Customer Reviews

Neighbor (Unrated Director's Cut)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Not a ton to say about this film really. I'm not going to bother telling all about the plot, not that there's a ton to explain anyway, but I must say I was somewhat surprised by the film. Being a huge horror fan, I've sat through my fair share of terrible B-horror films. But this one was a bit different. Not to say the acting was great, but it wasn't bad. The storyline wasn't either, just for the fact that there's not a lot going on as far as plot. The characters needed more depth to them I thought, and some back story of the "neighbor" would have been nice. However, I find that with most good horror films, the less you know about the killer or the reason behind their methods, is better for the audience. Its left up to the imagination which I think is usually far more effective in these kinds of films. What I really appreciate about this film was its gore factor. It was on par, if not better, than effects you see in Hostel or Saw. Very effective and graphic. And anyone who appreciates good special effects, blood, and gore will see what I mean. Overall, this is a definite watch for the horror fanatic. The causal movie viewer might find some of the more graphic scenes bothersome. But as for me, I definitely give this film a tip of the hat to not really holding any punches and having great effects for its budget.

I understood what was happening by the end and thought this was a fun ride. It has it's problems but it's better than a lot of the junk out there.

I liked this film a lot...of course it's not something I'd recommend if you plan on eating while watching it...or soon there after.

This is a great film which manipulates time, and the perception of the "fairer sex." America Olivo is despicably awesome as "the girl," and will make you think twice if you're in the dating market. Think Fatal Attraction meets Hostel...with a bit of the ultra violence thrown in for good measure.

Great date movie, as long as it doesn't give her any ideas!

I enjoyed the simple storyline of boy meets girl, and girl breaks boys heart as well as some other important boys parts.

Unusual mix of horror/slasher/psycho bitch. Gore is over the top. great movie for pizza and beer movie night. if you can get it cheap pick it up.

Neighbor is the kind of film that defenders of the so-called "torture-porn" genre have been waiting for. It would be very easy to be dismissive of a film such as this because of all that have come before it, but "neighbor" requires a deeper analysis.

First is the inclusion of character development. Whereas any previous entry in this genre have discarded or ignored any kind of depth in their characters, "neighbor" has gone out of its way to make three likable protagonists in its small-time band mates. Christian Campbell plays the lead, and his everyman good looks and charm can easily lead an audience member to grow fond of him within his first few moments of screen time.

The characters are not given the amount of depth that the characters on LOST have, but they make sense, and that is all that matters. You grow to like these characters even with their flaws (Don does drugs, Sam can be kind of creepy at times, etc).

And then you feel so so SO horrible for them as they go through their unfortunate circumstances throughout this film. This isn't Hostel, where one barely gives a rats behind over what happens to any of the three womanizing and boorish American tourists. This isn't SAW where you have an ensemble of unknown entities being tortured one by one.

What writer/director Masciantonio has done is craft a movie where you want to reach into the screen and SAVE these characters. And he has also created a shift in time/consciousness in the film that may confuse those who are not giving the movie their full attention. I found it very easy to figure out what was going on, however I can understand that some people may be thrown on a first viewing.

One of the main reasons there are so many bad horror movies out there is that they are very cheap to make (relative to other films) and they make their money back easily most of the time. Any idiot can make a horror film, but when somebody with a true vision has a reason and a drive to make a good one, it can transcend the genre and become something better. Masciantonio's work on this film reminds me of David Cronenberg in many ways. You have the cerebral story element mixed with pure body horror. This is Masciantonio's "Scanners." It is low budget and it isn't very polished, but it may be a sign of good things to come.

Finally, America Olivo might just play the scariest serial killer since Hannibal Lecter.

I went to a screening of Neighbor this weekend in the suburban Philadelphia town of Lansdowne Pa. This film was shot two towns over. I was interested in seeing a film that was locally made. I knew going in, that the movie was going to be in the slasher genre and expected another low budget, silly, fake blood, snooze fest. I left however, feeling that I had just seen a gem. I can see this movie being a future "cult" sensation.

