The House Next Door

Basically there was a creepy house. It was creepy on account of its hauntings. Anyways, some woman who lived on the street found out a friend who designed the house lost the ability to design, so she assumed the house was evil, like any sane person would.

Basically the movie tells the story of several people who occupy the building, but these people had little personality outside of attributes the house turned against them. The characters not living in the house really only existed to demonstrate that the protagonist's life was being affected by her paranoia about the house.

There isn't much reason to be concerned with any of these people since... well honestly early on the effect of the house on its first occupants was kinda unexpected.

I've mostly been rambling but this movie while watchable is one of those without any lasting impact on the viewer.

From all the great comments I've read about the book (and now I want to buy the book), you'd think they would have made the movie creepier and more suspenseful. It was too tame in the shock department. I'm not saying it needed to be gory -just more suspenseful, creepy and sinister like a Stephen King movie! The architect character was really the only thing that creeped me out(just a little). Also the house should have been creepier looking. I enjoyed some of the actors' performances, especially the little girl. Some of the characters weren't too fazed about what was going on in the house and just blew it off. I'd be freaked if my neighbors were dying off one by one in the same house. All in all, it was an enjoyable two hours viewing time; I might even get the DVD if it comes out.

The cast is OK. The script is awkward at times, and it takes a while to figure out what the point of the movie is. I found myself looking forward to doing the dishes. The Shehan bit is a cheesy statement on the war. I guess we were supposed to not notice it...we did. Its a house, you did nothing more than kill forty five minutes. The shower part...huh? What was that about? Literally, it is I have a client, "Ok you can use our shower." Yawn. The angles are trying way to hard. There was a set of woods, suddenly its gone cause you can see right through, then next it is deep and animals are dying. In the end this is a horrendous movie of boring proportions.

Happily married Lara Flynn Boyle and Colin Ferguson (as Colquitt "Col" and Walker Kennedy) live in a beautiful country home. They are okay being childless – although Ms. Boyle pouts, in the opening, some awareness about her "eggs" getting old at age thirty-four. There is a faint subplot about children which could have been more haunting. Boyle (as narrator) tells us a haunted house was built next door. Due to some unexplained incidents, Boyle and Mr. Ferguson have decided to have a showdown in "The House Next Door" – even though it may end their lives… Eighteen months earlier, we watch the events which slowly lead up to the opening scenes. The house is built by attractive architect Mark-Paul Gosselaar (as Kim). One day, he works up a sweat and has to shower at Boyle's place. You expect something to happen, but it doesn't – all the weird stuff happens in the house next door...

It is an unusual and difficult building to manage– but, it's a beautifully-designed building. Watching different people move in and try to live there is entertaining. The first one to leave is Mr. Gosselaar, who notices something strange has happened to him while building the place. Gosselaar helps sell the house and tries to get away, but not for long. This is an average TV movie production, with a couple of problems. Most obvious, the ending is a big disappointment. Of course, it's better not to say much – you'll see for yourself. Part of this has to do with some confusion about the characters – including the House as a real or inanimate character. This was based on a successful novel by Anne Rivers Siddons, which was undoubtedly clearer. Director Jeff Woolnough gets his best results in the house, especially building tension in effective scenes with Iraq War mom Julie Stewart (as Anita Sheehan).

***** The House Next Door (10/30/06) Jeff Woolnough ~ Lara Flynn Boyle, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Colin Ferguson, Julie Stewart

... is twofold. Firstly, it totally destroys, with a plodding, boring and mucousy script, a fine novel that Stephen King had singled out as one of the best horror stories of the last century in his essay "Danse Macabre" (1981).

The second jolt comes from seeing Lara Flynn Boyle's lips slowly disintegrate all through the movie from the sheer weight of the collagen they are stuffed with. Her mouth gradually descends in her face in a very ominous and asymmetrical fashion, unsupported by facial muscles that are already rendered weak and useless from too many Botox injections. The end result is an inverted wedge of a mouth incapable of smiling or any other recognizable human expression. Those are the only things that qualify this mess as truly scary, if you don't count the sheer ugliness, vulgarity and faux-modern ordinariness of the house itself.