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[Neighbor]
Plot:A mysterious new girl arrives in posh suburban neighborhood and quickly sets out to terrorize the town. As she starts breaking into homes and torturing the occupants, they begin to realize that she isn't just another girl next door.
Cast:America Olivo,
Christian Campbell,
Mink Stole,
Lauren Rooney,
Pete Postiglione,
Joe Aniska,
Sarah McCarron,
Amy Rutledge,
Robert A. Masciantonio,
Giovanna Galdi,
Tracy Toth,
Meredith Orlow,
Stink Fisher,
Angeline Zeigler,
Megan Madsen.
My Thoughts:Just crazy enough to work!
Review:"Neighbor" is a new indie slasher movie that manages to rise above the A-proto-typical slasher movie, because of it's lack of fear about taking chances. The film stars America Olivo (Friday The 13th), as a mysterious, attractive young female, who invades a suburb and starts "going to work" on the locals. As in torturing and killing them "Hostel" style. Yes, this movie has those hokey moments where the killer ties up a victim, and has a dialogue with them before she disposes of them in a gruesome.
Only this particular filmmaker Robert A. Masciantonio, manages to make the movie not, an exercise in hokiness or lameness, and actually manages to make a killer, who's revealed to us right at the very beginning of the film, and interesting antagonist who is certainly worthy of being the star of this film. This girl is so mysterious, she doesn't even have a name, quote unquote.
Although, the movie plays the name game with America's characters, and does something very clever at the very end of the movie, to make the viewer see just where that little plot caviat was going. As for the gist of the film itself, well, it's simple. Our mysterious femme fatale just goes from house to house, and from person to person, killing whomever she pleases. Sometimes she talks to and tortures them. Other times, she just kills them. But every time, she always manages to make it more interesting than just a simple stabbing via butcher knife, something that I can appreciate in an indie horror film, where money isn't as free-flowing as it would might be for a studio production.
America's character is intriguing because you don't know what her deal exactly is. Is she one of those male-hating female killers? Or is she one of those psycho-sexual types. Honestly, the character seems to fall into the none of the above column, and instead seems to be the sweet and cute murderous type. Who has no clear agenda except killing people and racking up a body count. She chooses her victims at random, and seems to climb a life-pecking order of sorts each time she kills. Starting off with certain more minor people, and then working her way up to more socially active, and important people. Whether this is done by design, or by accident, still remains to be seen however.
And seeing as how she's pretty quick and always has the element of surprise on her side, she also doesn't seem too worried about ever being caught by the cops. Then there's America herself, who seems to slip into this role very well, better than most actresses would be able to do so. In retrospect, I kind of think she might've been born for a role like this. Granted, in a movie like this, it's hard to create a memorable character. But America's character of "The Girl", was certainly one of the more interesting female serial killers I've ever seen in the indie horror scene since Debbie Rochon as Jane Toppin in "American Nightmare", from way back in 2002.
The character is so quirky and intriguing in a dark kind of way, that the fun parts of the film become just watching her "work", so to speak. As she claims new victims practically daily. Filmmaker Masciantonio also manages to keep The Girl as the main character in the movie, never letting the character become overshadowed by her prey or potential victims. Something which isn't easy to do, but Masciantonio manages to pull it off brilliantly here. One downside to this movie though, is that while it's bloody, the lighting and camera-work, isn't strong enough to capture the moments in full, and thus even with DVD quality, you have a difficult time seeing the full brunt of things.
There are also some story gaps and a plothole or two here and there which could've used some smoothing over, but doesn't hurt the film tremendously. The thing to like most about "Neighbor" though is how it avoids being just another "crazy killer girl" slasher movie, that you forget about the moment after you've seen it. Between America's strong performance, the dark, psychotic depth of her character, and the films ambiguous (but clever) ending, "Neighbor" is one indie horror film worth giving a shot.
Positives:America gives an excellent performance, the ending has a streak of cleverness to it which is very likeable. Despite it's ambiguity. The deaths, albeit not entirely well-filmed, were effective because of how elaborate and unique they were.
Negatives:One or two deaths were kind of stupid, but were obviously done for time and possibly financial issues, and the camera-work could've been better in some scenes.
Overall:Three out of four stars.
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