Somebody’s Knocking – Final Girl – A Knock at the Door Review

Horror movies are not really my forte (though I have to say that you should definitely check out Dust Bunny now if you can! It’s great and not really much of a horror movie, but it’s still fun).

Jump scares and creepiness while watching movies are just not really my thing.

For some reason, though, I love the tropes!

And that’s what Final Girl brings in spades.

The A Knock at the Door feature film for the illustrious solo game takes inspiration from a bunch of home invasion movies like “The Strangers”.

A trio of killers are trying to get into this secluded cottage and kill everybody in it.

This feature film was designed by Mike Martins with art by Heather Vaughan. It was published by Van Ryder Games in 2023 and is part of Series 2.

It’s not the first feature film with multiple killers (though maybe it is, since I’m not sure of the order in which this one and Panic at Station 2891 were published) but it has its own unique set of rules to manage the multiple killers.

Some may be good, some may be bad.

Before we let this person who’s knocking madly at the door inside, let’s take a look at it all.

Let’s talk about the killers first, because they are quite intriguing to use (and quite hard to defeat).

The Intruders are three individually-named killers (though it’s hard to differentiate them in the low light that I play in), each with their own health, final health token, and actions, though most of the time only the “active” killer actually does anything.

The only time that multiple Intruders do anything is if it says “All Killers” (like the basic action prior to the Finale being revealed) or if it has the active killer do something, switches the killer, then has the new active killer do something.

This is where they get intriguing.

The “active” killer is noted by the small circular “K” token that’s on one of the three.

Most of the time, only that killer will do whatever the Killer action or Terror card says.

But it will also move according to the instructions on those cards or actions.

The set comes with a grey and black meeple so you can have all three on the map at the same time, and they each have their own health and final health token.

Sure, they only have 6 health each, but that’s a total of 18 damage you need to do to kill them all!

You’ll also notice the bloodlust track, where quite a few advances on it will increase Terror.

Terror management is very important with the Intruders. You will find yourself wanting to Focus a lot, or even take a Distraction action card (which I rarely do, though maybe that’s why I keep losing?).

Which brings us to the Terror cards, which really illustrate how the Killers operate.

Many of these cards will have you move and attack with the active killer, and then change who the active killer is. That’s what the “K” with the up or down arrow is.

Some of them (like “We’re Not Going to Make it Through the Night”) will have the active killer move and attack, and then another one does the same!

“They Will Hunt You” has all three of them come after you specifically (which is good if they’re far away from you, since they won’t be hurting victims, but still…)

“Where Are They Coming From?” is brutal, because the active killer moves and attacks, then it changes to another one. Then that one goes to the farthest victim and attacks them.

Really, these Terror cards are something else.

And there are 16 of these, and only 8 for the location, so you will probably be getting a bunch of these.

Along with the bloodlust causing Terror to go up quite a bit, two of the Terror cards actually do that too!

Not to mention that this is the first (I think) killer Terror card that has caused an Event to be revealed.

I like that because it adds a bit of connectedness between the killer and whatever location you are using for them.

The Minor Dark Powers are pretty nasty, though one of them is easily mitigated if it comes out early.

Amphetamines will have the Intruder with the lowest health heal two health at the beginning of the Killer phase.

If it comes out early, nobody’s injured and the first damage you do to them will actually remove the Minor Dark Power.

That’s the thing about the Minor Dark Powers (and the same for the Organism if you have more than one out). They apply to all of them, but you also do damage to the card before you do damage to any of the killers. Doesn’t matter which one you’re attacking.

While Amphetamines isn’t too bad depending on when it comes out, Coordinated Attack really sucks.

It gives them another Killer action at the end of the Killer phase!

They’re moving and attacking too.

That’s not good.

Good to get rid of that one as soon as you can.

The Dark Powers for the Intruders are really gross.

You’ve got three of them chasing you and you may not be able to get Focus cards? And when they find you, you gain Horror?

Or having bloodlust creep up faster, the more killers you’ve eliminated?

All of them take advantage of the fact that they like to swarm their enemies.

