A decade on, Borderlands director Eli Roth plans to return to his thriller Knock Knock – this time with a German remake.
For a relatively obscure, low-budget thriller, 1977’s Death Game has had a remarkably long afterlife. It was remade in 1980 under the title Vicious And Nude, and then again by director and co-writer Eli Roth, this time as Knock Knock, in 2015.
A decade on, and Roth has plans to re-tell the home invasion nail-biter once more: Variety reports that he’s set to produce a German-language remake of Knock Knock through his new company, The Horror Section. It’s all part of a deal recently made with the German production company, Construction Film.
Announced earlier this year, The Horror Section is an independent studio that will make ‘uncut, hardcore’ genre films, as well as TV, games and podcasts. By the sounds of things, it has a number of feature ideas in place already; there’s a comic-sounding project called Ice Cream Man, which Roth began talking about earlier in May. There’s a giallo-inspired mystery thriller called Final Cut, which will be made with Construction Film, founded by actor-producer Veronica Ferres. And then there’s that Knock Knock remake.
The 2015 version starred Keanu Reeves as a well-to-do architect and family man whose life is turned upside down when two young women – played by Ana de Armas and Lorenza Izzo (Roth’s wife) – show up on his doorstep one rainy night. Needless to say, the women aren’t quite as charming and friendly as they first appear.
Less violent than Roth’s earlier work, Knock Knock wasn’t a big hit, but some reviews were cautiously positive, especially when it came to Reeves’ performance as the increasingly beleaguered Evan Webber.
By his own admission, Roth didn’t have the best time directing the big-budget videogame adaptation, Borderlands, and so The Horror Section will see him head back to the genre that made his name.
Ice Cream Man is currently due for release in 2026; it’s unclear where Final Cut or the German version of Knock Knock (Klopfen Klopfen…?) fit into Roth’s schedule. We’ll let you know when we hear more.
