Review of The Boy Next Door

"He seems like a nice boy."

A garage door malfunction gives way to introductions to meet The Boy Next Door. Claire is living with her son Kevin after separating from her husband for 9 months. Her husband was caught cheating on her with his secretary. So far she hasn't reached that jumping off point of signing divorce papers. Because her husband, Garrett, wants to reconcile and he's doing his best.

Meanwhile, a boy named Noah shows up who just so happens to be living next door. He is almost 20 and is taking care of his uncle Bob who is waiting for a bone marrow transplant. His parents tragically died in separate mishaps. One which was no accident and the other being a reason as to why he's motivationally driven into trying to get nookie from Claire. In a strange way, it's almost oedipal. Even when there is mentions of Greek mythology being tossed around in a very nonchalant fashion.

Noah aligns himself by befriending the son first before engaging in some whoopie with Claire. At her most vulnerable, Claire gives in. A simple mistake at the time of a separation in progress. However, Noah enjoyed it. So much so that his fixation on Claire becomes a lustful obsession. One in which that turns into both stalking and violence. So why not just call the police? Well, there's a drawback to that. Especially after Noah returns to getting his high school education after a long delay when his parents died. You see Claire is an English teacher and if it got out that she was messing around with one of her students it might make her look bad. Or worse: Jail. Usually it's jail for those kinds of things.

As the tension mounts, Claire tries to juggle her options in keeping this psychopath at bay until those options become impossible which then leads to a violent climatic struggle where one of them is dead. Take a wild guess who dies in the end.

Some have ripped this movie apart as being a predictable lifetime movie thriller, but I think that is a bit of a cheap shot for an otherwise cheap & trashy erotic thriller. If anything this movie may remind some of those erotic thrillers from the 90s. At least that's what I felt while watching it. It may not be a Basic Instinct or Fatal Attraction, but it does fit in the genre and was actually entertaining to a fault. Even during some of it's dumb moments.

See it if you're bored and you won't be entirely disappointed. Don't see it if your expectations are too high. You'll hate it.


6/10