Knocking on Death's Door (1999)

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Excellent but underrated film

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Newlyweds Brad (Bloom) & Danielle (Rowe) are both parapsychologists who are given a honeymoon assignment of moving into a haunted house and investigating it. Danielle quickly makes contact with a spirit named Samuel who reacts in a jealous fashion towards Brad. The back story unfolds highlighted by some spooky scenes in the cellar with ghosts at play and some scary imagery. Carefully directed by Mitch Marcus with attention to pacing, he sprinkles in a few jumps along with the haunting stuff. The obvious Ireland location is passed off as being in America but the location actually helps the atmosphere. Just check out the amazing looking graveyard Brad walks through. An unnecessary sub-plot is introduced about Danielle's past affair with their boss (Doe) that does nothing but chew up running time. There is nothing groundbreaking here, but this film maintains a level of fun and should please fans of supernatural horror.

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.

Knocking on Death's Door starts on a dark & stormy night as a policeman (Philip Sweeney) & Dr. Hadley (Colm O'Maonlai) break into the large isolated house belonging to Elizabeth Cartwright (Stella Feehilly) only to discover her dead body, her having apparently committed suicide with an OD. A violent force sweeps through the house & the cop has an axe embedded in his chest, Hadley manages to escape... Jump 'Twenty Years Later' & newly married parapsychologists Brad (Brian Bloom) & Danielle Gallagher (Kimberly Rowe) are told by their boss professor Paul Ballard (John Doe) that he wants them to investigate the ghostly goings on in the notorious Sunset House. They head straight there & set all their scientific equipment up in preparation, Brad is the brains & Danielle is the psychic one who can contact the 'other side'. It quickly turns out that the house is indeed haunted, from flying red hot pokers to killer Grandfather clocks & ghostly reflections in mirrors. Brad & Danielle feel there is more here than a simple haunting, the name Samuel is written in chalk on the basement floor & as they research Sunset House's history they find a dark & sinister past that still remains unresolved to this day...Directed by Mitch Marcus I actually thought Knocking on Death's Door was a decent film, surprisingly enough since it comes from king of the low-budget cheapies Roger Corman & his New Concorde production company. The script by Craig J. Nevius takes itself extremely seriously, it moves along at a fair pace & has most of the traditional haunted house clichés. Knocking on Death's Door concentrates on character's, story & atmosphere rather than cheap scares or gore. The ghost isn't overly hostile & certainly isn't scary as it tries to relay a message & settle old scores using Brad & Danielle. There is a fair amount of soap opera type drama but it sits quite well along side the supernatural happenings. One unusual aspect is that this ghost doesn't like anyone having sex & that's when it attacks people, in my opinion all this plot thread facilitates is to have brad & Danielle have sex & there's one bit when Danielle slips her hand down the front of her jeans & starts to masturbate at which our ghost is not best pleased... As one would expect it all rounds off with a twist climax & final revelation that to be honest is a little bit too obvious although is more than passable.Director Marcus manages to create a nice atmosphere overall although there's a lack of decent scares or jump out of your seat type moments. While Knocking on Death's Door doesn't have much in the way of visual style or flair it's well made & isn't as cheap looking as a lot of Corman productions. Apart from a gory axe killing at the start, a cut & some skeletal remains there is no blood or gore whatsoever although there is a fair amount of mild sex.Technically the film is fine & generally well made, it was shot in Ireland & for some reason takes no advantage of the location at all. The acting was decent enough & it's always nice to see David Carradine although bear in mind that even though he gets top billing in the opening credits he gets about 5 minutes of screen time, maybe he took the role because he wanted a free holiday in Ireland?Knocking on Death's Door is an alright little haunted house horror, I sub-genre that I don't usually like that much. I mean it's not brilliant or anything but you could do a lot worse. Worth a watch.

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.