I find in many movies in this genre there always seems to be a lack of talent in the acting department. I was pleasantly surprised that Neighbor left me actually caring about the characters that normally seem to be an annoyance in any slasher flick. In this case the acting and screenwriting was way above my expectations and the character development was such a welcome break from the "don't go in there" throw away characters you normally expect. You really actually do not WANT these characters to "go in there" because they seem like real people!

America Olivo was the perfect actress to portray "The Girl" with her easy control of seemingly "teasing" the people around her to instantly open up to her inviting them to their doom. Her timing and delivery was spot on when she "did her thing" making you not sure why you hated her and somehow felt for her. Her eyes seemed to try to give away just enough pain and emotional scarring she had buried deep into her personality to create the knowledge it was there but, they never quite did tell the whole story making the movie that much creepier.

Christian Campbell did an excellent job portraying the tortured (in so many ways) victim and his character was so easy to root for. Surrounded by his best friends throughout the film, he is sent on a rollercoaster ride in and out of his perception of reality making this movie a psychological thriller with twists and turns that keep you on the edge of you seat.

All that being said, the movie Neighbor, even with the great story and acting is THE Sickest Goriest movie I have ever saw. If you like Gory, You MUST SEE this movie. It should IMHO be given a top award for goriest special effects. If you don't like Gory, don't even be within a mile of it...It might reach out and getcha!

My brother, who also went to this film with me, summed it up perfectly. He said, "Neighbor was Alfred Hitchcock meets Quentin Tarantino ". He was so right.

Neighbor will be out on DVD on July 27th and I highly recommend the Directors cut simply because the gore is way beyond rated R.

I rather enjoyed this little film. It has a different twist than the usual slasher type movies. The woman on the cover doesn't have anywhere to stay. So she picks out certain people, then goes and lives in their house or apartment. She also helps herself to their groceries, showers, beds etc. This way she can live a pretty good life for free! Now, while she is living like this, she feels she must torture and eventually kill the people that really live there. Our home sitter gal has a wonderfull sense of humor, however she is the only person in the film with a sense of humor because everyone else is getting violently tortured by her, and they just don't see any humor in it at all! She comes up with some really unique ways to torture, using various household items. So watch out what you have in the kitchen drawers or basement workbench area. She can think outside the box when it comes to interesting ways and means to torture by. Some scenes are quite gruesome and have a good cringe factor.If you like slasher type movies, this one is a "cut" above.

Neighbor is a hard film to nail down. This is one of those film's that you either really like or really hate - evidence of this is that (at the time of this review's authorship) there are no 3-star reviews. Being that you see how many stars I have given it, you know which side of that equilibrium I am on so I'll jump right to the key points:

Neighbor seems to be explicitly for gorehounds or fans of the not-so-new anymore torture genre and so a lot of attention is paid to creative tortures and special effects. A gorehound myself, I was pleased with all I saw which includes drilled off toes, the back of a hammer shredding a shin, a mouth meeting a hacksaw, and the unpleasant meeting of a glass tube and a penis. If intense visuals are not your thing, you are probably not going to find much of value in this feature.

The first 15-20 minutes of the film are what I would call (for lack of a better term) the requisite character exposition though the characters are basically one-dimensional and their lives are bereft of anything that would make them very interesting or endearing. That lack of development or a more thought-out plot did hurt the film as none of the characters are memorable and the reasons for ...well, anything in the movie are not explained. That question (Why?) is even explicitly asked of the villainess and she replies with a very vague and uninformative answers then trails off. That being said, I was able to find enjoyment in the film by not getting upset over this point and just accepting it for what it is. Not every killer has a motive, not every victim finds out why they're victims, and not every villain seeks to go to great lengths to explain themselves - so it is in that spirit that the film can work as a snapshot of a day in the life of this killer.

