Stalked by My Neighbor

... so little time. Although as someone else pointed out, this is not really accurate ... or rather a bit missleading. Which isn't a bad thing, if you consider that the movie itself is fairly easy to see through. At the beginning you may feel like me - confused. Because it's like alright, this is way crazy. Then you get the reveal and you're like ... ah well.

The thing is, the movie may work until that moment. Somewhat work. But after that moment? It's downhill from there. It's almost a shame, but then again the acting might be an indicator ... a sort of warning sign. This is obviously a movie made for TV. And not HBO TV or Netflix if you count that as TV (some even call the latter the death bringer of TV). Anyway, very predictable from that one reveal and really not daring that much - not to mention all the crazy characters and their slow thinking - to put it mildly

So the acting was terrible but had some eye candy in it which helped me finish the film. It almost reminded me of Disturbia but I actually liked that film. It's alright if you can't find anything else to watch!

Alone in her West Hollywood condo, pretty blonde teenager Kelcie Stranahan (as Jodi Allen) is attacked and raped by an intruder while talking to her mom on laptop video. Three months later, single mom Amy Pietz (as Andrea Allen) has moved her daughter to a presumably safer suburb near the Angeles Crest Mountains. Still skittish, Ms. Stranahan occupies herself taking photographs of the neighbors. With her zoom-lens, she specializes taking pictures of handsome young men in the neighborhood. Stranahan is a real "Peeping Tom" (or, more appropriately, a "Peeping Tina"). An obvious favorite is muscular young Grant Harvey (as Nick Thompkin). Stranahan happily catches him washing his truck while wearing only a baggy pair of sweat-shorts...

This ends up being an ordinary and very predictable "Lifetime" TV movie thriller, but you have to give writer-director Doug Campbell credit for so obviously portraying heroine Stranahan with what some might consider a character flaw; apparently, she takes "half naked" photos of young men for her own personal enjoyment. She also takes pictures of her neighbors' windows at night. Soon, she thinks she has witnessed a deadly crime. This updates what many correctly saw as perverse subtext in Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window" (1954). But, back to this story. The camera angles are nicely done, especially when Stranahan checks another neighbor's house for an intruder while wearing her own little shorts. "Lifetime" knows its PG audience.

***** Stalked by My Neighbor (2015-03-21) Doug Campbell ~ Kelcie Stranahan, Grant Harvey, Amy Pietz, Katrina Norman

Plot briefly - daughter Jody is cruelly raped in city apartment, after which loving Mom moves them to supposed safety of upscale suburbia. But is it. We'll see.

What interested me was youthful Jodi's traumatized mental state after being raped by a stranger. Actress Stranahan does a good job in this early part expressing mental imbalance without going over the top. For example, her fascination with sneaky photography of neighbors could be traceable to that trauma, or her accusing boy Nick of the later murder crime without evidence could also be a result.

Too bad the screenplay soon returns her to normality through turn-around puppy love with neighbor Nick. Then too, suspense is undercut by a too-early reveal of the killer that removes the fun of a guessing game. Without these give-aways, we might even suspect Jodi as the killer, imbalanced as she initially is. That unknown would have considerably raised the movie's suspense level to a fascinating degree. Instead, the screenplay opts for a more conventional type suspense rather than exploring the rich potential of Jodi's lingering trauma.

Nonetheless, the flick has several notable touches - the real suburban neighborhood with its upscale homes; the unusual all-girl showdown, poorly done though it is; and good crisp eye-catching photography.

All in all, the suspenser strikes me as average at best, with a squandered potential at worst. Anyway, despite the downside, it's probably worth a quick look-see.

A girl and her mom move to the suburbs after the daughter survives a terrifying ordeal in her city apartment. The girl likes to take photographs and some of her photographs convince her that her neighbors are not what they seem to be.

Of course, like a lot of TV films, the girl suspects the wrong person of stalking her and doesn't realize her mistake until it's almost too far gone.

I feel like the big reveal of the killer could have waited until closer to the end, and that there could have been a bit more drama, but all in all not a bad movie to watch on a Saturday night.