User reviews

Effective and original little thriller set on the island of Manhattan about a young woman terrorized in her rent-controlled apartment by unknown forces that want her out.

Juliette Lewis, Jane Ehelin, is at her feisty best as the victim of this horror drama who won't let herself be driven out of her apartment as the terror below her that at first is just annoying begins to turn deadly. The movie "The 4th Floor" has a lot of false leads as to who the person or persons are that are terrorizing the hell out of Jane. If your very attentive you'll notice something almost at the beginning of the movie, that is repeated in the films final sequence, why all of this is happening to her.

After her Aunt Cecile was killed from a fall down the stairs of her building it was found out in Aunt Cecile's lease that she put Jaen on it as co-occupant to her apartment. Jane was all set to move in with her boyfriend Greg Harrison, William Hurt, a local TV weatherman in the house that he just bought in the New York city suburb of Westchester County. Jaen instead canceled her plans in order to move into that empty and very affordable apartment in the city. As soon as Jaen moved in things began to happen all originating from the 4th floor, the apartment just underneath her.

The director and writer of the movie "The 4th Floor" leave a lot of red herrings as well as yellow and orange maggots and white and gray mice to what is behind all this and you almost suspect everyone in the movie that Jaen comes in contact with. The ending is quite a surprise because even when it comes it still may keep you hanging as to what was the reason for tormenting Jaen and driving her almost mad and out of her brownstone apartment. The very last scene in the movie really explains it all.

Besides Juliette Lewis William Hurt is very good in an unusually small but important role so are Shelley Duvall, Martha Stewart, no not the Martha Stewart in the news. There's also Austin Pendleton, Mr. Collins, as Jaen's neighbors and a very good performance by Tobin Bell the locksmith and next-door neighbor of Jean who knew a lot more to what was happening in Jane's building then what he let her on to.

Tension-pack and really creepy movie that will make your skin crawl as Jaen is slowly constricted by the four walls around her as the terror, that's a lot closer to her then she thinks, closes in on her for the movies surprising as well as really weird and shocking conclusion."The 4th Floor" is a lot better then you would, or I did, expect from many of the negative reviews that it got and is well worth seeing.

When the build-up of a movie is as good as it is in "The 4th Floor", the third act will almost inevitably have to be somewhat disappointing. The director, who is a first-timer to boot, does a very good job of creating a sinister, eerie atmosphere and keeping us hooked, always in doubt about who the guilty party is. Then in the last 10 minutes, it all becomes a routine slasher film, complete with half-baked plot "explanations" and a gratuitous "twist ending". Still, for the most part this an excellent little thriller, and definitely worth your time. (***)

About The 4th Floor, first of all Juliette Lewis plays the main character, so that's already a major plus point. I might be a bit biased as I love Juliette Lewis but there you go I just think she's a good attractive actress. She has that little something that makes her a good actress. The rest of the cast did their job as supposed to so no complaints there. As for the story there is definitely a suspenseful atmosphere throughout the whole movie, with a good soundtrack you can already achieve a lot. I would watch it again, just to see Juliette Lewis again.

Enjoyed viewing this film and could not imagine just why Juliette Lewis,(Jane Emelin),"Daltry Calhoun",'05 put up with all the horrible creeps in her apartment dwelling. The landlord, Superintendent, and practically the entire building was a loony bin of all kinds of characters. William Hurt, (Greg Harrison),"Syriana",'05, lived with Jane Emelin and did not like the idea of her going off and getting this apartment; he even told her how much he loved her. As the film progresses, all kinds of strange and mysterious things seem to happen in the apartment and an old lady living on the floor below Jane really started to raise all kinds of hell for her day and night. All the actors gave a great performance and you will probably figure the ending out, but it was not the greatest of William Hurt films.

