Knuckleball is a 2019 Canadian horror thriller about a boy who wakes up to find his secretive grandfather dead and ends up trapped in an isolated farm fighting for survival.
It’s been a little exciting in recent years to see how filmmakers take the Home Alone formula and give it an imaginative dark twist, like last year’s Better Watch Out. What started off with a young kid using clever ways to defend his house takes a wildly different and dangerous tone as these new stories and secrets unfold, and with director and co-writer Michael Peterson‘s Knuckleball, he skillfully takes time to piece together this dark Home Alone-esque puzzle so we’re kept guessing and invested all the way through.
Set in an isolated Western Canada landscape, Knuckleball captures the lonely rural area setting and a strong sense of survival with gritty secrets well. Along with its terrific score (David Arcus and Michelle Osis) and its subtle use of environmental sounds, this is a tense and surprisingly effective thriller.
With a small cast working in its favor, Knuckleball has some strong talent on board. The first is the young boy sent to the film’s central farm location, Henry played by Luca Villacis, who truly shines in a convincing role. Unlike a lot of children in films, Villacis ends up worthy of an audience cheer, the film primarily shot from his point of view, making his surprises ours. Henry is clever and resourceful but still has these moments when poor judgement puts him in troubling situations. He’s fun to watch.
Playing opposite him is troubled young man and weird neighbor Dixon played by Munro Chambers, who lends further depth to the film. As he violently pursues Henry, he unravels several surprising layers that make him jarringly memorable. It’s a suspenseful game – often engaging and smart – he plays in his hunt for the boy. Then there is Grandfather Jacob (Michael Ironside). While he has far less screen time than the others, he makes an undeniably strong impression because of his influence over both Henry and Dixon. It’s these intertwined relationships and themes of family and upbringing that have the most impact.
Of course, if I’m to talk about presence and characters, the house deserves equal praise. The real house has a 100 years of history behind it and this mixed with its isolation and dense tree-filled surroundings are also impressive. Inside, there’s plenty of nooks and crannies for Henry to crawl between moving us and him one part of the house to the next. There are abandoned school buses on the land and a rusted barn further away, all used well, leaving everything feeling like it has a purpose.
Knuckleball is a real treat, and while it’s a horror thriller that will most likely keep you on the edge of your seat, it’s about more than that. Packed with great characters and an even more powerful setting, it comes with a strong recommendation.