A Disappointing Continuation

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

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Johnny (Josh Stewart) works as a middle man for his drug dealing uncle (Ronnie Gene Blevins) living in the outskirts of Cutter, Mississippi with his girlfriend Rosie (Alex Essoe). Troy (Bill Engvall) is his sole neighbor. Johnny and Rosie have made secret plans to leave town. Troy hints that he knows Johnny's business and has secrets of his own...and he does. After 50 minutes of character introduction we finally get into the meat of the film which is your basic abduction film...captured, escape, repeat.The movie opens with grainy film during the credits, which was clever considering the occupation of Troy which is kept secret for much of the feature. We are made to identify with Johnny the likable drug dealer as our protagonist, while a profile of Troy during this period would have been far more interesting. It is just about impossible to sneak around inside a small farmhouse that has three people in it...just saying. Decent soundtrack and acting.Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.

In "The Neighbor", a young couple involved in dealing drugs notices the rather strange behavior of their new neighbor, who seems to hide some secrets on his wide-spread farm. When they begin to investigate, things soon take a turn to the worse as they find themselves trapped in a net of violence and domination.As you may have already noticed, this movie had some prominent role models. In fact, in many aspects it is just another shot at the same plot that "Disturbia" already remodelled. So this will clearly not win any award for creativity or innovation. This said, the film actually delivers a very solid performance. It creates a lot of tension, it makes you feel uneasy and it does make you cheer for the lead characters. At some points in my eyes it wanted a bit too much, some of the aspects are never fully explained or seem rather implausible, but all in all since the movie doesn't try to be something it isn't, that's not something too bad. I wouldn't say that it is the best shot at this story, but it takes it over without bigger mistakes.All in all if you see this as a thriller, there's really not much to complain about. It isn't creative and it's far from being deep, but as pure entertainment it works quite well.

There were many opportunities throughout the movie to make the 'neighbor' more mysterious, more freaky, and more cunning, but these were quickly abandoned in favor of a more clichéd criminal. That is my largest disappointment with this film. Otherwise, it worked well as an action/thriller.The protagonists are caught up in a mob's smuggling operation, and they use a telescope to spy at people through the window. One day, the girlfriend (Who, I assume by the hero's subsequent panic is never supposed to leave the house) spots something incriminating and is nabbed by the neighbor. (Yes, this is the actual premise of the film, not the more innocent summaries I have read elsewhere. I don't know why they bother hiding the fact that their protagonists are criminals too).So everybody, who is incidentally criminal, is trying to get one up on each other by sleuthing, tackling, slashing, shooting and your usual hijinks. The movie has good photography, good soundtrack, and is a bit gritty - kind of like the only quality everybody seems to need to survive.

Won't win any awards for most original screenplay but it was still pretty well-made and for the more part fast-paced thriller (at least the second half).'Don't Breathe' is one of my favorites so far of 2016 and this is a bit similar to that (a criminal couple vs a old guy) although not as great of course but still good enough. Imagine if Rob Zombie directed that movie then you kinda get the idea of what this is like.To be fair though the director Marcus Duncstan is in no way copying that movie or anything and has made similar movies before with 'The Collector' and 'The Collection' on his resume.Not without it's flaws but overall a gritty and cool flick that's well worth spending 80 minutes to watch.