On Blu-ray via Netflix: Knock Knock (Haven't I seen this before?)

I remember the first movie I ever saw on cable TV. I believe the year was 1980, but I am certain that the movie was called Death Game. Sondra Locke and Colleen Camp played two girls, caught in the rain, who knock on a man's door and ask to use his phone to call for help. Once he lets them in, they wreak all sorts of havoc. This includes severing a pizza delivery boy's head and dropping it in the man's fish tank. What started out as a good deed definitely did not make this man's day.

Years later I rewatched the movie when I rented a VHS tape from Blockbuster. The movie had been renamed to The Seducers but was exactly the same.

Imagine my surprise when I saw this in the new releases section of Netflix:

Sound familiar? Though the Nextflix description made no mention of Death Game nor The Seducers, I thought this has to be a remake of the same movie.

I watched the movie last night. It was indeed a remake of my first cable TV movie. It was the modern version. And when I say modern, here are some differences:

• Instead of asking to use his phone, after knocking on his door, the girls ask to use the man's computer to message their friend who might be online via Facebook.
• The man was an architect. He used AutoCAD on a Mac to create a house design in 3D.
• The man printed small scale models of his home designs on his 3D printer.

Now that's modern.

Having seen the previous version twice, I enjoyed this version even more. It shows how no good deed goes unpunished. And in a humorist twist, in this version, Colleen Camp played a small part as a friend who comes to the man's door whom he sends away.

My college roommate, Tim Barrios, and I lived in the same college dorm room for four years. We both saw the movie at "the apartment" that was rented by our friends André LeBlanc, Jeff Spear, Kevin Dankwardt, and Richard Sullivan. Andre owned a Curtis Mathis television that was billed as "the most expensive TV in America" which was intended to imply that it was of the highest quality. Actually it was of the same quality as most other television sets at the time. It's only difference was that it had a better warranty. Much like two drenched girls who knock on one's door, things are not always as they seem.

Deja vu is alive in the lab.