My wife invited my son and I to watch this on cable TV on a lazy Saturday evening, thinking that it might show an unusual role for Juliette Lewis. On this promise, at least, the movie delivers: her character is ineffectual, adhering to nearly every slasher-type horror movie cliche. As does the movie. A cataloguing of its studied adherence to them would be an exercise in recall of something I hope to quickly forget, so I won't make one. Basically, this is a whodunnit, heavy on the red herrings: everybody appears guilty, rather than just the two one suspects from the beginning. The "rule out the logical and obvious, and what's left is it" rule of bad horror movies works well on this one. The only surprise to have any impact on me was its final snagging of the indeterminate ending cliche: will Jane keep her appointment with her attempted rescuer, who will tell her the (obvious to the audience) identity of the 2nd conspirator, propelling her into another round of hysterical victim-play. Mercifully, I will never know.

There are many problems with a movie like this one. First of all, you've seen it all before. A lone woman (or just lone person) moving into a flat in a building filled with psychos is a popular theme. Second of all, the story might work up until the end. Then it usually falls apart more or less completely, the way it does here.

Juliette Lewis and William Hurt are both decent actors and they do a decent job here. The supporting actors have bigger problems with Shelley Duvall and Austin Pendleton both coming off as completely unbelievable characters, playing neighbors in the strange house.

What i think worked well in this movie is first off the house itself. It's got a nice Gothic New York-feel to it, with seedy run-down interiors and huge staircases. Also like i said above Hurt and Lewis do their parts OK, although i feel Hurt almost always has something a bit unnatural about him. I don't know what it is, but his delivery is slow and contemplated, almost theater-like. It's not always fitting.

The negative aspects are mostly the supporting actors, which have a hard time with the script giving them characters that are just too much to believe. The one that stands out especially though is Sabrina Grdevich as Lewis work colleague. She seems to be in a porno-movie or something of the kind, flirting with the camera no matter what she's saying. Also the script has other problems, mostly with plausibility. That is not unexpected though as these kinds of movies usually need a villain capable of extremely intricate measures for a very small potential gain.

In the genre, this is not a disaster. I can't say i recommend it though. 5/10.

The stage curtains open ...

"The 4th Floor" is not that scary. But, where it lacks in scares, it makes up for with sheer entertainment, It does have a little bit of a creep and bizarre factor to it, and they do a pretty good job of keeping you in the dark until the final reveal/twist by movie's end - although it wasn't hard to guess. And yet, I had fun with this one.

Jane (played effectively by Juliette Lewis) has just inherited a full floor apartment from her late Aunt. Despite an offer from her very successful boyfriend to move in with him, she is intrigued with the idea of moving into the apartment to fashion a life for herself before committing to a life with her boyfriend. After she moves in, she finds that there were elements surrounding her Aunt's death that suggest it may not have been accident at all. Her neighbors are very different - especially the mysterious tenant on the floor right below hers, the 4th Floor. Tensions rise and situations develop - leading to a fun confrontational ending with a last minute twist.

This has been billed as a horror movie, but I found it to be more of a thriller. It didn't scare me on any level, but watching the scenes unfold made for a very entertaining 90 minutes. There is a scene where we see Jane blasting her downstairs neighbor with rock music while jumping up and down hysterically on the floor - I loved that scene.

I'm glad I discovered this forgotten gem. It isn't anyone's crowning achievement, but it looked like everyone involved was having fun making it. It is a great diversion and I would cetainly recommend it to anyone who doesn't take their horror/thriller movies too seriously. 7 stars out of 10.

portray central characters in this film. Hurt in particular plays a pretentious weatherman, with a bow-tie, and is very amusing. Lewis plays a niece who inherits a rent-controlled apartment in the big city (NY, of course) and along the lines of "Rosemary's Baby", starts to realize there is something strange happening in the building.