The Finales aren’t too bad.

But they aren’t good!

It’s always nice to have one where they’re not all coming for you, or knifing victims, or whatever, at the same time.

So Hunt Sweet Hunt can actually be a bit of a respite since when the Finale comes out, there are no more Terror cards.

Sure, that one killer moves really fast so once the victims are dead, you need to make sure you have reaction cards.

But you’re only facing one attack at a time, so hopefully you can do that!

The other two, yikes!

Multiple (possibly all!) killers coming after you or the remaining victims.

Good luck fending that off.

All in all, the Intruders make for an interesting adversary because they come at you in waves, and you don’t always know which one is going to come after you at any given time.

You may have to sacrifice victims because there’s no way you can save them, especially if they’re surrounded by two or even all three of the killers.

They are relatively easy to kill individually, though unlike most instances, if you do enough damage to reveal their final health token, the phase doesn’t end.

Instead, the “active” killer changes, you continue the phase, and then reveal whether or not the killer has died at the end of it.

It’s really bad when all three of them have extra hearts.

I really like them, though, because they are an interesting opponent. You can try to go after one and kill it and that will make things easier, but definitely not easy.

With only six health, a couple of shotgun blasts will actually kill one (see below).

In my three games, I managed to kill one of them twice, and in my third game, I killed two of them before succumbing to the third.

They’re really fascinating, and I like how they work.

Though they are scary to face off against.

How about Wingard Cottage? (named after the director of the movie “You’re Next”)

This is an interesting location because there are inside and outside areas, and some of the cards actually reference being inside and outside.

Sadly I didn’t encounter one, but there are some that let you bar the bad guys from coming inside, to name one example.

The Home Security event is the prime example (and may be the only one).

Another really awesome event is Battle Ready, which lets you randomly take a weapon from the Items that weren’t included in this game and equip it.

Twice I got the Shotgun because of this, which really does a number on them!

Escape Attempt is actually a really funny event (in a sad way, of course).

The victim closest to the Driveway (bottom right corner) tries to make a run for it.

It moves a space toward the Driveway and you roll a die.

Roll a 5-6 and they succeed!

Roll a 1-4 and they die.

Keep doing that until they reach the Driveway.

If they do, they escape and you can count them as an escaped victim.

I love this kind of thing!

I had it happen twice. Once the victim escaped, and the other…they didn’t.

Then there are the events that bring new special victims out.

These have two really bad ones and one really cool one!

The Loser Boyfriend is basically a new killer, except he can’t attack you.

You can actually do something cool and kill him instead!

What a loser.

The Outsider is terrible because not only do the Killers all target him, but they kill every victim whose space they move through (though only one if the space has more than one victim).

Not good. Rescue him quickly if you can, though usually you’re nowhere near him when he shows up.

However, the Neighbour with the boat keys can be really cool!

Get victims (including him) to the Lakefront and watch them get whisked away to safety.

And even though you’re not the one doing the saving (you did get them there, though, most likely!), you get credit for the saves.

Finally, a couple of helpful ones and one…not so helpful.

Booby Traps also references inside and outside, but in an excessively negative way!

That’s a good way to kill some victims.

The other two mention something else, which let’s get to now as it is a completely unique mechanic (at least so far) in the Final Girl series.

Yes, you can wander around picking up materials…

and then use those materials (along with the appropriate item most of the time, so you may not have it available) to craft something very nice!

Or nasty, if you’re one of the killers.

I didn’t do this in any of the three games I played, but I’m wondering whether I should have.

Since you must have the item in question (a baseball bat, a knife, etc) to modify, and both the available crafted items (4) and the available items (12) are random, you may get unlucky and not have a bat around.

There are two bats and two knives in the item list, so that does make it more likely that you’ll have at least one.

Thankfully the Obliterator only requires all four crafting items and no actual items, but still.

That’s a lot of running around!

If you get the right combination and are in the right places to pick up the materials, this could be quite handy.

I like the idea of the mechanic a lot and am really interested in trying it out.

