Right at Your Door

Watching Right at Your Door, the same week that PG&E created the 3 Million Resident Power Black Out of 2019 in Northern California, while multiple massive wildfires ironically coincided in Southern California, Los Angeles, creates a perfect back drop to watch this movie.

Overall, this movie crawls along at a slow pace centralized to the confines of mostly one location. It sets you up all along to give you one final mind screw.

By the end of this movie, you'll realize that we have absolutely no power as citizens within California in particular, and all of us better pray this never happens in reality.

It doesn't take a big budget to make a good movie about what it would be like to be in a big city in a terror attack. Terror is after all, a personal emotion. Whatever the state of your relationship at that moment, that's where the picture freezes. You're not fully moved in, you hate your family, you had a fight... that's where things stand when the bombs go off. And if you're not blasted or burned or crushed in the initial blast, and if you're moderately resourceful, you'll find a way to survive -- for a while at least. And then you hope the 'authorities' do the right thing and come to save you. If you've thought about all of these things, you will appreciate how Chris Gorak plays it all out. This is not a movie for everyone. If you want all your questions answered, a big studio popcorn movie is probably more your style. But if you appreciate the exercise of putting yourself in the protagonist's shoes, this is a great ride.

When a series of dirty bombs are set off in Los Angeles the populace are told to stay indoors with windows and doors sealed. Brad's wife was in the area of the attacks though, so his priority is to get to her and make sure she is safe. With the authorities shutting down all the major roadways, Bard is forced to return home and start securing the house with the help of the labourer from next door, who has no way of getting to his own home. With only the radio for information, Brad waits for any news while, at the same time, an exposed Lexi tries to get back home.

This was a reasonably topical film at the time, perhaps not "hot on the heels" of 9th September 2001, but the fear of terrorist attacks on the West had not subsided five years later – and indeed it is still a button that can be pushed as we saw even as recently as 2008's US election. As a result I did want to see this but just never got round to doing so until the other week, mainly because it never showed up much on video or television for some reason. The film opens with its strongest card – the attacks, the initial panic, the initial fear and the initial moral questions. All of this is good and it does touch a nerve. The problem comes when the film has played that card and cannot get much more mileage from the emotions that many viewers will already have. This gives us a second half (or the remaining two-thirds to be honest) that doesn't work as well at all.

The plot brings characters in and out, has little things to fill the time and none of it ever convinces in the way the opening third did. It doesn't help that we don't really ever get into the characters so we don't feel a terrible lot for the people and indeed end up just questioning what they are doing and thinking – mainly because they are not real to us so we don't accept what they are doing. It heads towards a conclusion that would work well on the Twilight Zone perhaps but here it just seems like a dramatic way to finish for the sake of having a dramatic finish rather than fitting with the characters and narrative than I had just spent 90 minutes on. The cast are not the blame because they do give solid turns – particularly McCormack and Cochrane. OK the child (Noyd) is weak but in fairness so was his character.

Overall Right at Your Door opens well and the "pitch" concept is delivered upon pretty well. When it comes down to having another 60 minutes to fill after this though, it is not that good and it doesn't convince or engage as it should. A shame but as a total film it is average at best and instead of being part "realistic emotional drama" and part "Twilight Zone-esquire thriller" it would have been better shorter, simpler and filmed as a Twilight Zone episode.

I was pleasantly surprised. This is not the same as other toxic explosion movies such as Threads (1984), The Day After (1983) and the less memorable Testament (1983). This movie is harder to relate to and did not scare me in the same way. It focuses much more on a close relationship between a couple caught up in a fictional terrorist attack. It is much less about total destructive paranoia and more intimate. The movie is very well made. It looks very believable. The way that the movie has been made feels honest. The relationship is gripping from start to finish.

RIGHT AT YOUR DOOR is the terrifying story of the detonation of a "dirty bomb" in a major city, in this case Los Angeles. It takes us into a suburban home, seals us in with the occupant, and allows us to experience the claustrophobia, paranoia, and tragedy for ourselves.

One of the most unsettling aspects is how Brad (Rory Cochrane) is unable to get accurate information about what has happened. He and a neighbor tape clear plastic over every door and window in hopes of keeping out whatever is in the toxic cloud outside.

When Brad's wife (Mary McCormack) shows up at the door, heart-shattering decisions must be made.

This is an effective, realistic bio-thriller with a wicked twist at the end. It'll have you stocking up on duct tape and 6-mil. Poly sheeting...