The Wrong Neighbor (2017)

Great Film overall

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

As film fodder goes this is pretty diabolical from an acting and directorial perspective. How some of the 'actors' ever got the job is one of life's mysteries as you wouldn't see anything more wooden even if you studied an IKEA wardrobe. Characters were almost laughably stiff delivering excruciating well worn tropes. I only gave this calamity any stars at all for the unintended laughter it induced and for the goofy finale.

The acting is good but the picture is done in by a very weird story line. It's the same thing of someone entering the lives of a family and causing complete havoc. In this instance, the parents have separated which has effected their teen daughter. Don't you think the dad seemed too young to have a 16 year old daughter?The woman showing up is a complete lunatic with quite a past and the family soon realizes it. The bodies of others start to pile up as this vixen goes completely berserk.By the end, this monster woman is causing major problems in the psychiatric institution she has been placed in. Not plausible to believe all this.

What really astounded me was that at the end when Jamie managed to overpower a (new) staff member at the mental facility and fool the doctor into believing she was the orderly and Jennifer (played by Tonya Kay,but Jen's name is not mentioned in the movie.) Jennifer tries to plead with the doctor that she is not the patient, but he insists that she be taken to a padded room, to which a smug Jamie happily obliges. To me this ending was unrealistic and anti-climatic. But there is one question that's bugged me since I first saw this movie; how did Jamie knock Jennifer out and take her clothes? Did she sedate her or something? She was proved to be dangerous and so should have been restrained. Maybe I'm just reading too much into it. All in all, clichés aside, it was an okay movie, I just feel sorry for Jen taking Jamie's place in the nut hut.

(Spoilers included) This is a typical Lifetime movie, of about average (i.e usually mediocre) quality, although does maintain some interest because it has a (relatively) normal family going through stuffThe acting was generally average. I liked the girl's (Cristine Prosperi) acting, up to a point. She has a sweet face and she gave a shy, restrained performance which was very fitting for the tone of the movie, but relatively let me down when she doesn't seem to heart (at all after the initial shock) after her boyfriend gets killed (actually the whole school and their environment seem to bypass that as nothing happened). Of course, that shows lack of directional skills.On the plus side, there is a small role for the very sympathetic Michael Madsen, although he doesn't get the chance to do much.One of the biggest drawbacks for me was when people started to die(!) which I found over the top. They didn't have to push it that far, and even when they do, its presented so calmly that the emotional impact is missing. Another was the mother: During the final fight scene I would have her to fight more for her husband and daughter!And of course, another major drawback was the psycho herself (adequately played by Ashlynn Yennie). There is nowhere an explanation about her motives, or how she came to be like that, or why she got crazy over the specific family. A little background would be nice!All in all, its a mildly entertaining movie for a small break, if you have nothing better to do, although its not anything special! Despite its drawbacks however, I kind of liked it.