Knocking on Death's Door (1999)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Just what I expected

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

By far one of the most boring horror movies in history. Two parapsychologists move into a haunted house. They cant have sex because the guy keeps getting attacked by a ghost. Dwell on this for 90 minutes. Throw in one of the most predictable plot twists in history and show the key moment in the film on the back of the box. Stir with bad acting and you have Knocking on Death's Door! I can honestly say there is absolutely nothing original in this movie. The fact that this movie is rated 3.9 absolutely astounds me. A boring waste of time. I paid 2 bucks for this movie at a going out of business sale. I can imagine the store's clerk broke into riotous laughter after he unloaded this bomb.

Either you will love or hate this movie, depending on if you are a Twin Peaks fan. For a good chunk of the movie, I was really wondering if I had stepped upon a lost episode.Brad and Danielle are parapsychologists newlyweds who have just purchased Sunset House. The house is (of course) haunted by an autistic boy named Samuel. Samuel gets slightly perturbed when people have sex, which is a major downer for the couple. Their boss want's this phenomena documented, but Danielle seems to be a little camera shy. Presumably, it has something to to with the fact she just found out she is with child.Watch for David Carradine as the town doctor with a dirty little secret. Hand's down, his acting is the best in the movie, but even he can't save the flick from gravitating towards sci-fi soap opera. Once almost longs for Uma Thurman to jump out and kick some ass with her sword.Roger Corman is listed as executive producer, and it appears he's getting soft. Gone are the hard-core violence and nudity of his earlier films, only to be replaced by emotional fluff. Humanoids From The Deep kept viewers creeped out with suspense, whereas this has you giggling from the cliché camp haunting crap. Piano playing itself, mirrored reflections, paths of light....please. Maybe someone should have called in David Lynch. At least you;d be guaranteed decent sex scenes.However, this movie isn't entirely crap. It has a cool sense of camp value, and is worthing watching once. Just just don't expect to hear about poor Laura all wrapped in plastic. She's not mentioned, I checked.

My wife and I stumbled across "Knocking on Death's Door" last night while flipping the channels, but we found it captivating enough that we stayed with the film right up to the closing credits. We missed the first few minutes, so some establishing facts and character development were probably lost, but the story goes like this. Brian Bloom and Kimberly Rowe play newlywed parapsychologists whom move into a well-known "haunted house". Various ghostly phenomena begins to occur, such as a piano playing "London Bridge is Falling Down" by itself (and it's NOT a player piano), chalk slowly scrapes on the basement floor to gradually reveal more and more information on the ghost's history, camera lenses ice over, and so on. The spectral activity becomes focused on the moments when the young couple make love, as if the ghost (or ghosts) have developed a crush on Rowe's character. What follows is a tense thriller with anything from fair and campy special effects at times to excellent and chilling visuals in others that will leave you at the edge of your seat. (Luckily for the viewer, there are much more of the latter than the former.)David Carradine and Kimberly Rowe play their roles quite well, emoting an uneasy sleaziness (in the case of Carradine), or a gentle inquisitiveness (Rowe) that lend credibility to the storyline. Brian Bloom, playing Rowe's husband, and the recipient of much of the ghostly violence (he is thrown against a wall by unseen forces when he hugs his wife...) seems to be the weak link as the actors go. Sometimes Bloom appears disinterested, other times he seems to be somewhat "medicated", but that doesn't detract from the overall enjoyability of the film.Also notable is the eroticism displayed early on. The intimate scene between Bloom and Rowe is playful and loving, and Rowe truly has a breathtakingly beautiful body. A later scene wherein the two newlyweds are in separate rooms and Rowe pleasures herself as she watches her husband disrobe on camera is at once lovely and wildly erotic.I have a feeling that had this movie been released in the early to mid 80's, it probably would've become one of the early "Amityville Horror" sequels, but even without a movie franchise tie in, "Knocking on Death's Door" is clever horror with good twists and a tense atmosphere that slowly builds throughout the whole film. Strongly recommended.

Okay, not much of a title to this review, I know. But that was all I could say after watching this quite weak haunted house movie.Bloom and Rowe play a newly-married couple, Brad and Danielle Gallagher, who are also parapsychologists. They move into the Sunset House up in rural New England, the house supposedly and quite candidly haunted. Almost immediately, the ghost starts to lash out, but I won't tell you why, it's so cheesy. Like, there's a story behind it, but on the outside, his (the ghost's) motive is so dumb. Anyhoo, a drunken gravedigger with his interests set on Danielle and a creepy doctor (Carradine) are thrown in for good measurement. Anyhoo, things go on very timidly, with only a few creepy scenes. And then the ending which totally heightens the cheese factor, and a twist made painfully obvious. In any event, the acting is sort of average, as are the scares. Overall, a pretty cheesy movie, which, apparently, takes itself seriously. I didn't. You could do better, so pass over this one.