The film does give a great attempt at trying to pull away from 90 minutes of simple torture as a point will come in the film where you won't be sure what has happened. In the absence of clear explanation, you are forced to draw your own conclusions until it becomes evident what is real. I know that sounds contrived but there isn't a better way to explain it. Moments like this elevate the film a bit from simple sadism.

Bottom Line:

You will not see acting deserving of an Academy Award nor will the characters or plot be all that memorable. However, this does have some wonderful moments and some even better effects (particularly for a low budget horror film). This film is a sincere attempt to make something that is gut-wrenching to watch but unique among the films in this subgenre. I applaud the efforts and forgive the shortcomings because it is entertaining in the end. Again, if you DO NOT like torture films you will NOT like this, so I'd pass. If you DO like torture films or you love gore, this one is worth at least a rental - and even then, it may be too much for some, not enough for others (can't please everyone) - and I recommend it to you.

Neighbor is worth a look.

You know all of those lists that people make with movies that are so bad they're good? Well this movie isn't one of them. NEIGHBOR is one of those movies that tries to ride the coattails of the current popular wave but doesn't live up to the rest or even come close to it. This time around the film du jour is torture porn.

The story revolves around "the girl" (American Olivo) and yes, that's her character's name. "The girl" is a psycho who watches people, goes to their homes and then tortures them to death. Her catch phrase revolves around wanting to see what would happen or if something would work that she's heard of. For instance would someone really be electrocuted if a hair dryer were dropped into a bathtub full of water they were in? You get the picture.

We move on to a group of friends that at one time were a garage band hoping to make it big. The leader of the group is Dan...at least I think that's his name...I've tried to wipe so much of this movie from my mind I'm not sure. Anyway, Dan has a girlfriend he's hoping to make up with while at the same time eyeing the local barmaid at the hangout this trio of friends frequents. It is there that he is spotted by "the girl".

Of course she follows him home and somehow the next thing he finds is himself tied to a chair and "the girl" figuring out just what to do with him. How about for starters she digs the claw end of a hammer into his shin and pulls up on it? That way the special effects guy gets to introduce some nice gore into the film. Not enough? Then let's take that drill she was walking around with and drill through his big toe, all on camera.

Bit by bit "the girl" tortures Dan over and over again with new ways to inflict pain upon him. So much so that he eventually escapes into his own mind, reliving many of the boring, mundane things we witnessed earlier. But then he returns for us to witness more torture.

When his friends show up, none of them seem smart enough to take out the single psycho and they too become victims. Eventually even his girlfriend shows to be tortured with a particularly gruesome hacksaw across the mouth scene that will give normal people chills and gore fans orgasms.

I just don't get the whole genre. I love horror films but never felt that these sorts of films fell into that category. I've considered them more for fans of special effects than of films. I've thought that the whole idea of horror in a film was taken too literally in these types, focusing on the most disgusting thing possible rather than the subtle type of terror that lasts with you for days and gets into your mind.

Perhaps these films are homage to the drive in exploitation classics that featured gruesome gore in the past. But then even those films had a story. These seem made just to get the gore out there as cheaply and easily as possible. If that's all that matters to you, you'll love this movie. Otherwise you're wasting your time.

SPOILER ALERT

If you don't want to waste the time with this movie, here is what happens. "The girl" tortures everyone she comes into contact with in the film. Dan was planning a party to celebrate the group and his friends all show at the end of the film and the party begins. All the while, the tortured bodies of the band are in the basement rec room. "The girl" walks among the guests and heads out, taking time to talk to a vapid young girl and then moving on, walking down the street to find her next victim. So with the exception of offering a bunch of gore effects, the film is basically pointless. Well until someone comes along and tries to explain the "artistic merits" of this film and the social implications offered that are metaphors for the real world. Give me a break.

Gory, scary and a lot of fun. I'll never look at swizzle sticks the same way again. Plus the scenes with the dog were truly inspired...