The Good Neighbor (2016)

It is a performances centric movie

An action-packed slog

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

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The true horror occurs at the end of the movie, as justice is denied. Just how terrible, and cruel, two high school boys can get is approached in this film. The packing is slow, video poor in most places, and the acting mediocre. Maybe the trouble horror of this movie is that I wasted my time.

Not a big fan of the 'footage' style film, but overlooking that aspect, the storyline is important because it stresses how our perceptions of people and situations define our realities and thus what we think, say, and do. The story could have been told in a shorter period of time, however. Love the powerful Black presences.

Ethan (Logan Miller) and his close friend Sean (Keir Gilchrist) decide to perform an experiment to see if they can alter the behavior of a person by making them think their house is haunted. They select their near hermit psycho-creepy neighbor Harold Grainy (James Caan with Dick Cheney glasses) at 614 Coverbridge Lane, Santa Clarita, California. He doesn't lock his doors. They were able to rig his house and set up small video units.This illegal activity leads to a trial which involves "a body" in an infrequent courtroom subplot. They are intrigued by his locked basement door...what is down there? Is that where the bodies are kept? At about an hour into the film they start with background information on the good neighbor. Listed as a thriller, it does tingle the nerves.Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.

This movie was an average thriller. Yes, it had some chilling moments but probably not enough to keep the viewer's interest. Caan was good as the mostly confused old man who looked somewhat menacing. However, the movie is spot on when it comes to depicting the current youth's obsession with filming stuff, in this case as part of some "experiment". In this day and age, anyone with a half-decent camera can film whatever they like and this is a growing threat to privacy as we know it. Overall, a decent movie but somewhat lacking in chills. No edge-of-the- seat stuff here despite the intriguing premises.