Next DoorDirected by: Pål Sletaune
Starring: Kristoffer Joner, Cecilie A. Mosli, Julia Schacht
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"Hit me."

Quick, how many Norweigian horror films have you seen? None? Thought so. Maybe it’s time to start.

The Film-

John
isn’t having such a good time with relationships. We join him as he’s
breaking up with his girlfriend, who appears to be pretty scared of
him. It seems that he’s hit her in one of their last fights, and you
can definitely see he’s got some anger hidden inside him, although he’s
beyond apologetic. She leaves his apartment and goes out to her new
man, and John is alone. His loneliness doesn’t last too long though as
Anne, a new neighbor of his, asks him to come over to her apartment to
help her move something.

Her
place is very strange. Anne lives with her sister Kim, and they seem to
be scared of the outside world. Further proving that point, they tell
John that what they need moved is a wardrobe, which they want pushed in
front of the front door. He doesn’t get the reasons for it but there’s
a lot of sexual tension in the air, and you know how guys are when they
get a whiff of potential sex. He finds out that Kim was attacked by a
man recently, and that’s why they’ve moved. John really doesn’t know
what to make of these weird chicks. Anne’s creeping him out by how calm
she is about having him in the apartment, and Kim, well, Kim starts
right off by telling him about her sexual experiences.


"They kept saying they believed in nothing."

Anne
leaves the apartment to run some errands and asks John to stay and
watch Kim, and after a little bit of playing around- Kim seems to like
to fuck with his head, among other things- they meet up, and things
quickly take a turn to the dark side.


The Judgement-

This
movie’s got what is probably the most violent and vile consensual sex
scene in movie history, containing a beating that only leads to more
arousal. It’s pretty sick stuff, and you’ll be just as disturbed as
John is when he looks in the mirror afterwards, and sees himself
covered in blood…. that’s not all his. It really is a unsettling
moment, and probably the defining one of the film.


The
problem with the movie? The pace. It’s only 75 minutes but somehow
manages to drag. Sure, mood permeates most of it, but it doesn’t help
once you realize that nothing much happens throughout the film. This
could’ve been a great short film. Those who want to sit through it will
ultimately be satisfied by the atmosphere, but it will be a little hard
at points.


The film ends on the perfect note, a nice, mind-fucking twist that might be somewhat obvious but is no less effective.


Sonya finds a response to the usual "Yeah, but your mouth isn’t bleeding." quip from her boyfriend.


The Sight and Sound-

Really
great transfer here. It’s a dark film, but the look of the apartment
becomes just as important as the characters. The sound is good as well
in a 5.1 Dolby Digital mix, but there’s honestly not too much to the
sound. It’s got some nice atmospheric music, though.

The Extras-

The disc has a nice trio of featurettes, "Behind the Scenes, "Meet the
Neighbors" and "Mental Spaces". They’re subtitled and do give you a
great look at the making of the film, but it would’ve been nice to see
a commentary on this.

The only other extras are trailers for this and Danger After Dark’s other releases.


The Packaging-

Nice cover, and the quote that namedrops Polanski that will definitely interest the right kind of film fan for this one.

The Lowdown-

Check it out if you want to try a different flavor of horror.

The Movie- 7.5/10 The Disc- 6.0/10




Insanely violent sex