect, including the person who just offered to walk you home.
The Conjuring · The Warren Files · Since 2013
The Conjuring
Your nightmare is not really about you. It is about the people
asleep down the hall, and the feeling that whatever is here is not interested in leaving.
The Conjuring films are domestic horror. The house, the family, the perfectly ordinary
room that quietly stops feeling ordinary.
Your instinct is to get everybody into one room. Your fear is protective rather than
personal, which is rarer than it sounds.
This is the one franchise where belief is the weapon. The people who come through it are
the ones who are not alone and refuse to be.
Whatever is here did not come for you. It came for the household, and you are the one
standing in the hallway.
Here’s How Long You Have Left to Watch the Thriller on HBO Max
We’re talking, of course, about Knock Knock. The movie follows two young women who show up at the doorstep of an architect (Reeves) and coerce him into committing a sexual transgression. Soon, the architect finds himself at their mercy, as they hold him hostage in his house. The movie received mixed reviews and is now sitting at a 37% score on Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus reads, “Knock Knock brings a lot of talent to bear on its satirical approach to torture horror, but not effectively enough to overcome its repetitive story or misguidedly campy tone.”
Audiences were apparently not on the same page either, awarding it a poor 19% score on the aggregator website. Knock Knock grossed around $6 million at the box office against a reported budget of $10 million. Reeves will next star in another survival thriller — Shiver, directed by Deadpool filmmaker Tim Miller. You can watchKnock Knock on HBO Max until December 1, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
