Part of a good idea. Too bad the movie sucked.
The story: a couple movie into a happy home with the husband about to start a dream job. Unfortunately, after meeting a crazy neighbor they start to become sick and realize the neighbor is trying to poison them but can't get anyone to help stop him.
Was it good?
No, it sucked. But the thing is that it really is a good idea for a movie. What if you moved into a house and the neighbor had it in for you? That's a lot creepier to me than DISTURBIA, where the neighbor is a killer but really isn't going to mess with you until you mess with them. Here, they come in and BAM! crazy neighbor messing up their lives.
So the first problem is the why of it all. Now it might seem like you don't need that -- the guy is crazy, isn't that enough? No. And the reason is that it's not interesting. Remeber: stories are vehicles for fascination. So what is fascinating about the reply, "Well, he's crazy." Now there are times when you can make something like this work. THE STRANGERS did a good job with it. There was no reason for the attack. The killers were just doing it to be sadistic, but that played into the whole random, pointlessness of it. There they also had the flashback/subplot of the couple -- two people who loved each other and were on the verge of breaking up because he had asked her to marry him and she had refused. And I don't think a reason for her refusal was given either, but it is now during the attack that they will realize how important and precious their love is...even if it's too late. Now that's a story. But here there isn't anything like that. He's crazy. They try to do things to stop him, but nothing works and he amps up his attacks again and again, getting to the point where the guy is blind and the women is abducted so he can operate on her, ripping out her organs, but then she survives and they are together (although the husband seemed catatonic...not sure what was going on with him). So what's the point? Is he supposed to be some force of nature...he's just a guy who poisons? Because he had other neighbors who liked him, so that doesn't fit. And this is important because having an interesting antagonist is one of the most powerful things a writer can bring to his story. Here, because he's just a wacko, while is can be amusing, in terms of this clash between the two sides it isn't that interesting.
Next is the antagonist's plan. This isn't the why of the plan, but the how. He seems to just have tons of random chemicals that will have whatever effect he wants. Now maybe these are based on real things -- something to make them vomit or have diarrhea is plausabl, but to make them freeze? To make the husband go blind? And to have all these chemicals untracable by the doctors? That needs a little more explaining, especially since this guy isn't portrayed as a genius but as a wacko. So there isn't anything interesting in the HOW of what he's doing since it all seems made up.
Next is the protagonist. Now the contrast of the happy couple moving into a new house and then encountering a neighbor who wants to poison them is good, but the problem is what the husband/wife do after things go wrong. Namely, not much. The husband does try things -- call the cops, talk to doctors, buy a gun, but can't get one -- but none of them go anywhere. Part of the fun of thrillers is the back and forth and here there isn't any back and forth because the husband is never able to do anything effective, he never puts pressure on the antagonist. It's like a basketball game where one team is always ahead by 10 points or more. Sure the other team might go on a run, but if they never get closer then 10 points who cares? So there's no tension.
It's a shame because it is a nifty idea, but this lousy execution and lack of understanding of how to make a thriller or horror movie work dooms it.
*** AVOID ***
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