Longtime residents Louise and Spencer consider the recent rash of murders great sport to follow in the newspapers, at least until her waitress co-worker becomes the latest victim. Fortunately, English-Canadian Victor just moved into the building and is instantly smitten with Louise. She has next to no interest in him, but it is convenient to have someone on-call to walk her home at night. Spencer will not be volunteering anytime soon. An accident have left him wheelchair bound. He also happens to be a bitter, mean-spirited jerk.
Unfortunately, Victor, the anti-Ross, is also profoundly flawed. In his delusional mind, he and Louise (the anti-Rachel) are already a couple. Of course, this would make him highly susceptible to manipulation, should she be so inclined. Needless to say, there is a killer in the mix there somewhere.
Neighbors definitely courts trouble by so deliberately calling to mind Rear Window and a host of superior Hitchcockian films. Yet to its credit, Tierney’s film offers some decidedly twisted (but relatively gore-free) new spins on the serial killer genre. Viewers will have no urge to give any of these characters a big warm hug, not even poor out-of-his-depth Victor. Yet, Tierney adeptly maintains the one-shocking-thing-after-another tension while capitalizing on the confining dorm-like environment of his setting. You know that one tenant you never want to meet in the hallway? The whole building is like that.
Scott Speedman is all kinds of creepy as Spencer (the anti-Chandler?), largely carrying the Neighbors on his own. In contrast, Jay Baruchel comes across rather mannered and shticky as trying-too-hard Victor, whereas Emily Hampshire’s Louise is certainly convincingly cold and calculating, but it is hard to see her as a blinding object of infatuation.
