Playdate - Il segreto dietro la porta

It's not that "Playdate" is a bad flick. It's just so plain vanilla horror/thriller stock stuff that it makes watching paint dry seem downright rousing. The only mildly intriguing dynamic here is that evil resides mere steps away next door in this cookie-cutter L.A. burb.

So how well ya know your neighbors there, huh?

While the credits roll, a young boy is chased to the edge of a cliff. He falls over the edge and looks dead...

Two years later, we meet Southern California brunette Marguerite Moreau (as Emilie). She quits her job to spend more time with husband Richard Ruccolo (as Brian Valentine), their young daughter Natalie Lind (as Olive) and "Hunter" the family pooch. A new family moves in next door, from Denver. They are blonde single mom Abby (as Tamara) and her two sons, Julien Lacroix and Aidan Potter (as Titus and Billy Moor). This new family sends off creepy vibes, which irk Ms. Moreau. Her little girl has a "first official crush" on young rough-playing Potter. Moreau notices her neighbors have bruises and a man caught trespassing demands the return of his son...

Of the cast, devoted mother Brammell is most engagingly mysterious. The younger children are more silly than intriguing; most parents would separate the mismatched pair before they separated themselves. Older son Lacroix uses his hair to play the moody, distant teenager. Director Andrew C. Erin keeps it moving, though. He and his crew effectively uses close-ups to have characters abruptly enter a scene, or has them slither around in the background. By the end of "Playdate" we have a sufficient idea about what has happened, but there are some details which remain too sketchy. Kraig Wenman's original story may have been trimmed. It's not incomplete, just vague.

**** Playdate (2012-04-28) Andrew C. Erin ~ Marguerite Moreau, Abby Brammell, Richard Ruccolo, Julien Lacroix

I went into this movie with fairly low expectations, but in the end I was left extremely disappointed.

The build up of this movie was slow but thanks to the acting it kept me interested. It's a recognisable situation, family gets new neighbours & don't know if they're trustworthy. We all worry who our kids play with at some point. During the movie you're left wondering who's to trust and who's not. So far, an OK movie experience. The slow build up made me look forward to the ending, in suspense. Then comes the plot. Which is so incredibly weak & not answering many questions -if any- that left me feeling i wasted my time. Personally I absolutely can't stand movies to end with this many unanswered questions. It feels as though the writer had some good ideas for a story but was suddenly out of inspiration when it came to the end. Also, some things are just not realistic. Without giving any spoilers away, the apparent ease at which an APB is warranted left me astonished. There's plenty of stuff in the last part of the movie that had me scratching my head, which I can't get into without giving spoilers away. I'm sure you'll know what I mean when you've seen it.

Huge disappointment for me this one. 2/10.

Typical "Lifetime" style movie thriller fluff, very generic no surprises very PG13. Saw this on Netflix (Netflix is really going downhill fast). Perhaps I'm getting a bit sensitive in my old age but, how can a writer of the script have a character compare restoring a muscle car to "his Vietnam"? I had to rewind to make sure I heard it right. How old are the writers? Did they finish high school? Honestly, clean your litter box, organize your socks, alphabetize your spices rather than watch this movie.

I think that it's safe to say that most, if not all of us viewers of "Playdate", have seen this basic premise many times before. So the movie does not get any points for originality of its premise. However, the movie does get points for trying very hard to be a more realistic than usual take on this premise. Throughout most of the movie, I kept saying to myself, "Yes, I can believe this" to what the characters were saying and doing. However, apparently in the quest to make this movie feel more realistic, the filmmakers forgot to make the drama compelling. The movie is really slow, really padded out, and is desperately missing enough thrills to engage the viewer. This is capped by a climax and ending that has enough head-scratching details to frustrate viewers significantly, and is definitely not a satisfying payoff. Actually, after watching the movie and thinking about it, I realized that there were additional questions brought up in the movie that weren't answered as well. So I can't recommend this movie despite it having some positive and fresh features.