While soundtrack music pulsates, a young man in denim searches for a terrified young woman. She hides under the bed to escape his clutches, but doesn't manage to get away. The next thing we see is a couple moving away from the city, attractive Ashley Bell (as Chloe) and her lawyerly husband Adam Mayfield (as Michael Anderson). They have been successfully trying to have a baby and Ms. Bell has had a nervous breakdown. The new neighborhood seems ideal, but the older couple next-door, retired psychiatrist Tom Amandes and early drinker Isabella Hofmann (as Gerald and Cheryl Dixon) give off creepy vibrations...
Bell does not watch "Lifetime" TV movies because she decides to get chummy with the neighbors...
Co-directors Devon Downs and Kenny Gage adequately guide this formula assignment, by writer Adam Rockoff. There is very little spark and only a few surprises. The opening "attention grabber" or "teaser" works, but is never fully explained; it doesn't make much sense. Bell jogs in the most unusual places, at all hours of the day, and on terrains most unwelcome to jogging. She would probably mistake a bed-of-nails for a trampoline. Probably, the explanation is that she is looking for places to photograph. The soundtrack songs are very good, but they should complement instead of taking you out of the story.
*** A Neighbor's Deception/ Next Door (4/8/2017) Devon Downs, Kenny Gage ~ Ashley Bell, Tom Amandes, Isabella Hofmann, Adam Mayfield
