Director: Nnamdi Asomugha
Writers: Nnamdi Asomugha, Mark Duplass
Stars: Nnamdi Asomugha, Aja Naomi King, Melissa Leo
Synopsis: The story of an event that disrupts a family dynamic and begins to dismantle the illusions of their lives.
When watching Nnamdi Asomugha’s debut film The Knife, I couldn’t help but think of the line of logic Alfred Hitchcock often discussed. The king of suspense for a reason, he was of the belief that if the audience knows the truth within any given scene, it would create far more tension. Surprises that come out of nowhere to blindside you are obviously exciting. But with a film like this, so packed with tension and suspense, it leans into the former idea of suspense. And it does so time and time again, making for a taut drama that takes place in a single location over a handful of hours. The Knife is partly about how every choice, regardless of intent, has a consequence. But it’s equally about how there are systems in place that make people feel as if certain choices have already been made for them. So rather than act from within, a decision has to be made based on survival instinct. It makes for a film that’s socially potent and observational. It also puts the audience in the driver’s seat as far as interpretation. Asomugha merely presents a scenario to the audience, and lets us fill in the blanks. Even upon seeing the film, we too make a series of choices that affect what we think of The Knife. The focus on choices and consequences is something we hear from Asomugha himself as Chris, a man working construction in his own home. Upon finishing what one can imagine as a hard day’s work, Chris prepares to get into bed just before 1AM without waking his wife Alex (Aja Naomi King). He may not have been entirely successful in that regard, but it doesn’t matter. His entire house will be awake and on high alert within the hour. After Chris awakens to noises coming from the kitchen, he finds an unresponsive woman facing away from him. And just when the audience is fully primed to receive a jump scare, Asomugha delivers his title card.
We hard cut back to the bedroom where Alex wakes up to another loud sound. She walks into the kitchen to see Chris shaken up, with the woman lying face down in front of him. Asomugha wastes no time taking this film exactly where it needs to be. Barely over 80 minutes, The Knife is a briskly paced drama packed with thrills and real-life observations on fictional horror versus realistic horror. This isn’t a home invasion film in the traditional sense. The immediate and clear threat of being awoken to a stranger in your home is quickly dispatched. It’s only upon the arrival of the police that the real threat of this film begins looming over the characters. There’s a palpable sense of hesitation to call the police once the adrenaline settles for this family of five. But, against their better judgment, they decide it’s the right thing to do. And now framed like a vampire film, the possible evil has been invited into the home. All Chris and his family can do now is prepare in the way they best see fit. For one of his daughters, Ryley (Aiden Gabrielle Price), she feels that all they need to do is tell the truth. But this is far from a fairy tale or fantasy film. Upon Alex making a last-minute decision, she reminds a rattled Chris that he is a Black man in America. With police pulling up to their home in the middle of the night, the truth is unfortunately not something as clear-cut as Ryley believes it to be.
And thus, The Knife positions itself as a horror/thriller of sorts. But the real nightmare for our lead family takes place after the initial premise is behind them. What makes this film such a remarkable and powerful debut is that the home invasion the film is most concerned with is the one that’s reluctantly invited into the home. The real threat stems from dialogue delivered by Officer Padilla (Manny Jacinto) and Detective Carlsen (Melissa Leo). Both veiled and wildly overt, Asomugha’s film doesn’t mince words when it comes to how subtle, or unsubtle, it wants to be. Its ideas, and the ways it goes about delivering them, are clear-cut. Any time the police in the film attempt to skirt around saying what they’re really trying to say, it becomes all the more menacing.
One of the more interesting ideas at play within The Knife keeps coming back to the truth. We hear it from Ryley before the police show up, and Detective Carlsen repeats it often. The most surefire way to wrap this long night up would be to detail exactly what happened, and all would be well. But again, this is a film that doesn’t heighten itself to lean more into genre trappings or cinematic sequences. The suspense and tension stem from a very real threat revolving around the truth. At its very core, the truth obviously does matter. Both Chris and Alex likely agree with their daughter. But they are also aware that the police now circling around and isolating their family members from one another are part of a system that feels created to blur the truth. What happens when the system we’re supposed to turn to and trust wholeheartedly instills a very real fear into telling it? By its very nature, it warps into something worse than unjust and immoral. There’s a true horror to the villainous creatures who embrace their monstrous qualities. But there’s something far more sinister to be found in the villain who sees themselves as somebody delivering unbiased judgment and honor. Asomugha makes it clear that Detective Carlsen is a good detective. Leo’s performance also goes a long way in making sure the audience never really knows what direction her character will go in. But again, The Knife doesn’t find the need to be cryptic or subtle. It merely exists in the real world, and makes her actions as gray and questionable as the rest of the family, and the world at large when formulating our own responses.
The Knife may take place in a single location, but it’s very representative of the society in its most current state. Too often does discourse end up circling one of two drains. But within nearly every scene of this film, Asomugha understands that reality is far more complicated. The choices any one individual makes might stem from a dozen different thoughts racing through their mind. What may seem like self-preservation to some may read as a critical error to others. Something as clear and straight-forward as self-defense during a break-in turns into an incredibly charged interrogation; Detective Carlsen goes so far as to proclaim as much to Alex when speaking with her. The choice to help an intruder has now begun to work against this family. To see such a response from those called in need of help is upsetting and disheartening. Asomugha’s film doesn’t have an easy way out. It just has a series of choices that, one way or the other, need to be made. And the fallout of those choices is what his debut film so perfectly captures.
The Knife celebrated its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in the U.S. Narrative Competition section. Tickets for screenings and more information on the film can be found right here.
