Vizinhos, Lado a Lado Até a Morte

I had the opportunity of being invited to the Vancouver screening of `The House Next Door'. The movie was very well done; it kept everyone in the audience on the edge of their seats wondering... why doesn't she leave? Vancouver composer John Sereda did an outstanding job on the films soundtrack. It was "Dramatic, Dynamic, Suspenseful, and it Rocked you"... It is definitely a movie worth seeing... and a soundtrack worth hearing.

The young couple Lori Peterson (A.J. Cook) and her husband Tom Peterson (Matthew Harrison) moves from Chicago to a suburb, to live in a huge house. Their neighbors Helen Schmidt (Theresa Russell) and Carl Schmidt (James Russo) welcome them with a dinner party at their house and the two couples start a good relationship. When Tom travels to Los Angeles on business, Lori stays alone at home and realizes that Carl is a violent man and might have killed his wife. She decides to investigate what might have happened to Helen. 'The House Next Door' is a totally predictable festival of clichés. It seems that the studios have some sort of previously prepared combination of screenplays with this sort of flick, and releases them with a minor participation of some known actors and actresses, like Sean Young and Theresa Russell, a beautiful cover and posters to the video rentals to attract the attention of viewers. Later, they release it to an open or even cable TV channel, and nothing else. Just as an example, this type of movie is very common and typical in the Saturday 9:00 PM session of TV Globo (the greatest open channel in Brazil). 'The House Next Door' is a watchable and very forgettable flick. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): 'Vizinhos Lado a Lado Até a Morte' ('Neighbors Side by Side Until Death')

This conventional woman-in-jeopardy suspencer, screened at the American Film Market in February, has enough predictable situations to place it in the lightweight horror category.

A young Chicago couple, married two years, move into their country dream home only to discover their neighbors are not all they appear to be. The young wife (A.J.Cook) is left vulnerable when husband (Matthew Harrison) has to spend two weeks in LA on business. James Russo provides so-so excitement as the heavy-next-door.

While Joey Travolta directs competently, we don't get to know enough about the characters to make us care very much what happens to them in the situations they are placed.

First of all I want to point out that the cover lies. As is commonly the case the cover deceives the viewer in order to sell more copies. In this instance Sean Young is on the right hand side instead of the lead AJ Cook. Why would they do this? I can only assume because Young was more famous at the time of release, but having the lead absent from the cover is rather baffling.

Following your standard thriller formula telling the story of a couple who move into a new home but become increasingly concerned that their neighbours aren't as nice as they present themselves.

Decent enough performances including the excellent lead (Cook) make this generic title watchable enough. I have to say I thought they were building to something different, I expected a double bluff but got a disappointing paint by numbers finale.

Watchable stuff but not stuff to go out of your way to watch.

The Good:

AJ Cook

Sean Young

The Bad:

Very clichéd

This thriller is very watchable due to the high caliber acting of three of the main characters. A J Cook (Jennifer Jareau on TV's Criminal Minds) and Matthew Harrison play Lori and Tom Peterson who have been married for two years and decide to leave the big city of Chicago and move to a smaller community in the countryside, where they believe their lives will be safer and more like the lives of the people on that old television series The Andy Griffith Show which took place in the quaint little town of Mayberry.

Little do they know that they have moved next door to a very militant neighbor who associates with a group of degenerates that like to party at his house. James Russo is the neighbor from hell named Carl Schmidt. Carl is married to Theresa Russel's character Helen Schmidt who is a stay at home mom with two young children. Helen appears to be abused both verbally and physically by her ex military husband Carl.

Two other characters that come in to play are Lori Peterson's hip girlfriend Monica played by Sean Young who comes to town to visit her good old friend Lori, and the not so nice, and corruptible skirt chaser Sheriff Vernon Crank played by Frederic Forrest.

Yes, the script is very predictable, but the musical score suits the scenes as they play out, and A J Cook, Theresa Russell and James Russo are all good actors who hold the movie up quite well to the bitter climax. Even the director Joey Travolta (yes he is John Travolta's brother) does an admirable job pulling off a pretty good thriller. One could do a lot worse than watching this 95 minute thriller, so sit back with your popcorn and leave at least one light on for this two and half star thriller.