Next Door - Fantasmes sanglants

I saw this film yesterday, at the second Reykjavík International Film Festival, and I did not know what to expect. It is the third movie from the Norwegian director Pål Sletaune. In 1998 Variety pronounced him one of the ten most promising directors worldwide. I knew this was a psychological thriller with strong sexual undertone, and that is definitely what it is. Wow!!! I was amazed. This film is a shocker! At this one scene my wife said she almost had to vomit!!! After this scene she had to watch the film through her fingers. The performance of Kristoffer Joner (leading actor) is excellent. This is one of the best films I have seen this year. Not for softies.

John, who has recently been left by his girlfriend, is lured into his next door neighbors' apartment. Inside he finds two women (who claim to be attractive, but this is debatable), a seduction and some of the most bizarre mind-bending you'll see in a film (Norwegian or otherwise).

For some reason this film is translated as "Next Door" when the word "naboer" means "neighbor", but I guess literal translations aren't the thing. I mean, the movie "Mark of the Devil" is originally in German and means something like "Witches Bleeding, Tortured To Death"... so, hey, I guess Americans can call movies whatever they want.

"An homage to Roman Polanski with nods to David Lynch," says Variety. I don't know enough about Polanski's work to really comment on that, but the Lynch connection is clear. There are many occasions in this film where it is unclear whether the main character is delusional or sane. Although, the difference is this: in a Lynch film, you are left to come up with your own theory, while here the situation is cleared up satisfactorily.

I really enjoyed this movie. It played out really slow, but in such a way that the "Reveal" was well-paced and we were only given enough hints to keep going along while getting hungrier for more (like a carrot on a stick). Any slower and it would have lost me, any faster and it would be a short film.

Personally, I found certain scenes to be highly erotic and incredibly sexy. This might be just me, since the scenes also contain excessive violence. Should violence be sexy? I don't know, but in this case I was rather taken by the presentation. Like "Jenifer" which I just watched, the film blends the disgusting with the beautiful -- with surprising results.

This will not appeal to everyone. The film is certainly "bizarre" and the movie is subtitled, which some will not enjoy. But if you like David Lynch or have a craving for something you're not likely to find in your average film, this is the film for you. (Note: the film is considered "horror" and has horror elements, but I'd sooner put it under "suspense".)

Sex, violence and psychosis - what more could you want for a down and dirty late night horror movie? Even if when you get them all together it may set off censorship bells . . .

John has split up with Ingrid, his girlfriend of two years and, as she calls to gather her stuff from his flat, we gather that the split was not entirely amicable. Soon after, John's vampish neighbours, the older, slightly dominating Anne, and the young, sexually impulsive and vulnerable Kim, persuade him into their flat. They know all about his break-up with Ingrid (they heard it through the wall) and are a bit creepy - for instance, they keep a wardrobe pushed against the door to the flat.

John is not exactly an easy-going laid-back guy. One of the girls tells him a sexually explicit story to arouse him after trapping him in the flat. When he finally starts to succumb, she initiates a violent sadomasochistic game, drawing him in with the promise of sex. After some brutal lovemaking he is shocked when he looks in the mirror and sees the amount of blood on his face. Strange coincidences start appearing and flashbacks suggest John is turned on by violence. Kim and Anne tell different versions of events and John soon feels trapped mentally as well as physically. Like all good horror movies, it ends up nastily and we breathe a sigh of relief as all is explained and we can catch the friendly night bus home, secure in the knowledge that nothing is going to jump out at us.

Next Door pushes limits by including the sex and violence together. The fairly liberal British Board of Film Censors, for instance, says it may, "intervene with portrayals of sexual violence which might, e.g. eroticise or endorse sexual assault." The fact that the sexually violence that we see is largely consensual may allow it to creep through uncut. In its home country of Norway, the film is the first to get an 18 rating in 17 years. You would be right in thinking it is not for the squeamish.

The film has a clever idea as the basis of all the goings on, but if you watch without the recommended several glasses of strong lager you may find you guess the ending all too easily. It is slightly stifled by a derivative feel - like a bad copy of David Lynch of Alfred Hitchcock - and could have benefited from some better pacing to allow the audience to catch its breathe between shocks. For all Next Door's ingeniousness, the camera-work hardly makes the most of the subject matter - although more careful framing and dramatic editing might have notched up the chances of the censors demanding cuts. On a more serious level, the film is quite a reasonable allegory on repression and erotic psychosis. One way or another, it may well earn your grudging attention - just don't try the techniques with your date.

and I quite liked the music, but I didn't know the composer. One to check out to be sure. Like the other reviewer I would compare it to Polanski, I kept thinking about 'The Tenant' watching this. The atmosphere are a bit of the same, claustrophobic and strange. We don't know whats going on in there, but it sure doesn't feel right. That said, the script isn't all original, but its still a very good take on it.

Actors are well chosen and did it very well. The two girls in particular create some really uncomfortable situations and are a great team. Kristoffer Joner is an excellent actor also and does a fine job here. The Swede deserves a mention as well.

Director Pål Sletaune is one to watch. He is soon changing status for me from talented to a very good director. The future of Norwegian film looks very bright.

It has some very minor flaws which you barely notice as the movie speeds away.

A Norwegian thriller to challenge any American made thriller. This was a movie not to be missed. For any fans of truly disturbing psychological thrillers, "Naboer" is right up there on the "must see" list. To call this film a "psycho-sexual" thriller is to put the term mildly. The film concerns John, a man whose apparently cheating girlfriend leaves him to be with her new boyfriend. After grieving her loss for a very short while, he comes upon two girls who are his next door neighbors. When coming home from work one evening, one of the girls, Anne, requests a favor of him in her apartment. He reluctantly obliges and thus begins a truly extravagant mind-twister. John finds Anne and her roommate Kim to be a bit odd, and potentially mentally off-balance. As he decides to leave their apartment abruptly, it is too late as their entanglement has already begun. Anne finds John the next day and again requests a favor - to watch over her "sister" next door, as she is not to be left alone due to some previously dire incident. Upon entering their apartment, John is overwhelmed by the psychological torture that begins. He is trapped, abused, lost, and frightened, all before getting involved further into a sick, sexual game that would really give this film a guaranteed X-rating in a standard American market. Although "Naboer" really doesn't have the overt bloodshed (but still a fare share) that typical slasher fare films do, the horror of it all is presented mentally - and rightfully so, as the mind is much more powerful in suggestions that celluloid could ever be. As the story unravels, more and more questions pop up as to why everything is suddenly happening to John. What has his part been in possibly causing everything to happen? Is it his current situation, or perhaps his past? How do the neighbor girls know so much about his most intimate relationship details? How does it all tie in with his recent break-up, and why? The mental roller-coaster continues to pick up the pace until the very end, which is worth the wait. A different view of an already normally over-saturated horror/thriller market. "Naboer" works, and it works well. It would be hard-pressed to find a viewer who would leave the theater without a feeling of awe or shock. Excellent in every way.