Thy Neighbor's Wife

What we have here is a dumbed down, (seemingly) made for TV, version of the nineties thriller 'The Hand That Rocks the Cradle'. The main reason I saw this, aside from the fact I seem to have something of a penchant for stupid and rather dull thrillers, is the fact that it stars Kari Wuhrer. Her name might not mean a lot to a lot of people, but she's about the closest thing we've got a B-movie queen nowadays (although she really does need to get a better agent!). As mentioned, the plot pretty much rips off The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, although this time there is a different reason for revenge and the unfortunate woman at the centre has a different affliction. Wuhrer plays a woman upset after her husband killed himself due to his work colleagues. She takes it upon herself to get revenge, killing a couple of them, before posing as a maid for another. She worms her way into the family through each of the different members, all the while plotting her sweet revenge.

The thing that makes this film fun is the fact that it's completely ridiculous! The acting is terrible, and there are several sequences that are just far too convenient and/or don't make any sense at all! The film is directed by Jim Wynorski, who made Chopping Mall in 1986 before going to make a load of made for video crap, like this film. Some of the soft porn from his other films has made it into this one, and while we don't get to see much; there are plenty of breasts on display to keep things interesting. Kari Wuhrer gives by far the best performance and single handily makes the movie worth watching. She's always nice to look at, which cant really be said for the overall experience of watching this movie; but it is nice to see Re-Animator's Barbara Crampton on screen again. The plot is fairly standard stuff and although there is some attempt to build the characters, it is all a bit hard to care about. It doesn't take a genius to work out what will happen in the end, but there's plenty of laughs (for wrong reasons, mostly) on the way and while this is pretty crap, it's nice, gentle viewing and I did rather enjoy wasting time on it.

...you know you've just got a direct-to-video stinker. The storyline has been done before (woman attempts to get even with family she feels killed her husband), and has been done better. At least with Shannon Tweed's "Scorned" it didn't take itself too seriously so it made the film enjoyable. This is pretty much dreck from the word "Action!" The male actors in this aren't good at all. Seth Adams Jones who plays David gives perhaps the worst "emotion" scene in film history when he talks to his father about how he should've been stricter. Melissa Stone adds the single worst sex scene in film history as well. While her dolt boyfriend is screwing her on top of their freezer, she just lays there with a straight, hurry-up-and-get-this-scene-over-with-so-I-can-put-my-shirt-back-on face that totally kills whatever eroticism the scene could have.

The other sex scenes aren't much better. Wuhrer can't even be bothered to take her panties off for her scene. Crampton has to use a body double so blatant I wondered why they even bothered with this scene. In the end, Wuhrer's character wins and she drives off into the sunset. There are much better Wuhrer movies, skip over this one.

This movie is a direct rip-off of "Scorned", which in turn was itself a direct rip-off of "The Hand That Rocks The Cradle"; they even hired an Andrew Stevens lookalike to play the husband. To give you an idea of its quality, I will elaborate on the "bloodless" murder a previous reviewer talked about, and tell you that it must also be the first stabbing in the history of cinema that is executed without a knife! Yes, I swear, play the scene frame-by-frame and you'll see that when Wuhrer is supposed to be stabbing the housemaid to death, she isn't actually holding anything! Maybe that explains the lack of blood. But that's not all; the dialogue that's used to show us how the family is in a constant state of crisis is forced, awkward and delivered at the most inappropriate moments. The script is totally by-the-numbers, with every plot point telegraphed in advance (the "evil woman" seduces the father and the son, makes friends with the daughter, causes health problems for the mother, etc.). Despite all that, the film IS ultimately worth seeing, for one reason alone: Kari Wuhrer. With her pretty face, voluptuous and supple figure, and insinuating voice, she manages the no-small-feat of being just as sexy when she is dressed as when she is naked. She certainly blows Shannon Tweed out of the water in any case. (*1/2)

Thy Neighbor's Wife otherwise known as Poison, otherwise known as Midnight Vendetta, otherwise known as Sex Attraction (For some reason) is a US made thriller starring Kari Wuhrer.

She stars as a woman gone mad after her husbands suicide, she becomes the house keeper for the family of woman she feels is responsible and through a series of mind games and manipulations aims on tearing them apart from the inside.

Trouble is we've seen this plot before, and we've seen it done a lot better.

Wuhrer is someone I consider to be a poor actress who contributes little beyond looking the part. Here she demonstrates that yet again and adds to the fairly high T&A levels.

It's generic, it's standard stuff and though it's not entirely terrible it's certainly take your brain out level entertainment.

The Good:

I'm a simple man, I see boobs I click like

The Bad:

Weak plot

Certain parts simply don't make much sense

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Your father didn't do it like that!

The box looked vaguely enticing. A revenge thriller. Well, it wasn't. It was a sorry collection of scenes cobbled together in a fashion that paid, no more than, lip service to the concept of a story line. The only thing that kept my attention was the realization (which came about 20 minutes in) that every female character in the film was going to get her kit off at some stage. Unfortunately, whilst this does happen, these scenes are interspersed between far too much "drama". Having said that, I still think this video would be far more appropriately placed behind the beaded curtain (at the local video store) than out with the serious movies.