HOME |  CULT MOVIES | COMPETITIONS | ADVERTISE |  CONTACT US |  ABOUT US
 
 
 
Newest Reviews
American Fiction
Poor Things
Thunderclap
Zeiram
Legend of the Bat
Party Line
Night Fright
Pacha, Le
Kimi
Assemble Insert
Venus Tear Diamond, The
Promare
Beauty's Evil Roses, The
Free Guy
Huck and Tom's Mississippi Adventure
Rejuvenator, The
Who Fears the Devil?
Guignolo, Le
Batman, The
Land of Many Perfumes
Cat vs. Rat
Tom & Jerry: The Movie
Naked Violence
Joyeuses Pacques
Strangeness, The
How I Became a Superhero
Golden Nun
Incident at Phantom Hill
Winterhawk
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City
Maigret Sets a Trap
B.N.A.
Hell's Wind Staff, The
Topo Gigio and the Missile War
Battant, Le
Penguin Highway
Cazadore de Demonios
Snatchers
Imperial Swordsman
Foxtrap
   
 
Newest Articles
3 From Arrow Player: Sweet Sugar, Girls Nite Out and Manhattan Baby
Little Cat Feat: Stephen King's Cat's Eye on 4K UHD
La Violence: Dobermann at 25
Serious Comedy: The Wrong Arm of the Law on Blu-ray
DC Showcase: Constantine - The House of Mystery and More on Blu-ray
Monster Fun: Three Monster Tales of Sci-Fi Terror on Blu-ray
State of the 70s: Play for Today Volume 3 on Blu-ray
The Movie Damned: Cursed Films II on Shudder
The Dead of Night: In Cold Blood on Blu-ray
Suave and Sophisticated: The Persuaders! Take 50 on Blu-ray
Your Rules are Really Beginning to Annoy Me: Escape from L.A. on 4K UHD
A Woman's Viewfinder: The Camera is Ours on DVD
Chaplin's Silent Pursuit: Modern Times on Blu-ray
The Ecstasy of Cosmic Boredom: Dark Star on Arrow
A Frosty Reception: South and The Great White Silence on Blu-ray
You'll Never Guess Which is Sammo: Skinny Tiger and Fatty Dragon on Blu-ray
Two Christopher Miles Shorts: The Six-Sided Triangle/Rhythm 'n' Greens on Blu-ray
Not So Permissive: The Lovers! on Blu-ray
Uncomfortable Truths: Three Shorts by Andrea Arnold on MUBI
The Call of Nostalgia: Ghostbusters Afterlife on Blu-ray
Moon Night - Space 1999: Super Space Theater on Blu-ray
Super Sammo: Warriors Two and The Prodigal Son on Blu-ray
Sex vs Violence: In the Realm of the Senses on Blu-ray
What's So Funny About Brit Horror? Vampira and Bloodbath at the House of Death on Arrow
Keeping the Beatles Alive: Get Back
   
 
  Neighbour, The Hi Diddly Ho
Year: 2016
Director: Marcus Dunstan
Stars: Josh Stewart, Alex Essoe, Bill Engval, Luke Edwards, Melissa Bolona, Skipp Suduth, Jaqueline Fleming, Ronnie Gene Blevins, David Kallaway, Heather Williams, Jered Meeks, Artrial Clark, Mason Guccione, Ben Matheny
Genre: ThrillerBuy from Amazon
Rating:  6 (from 1 vote)
Review: John (Josh Stewart) and Rosie (Alex Essoe) are a married couple who have an unconventional method of making their living: they're involved with a drug-smuggling racket. Tonight they welcome one of their minions (Heather Williams) to their meeting point only to discover she is in a bad way; they and their cohorts have to maintain their tough pose of ruthlessness, but the fact remains this woman has been shot in the side, and John decides to fix her up using the medical skills he used in the armed forces. Not helping is that she has her baby daughter sitting in the back seat, but if John allowed her to get away, there would be hell for him and Rosie to pay, he does not like it one bit, but that’s what he's stuck with...

If only there was a way out, right? In common with many a sympathetic criminal in the movies, the hero here simply needed one last, big deal to escape "the life" and establish a safe, happy home far away from all this stress and illegality, meaning The Neighbour did look like a white, rural remake of Superfly for a while, except without the ice cool soundtrack. But director Marcus Dunstan (who co-wrote the script with Patrick Melton) had something else up his sleeve, and a lot of viewers who were aware of his previous work with The Collector and its follow-up The Collection thought they knew what that was: they thought they were settling down for a down and dirty horror flick.

But here's the thing, this wasn't that at all, sure there were occasional gruesome elements such as a fight scene staged in a pit of meat (for some reason) or a character whose ankle tendons are slashed to prevent them walking, but in effect this was a thriller of the sort that had been seen quite often around this time, using those horror tropes to tell a suspense yarn fleshed out with bits of character business. In fact, it was almost two films in one, starting out with John and Rosie's drug smuggling concerns then taking an abrupt right turn when they twig there are worse criminals than themselves around, worse even than the men they must fall in line and act respectful to lest they suffer some punishment or other.

Suggesting Dunstan was trying to escape the label of one trick pony, he paid as much attention to the dramatic aspect as he did his setpiece thrills, yet this had the effect of having us wonder why he took so much bother about establishing the personalities of the characters, who were by no means badly delivered by the cast, when he ultimately reverted to type and had the good guys outsmarting and trying to prevent being outsmarted by the bad guys in an elaborate kidnap set up. There were not intricate traps for the victims to be stuck in, but there were scenes where the whole affair verged on the overfamiliar torture porn of the much maligned early twenty-first century, though Dunstan was reluctant to commit to any of that, as if he felt he had matured and wanted to offer more.

Whether he had or not depended very much on your reaction to what was perfectly competent without ever quite making it to the level of inspired. There were simply too many shots of Stewart creeping around as he pieced together what was actually happening at his neighbour's place, which even in a feature-length (just) film as skimpy as this one came across like padding and less like building up the tension when it remained that we had seen stuff like this before. Helping was a believable bond between John and Rosie, who though they are no-nonsense lawbreakers, are still worth our attention and because of their capability under pressure which will come in mightily handy when the chips are down and the pressure's on, along with a nice turn from comedian Bill Engval as the title character, here proving that a comic sensibility can inform a neat twist into villainy when the script demands it. On the whole, if it was not the run around screaming, gore-flecked shocker that many anticipated, as a thriller it was serviceable enough without truly gripping. Music by Charlie Clouser.
Reviewer: Graeme Clark

 

This review has been viewed 3082 time(s).

As a member you could Rate this film

 
Review Comments (0)


Untitled 1

Login
  Username:
 
  Password:
 
   
 
Forgotten your details? Enter email address in Username box and click Reminder. Your details will be emailed to you.
   

Latest Poll
Which star probably has psychic powers?
Laurence Fishburne
Nicolas Cage
Anya Taylor-Joy
Patrick Stewart
Sissy Spacek
Michelle Yeoh
Aubrey Plaza
Tom Cruise
Beatrice Dalle
Michael Ironside
   
 
   

Recent Visitors
  Stuart Watmough
Paul Shrimpton
Darren Jones
Mary Sibley
Enoch Sneed
Mark Le Surf-hall
  Louise Hackett
Andrew Pragasam
   

 

Last Updated: