The House Next Door

OK! Simple fact is that compared to the novel this Lifetime Television movie pales in comparison. Anne Rivers Siddons' novel is worthy of the praise it has received over the years. Directed by Jeff Woolnough, it's a film that is routine but effective both in atmosphere and story telling.

Lara Flynn Boyle and Colin Ferguson play the contented couple whose idyllic suburban life is tipped upside down when a modern house is built on the land next to their home. Embracing the community spirit of new neighbours at first, the couple soon come to realise that whoever lives in the house - or even those who visit it - are beset by tragedy or uncontrollable urges.

Each segment with the various "house" owners vary in quality, but always there's a smart thematic link pulsing away in the narrative. It's never scary as such, unless you count Boyle's cosmetic surgery (silly girl, she was a natural and sexy beauty), and the house itself is a monstrously modern ode to yuppiedom, which to some (ok, me) kind of negates the horror factor, yet this is worth a look on a time waster basis. But please do seek out the book if you haven't already. 6/10

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.

After too many years of waiting, Anne Rivers Siddons' noted 1979 book "The House Next Door" has finally been filmed. The result veers a bit from the novel which, especially in the first story of the trilogy is understandable if unsatisfying as it's a TV film, the whole of which is absorbing and actually very good, just not as great as the book, one of Stephen King's favorites and one of mine as well.

With more running time and fewer constraints as a theatrical release, all the richness inherent in the original three-part story of the ominous ultramodern house could have been explored and nurtured, especially the climactic revelation near the very end.

Still, the whole cast does well in this thoughtful tale of mindless malevolence. There are a few unnecessary cheap shocks but the growing atmosphere of dread is well developed. Actually, one of the most disturbing scenes involves an abstract painting of the house by its next-door amateur-artist neighbor who is trying to visualize its corruption on canvas.

Be sure to read the great novel.

The House Next Door: A Possessed as distinct from a Haunted House. A new house is built in an exclusive area, a lovely young couple own it, a nice young architect designed it. But the architect is troubled, this was his first independent commission, now he seems to have lost his inspiration. Trouble soon befalls the new couple and other residents who follow them in occupying the house. Mostly psychological horror, people seem pushed to do things they normally wouldn't but also scenes of genuine horror. A TV set taken over to show films of past deaths, ghostly apparitions; gruesome suicides and murders occur. Directed by Jeff Woolhaugh. On SyFy Channel. 6/10.

THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR is one dull TV movie. It's a simple story about a suburban housewife who lives next door to what might be the ultimate haunted house. A series of her neighbours living in this evil abode are subject to all manner of ill fortune and even death, and it's all something to do with the sinister architect who built it.

Apparently this film was based on a novel so I can only imagine how horrendous that is. The main problem here is that the focus of the story isn't on the main characters at all but on the supporting characters who live next door. Thus the attempts at drama and human conflict are subdued. There's no real sense of resolution here, not even a real beginning, middle, or end, just continued nonsense.

Frozen-faced Lara Flynn Boyle was a vibrant and even volatile screen presence in the 1990s so it's sad to see her hidden behind copious plastic surgery and reduced to starring in this kind of insipid TV movie fare that I thought they'd stopped making in the 1990s.