Eventually.

Otherwise, though, there are the standard item types available.

Weapons, some defense, and things to help you in wandering around the cabin.

Some of the weapons are standard, but there are some interesting ones, like the Blender!

Can only be used in the House (so another card that makes that distinction) and can only be used once, but at 3 additional damage, it packs quite a punch.

I can just imagine that scene in the film.

The shotgun, I used to great effect. It does require a Horror roll, but only one success required to do three damage to an adjacent killer.

For the Intruders, that’s enough to kill one if you manage to hit twice!

This is especially useful if you can craft the sawed-off version.

No Horror roll required, and you do two damage to all other killers in the same space as well as the 3 damage to the one you’re targeting!

It’s even better if the Shotgun happens to be in the Garage, where the Discarded Tools also are.

How you keep the victims in that target space safe, I don’t know, but that’s just something you have to ignore. They are safe.

Here’s a picture of how you can tell where the craft items are.

Two of them next to each other is pretty good, if you need them both!

Some of the Setup cards can really make things hard on you.

Special Occasion has you start on the outside looking in, with all three killers right on the porch!

Saving those people could be dangerous.

Finally, let’s get to the Terror cards, because they can be pretty terrible, though I do like that almost half actually give you an Event.

I love Events.

One thing is that over half of them increase the Terror automatically, not even counting the killing of victims.

With the Intruders bloodlust also increasing Terror, you have to manage it even more.

Now Get the Hell Out of My House can be helpful if you still have your Weak Attack card in your hand and a weapon handy.

Even better if the Event is Battle Ready and you get to draw a weapon from the unused Item pile!

But if you don’t have the Weak Attack, you might be screwed.

The Terror cards have a lot of victim chasing and killing, which can be detrimental to your success.

Or the Terror card could just be damned inconvenient, like putting three new victims right where one of the killers is.

In fact, Wingard Cottage can have the same effect as Maple Lane does, with adding a bunch of new victims.

In one of my games, I ended up with almost 20.

Why are all these people just showing up at this secluded cottage?

Did the “Frat Party” advertisement go out or something?

With all that being said, I actually really enjoyed the isolated cottage.

I love the “inside/outside” mechanic, some of the events that just make things even more cool, the crafted items (even though I didn’t use them!).

I can see how this would be a great location for other killers as well. I may have to try it with Hans (to start with).

I can just see the story building so much with this location, even more so than some of the other ones.

How about the two Final Girls that this film has?

Ava only has 5 health, but she can get 2 of them back when she rescues victims.

Reducing Terror is nice as well, but having two Move 1 Space bonuses actually is really handy around the cottage (and probably other places as well).

Also, she only needs 5 saved victims to flip her card. That’s always cool.

Ginny has 6 health and two spaces to lower Terror, but only one healing.

Moving a space is good, as mentioned, and then taking a Guard reaction card for free?

Yes, please!

Their flipped effects are very cool, though.

How can you argue with rerolling all 1s rolled on Terror rolls?

Also, saving additional victims reduces Terror?

Definitely not a bad thing.

Ginny’s effects are great in a totally different way.

Two choices between four with getting an extra healing, extra damage on a Weak Attack, reducing Terror even more on Focus, or moving an extra space with walking, what’s not to like?

It is very beneficial to try and flip these two Final Girls as soon as you can.

Wingard Cottage will probably give you lots of victims to do that with!

And if you have to make some sacrifices along the way, that’s just the way things sometime work.

Overall, I would say this is an excellent feature film to add to your Final Girl experience.

I wouldn’t make it one of your first, as both the location and the killers can be a bit complicated when you’re still trying to nail down the rules to the game itself.

Wingard Cottage is a neat location with added stuff that you can do, and the Intruders are quite unique in how they operate as well.

Even the Final Girls are worthy additions to the game, as they could be quite useful anywhere.

As long as it’s not your first, I highly recommend A Knock at the Door.

(This review was written after 3 plays of this film)

Check out all of my Final Girl reviews here! More will be coming.

Final Girl Reviews