Some of the tenants are: Shelley Duvall, Austin Pendleton, and the locksmith Tobin Bell (always excellent, and creepy). There are some scenes reminiscent of Hitchcock's "Rear Window" as Ms. Lewis is observing the goings-on in her neighborhood- be careful of what you may find out! The movie culminates in terror, and if you have ever lived alone in a city with strange neighbors, you will enjoy this movie. Watch it on a rainy night- better than the original "When a Stranger Calls". 9/10

I was confused from the beginning of "The 4th Floor" because, fool that I am, it never once occurred to me that this young woman talking with William Hurt (who is my age) was actually his girlfriend. She looked like his daughter and in fact, with the 23 year difference in their ages, could have been. Once that was out of the way, I started to concentrate.

This is a pretty scary movie if you like the genre, but it doesn't make any sense. I can understand Jane moving into her late aunt's apartment - it's New York City, after all, reasonably priced apartments are hard to come by, and she doesn't want to move in with her boyfriend. But no matter how reasonable the rent, no one would have stayed in that building. The neighbors are all totally bizarre and someone - she thinks it's her neighbor on the 4th floor -- is tormenting her. Aggressively.

There are sometimes one can put these problems in a film aside and sometimes that one can't. This would be one of the times that one can't. It really stretched all reason. If it was the type of film where one just had to suspend belief, that would have been another story, but it wasn't.

I figured the plot out long before the denouement, although the ending is ambiguous in a way. The acting was mixed. Lewis sounded like she was imitating Jennifer Elise Cox's character on Lovespring, and Hurt's role was beneath him. The supporting players were the marvelous Austin Pendleton and Shelley Duvall who gave wonderful and interesting performances.

All in all, scary stuff, good atmosphere, an okay rental.

If the majority of these reviews were written by people under 28,you're forgiven.If not,well-there's a monstrous gap in your film education.

Since every last plot line,lighting concept,and even verbatim dialogue was copped directly from Polanski's "The Tenant"(masterpiece)and Hitchcock's "Rear Window"(another masterwork),a proper homage should have been done here,since the control-maniac weatherman boyfriend went to all the trouble to re-create the paranoid world of the film,"The Tenant",in order to force his independent girlfriend to move back in with him,including the elaborate hieroglyphic hallucinations(courtesy of Ms. Simone Schuul,of "The Tenant").The 2 films should have been featured as "characters" in the movie.Of course,this would require the film to elevate itself to black comedy,which requires talent,none of which was present here,except 2 talented actors selling out to do a parasitic piece of cr_p like this.If you want to see a way better ripoff of "The Tenant",see "Apartment Zero"(1987?),a South American production with Colin firth and Hart Bochner.At least there's an original twist there.

This movie is fairly unknown and I see no reason why this should be any different. "The 4th Floor" is an highly unoriginal thriller/horror movie. There have been made dozens of movies like this the last couple of years and difference is that most of them were better than this one.

Yes, the movie does have some good moments and suspense but you can tell that director Josh Klausner is too unexperienced. There isn't much originality and the movie falls into some obvious clichés. Josh Klausner normally only works as second unit director for the Farrelly brothers. My advice to him is to stick to that job.

After a couple of minutes I already figured out the ending. Smart you!' you might say but I think it says something more about the originality and predictability of this movie than about my intelligence.

Still it was fun to see Shelley Duvall in a movie again. Besides "The Shining" I don't think that I ever have seen her in a other movie. I also enjoyed Tobin Bell who I like as an actor. Too bad he never ever really stars in big roles in big productions. William Hurt is a good actor but his role was simply too small in this movie to be really notable.

I can't think of any reason why you should watch this movie. But when you still decide to do so, you won't be completely disappointed, just as long as you don't expect too much of it.

5/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

if u like Juliette Lewis, you'll enjoy this film I love the movies she has been in, she always picks great movies. This is a very colourful film, there are many aspects to this film that are enjoyable The character she plays is unique and entertaining. Another thing that i liked about the movie is that this is a who-donnit type of movie. Through out the movie you'll be asking this question and it's not who you think it's going to be. The end is great, if you haven't seen it, you ought to go get the video or dvd!

"The 4th Floor" has a neat premise, but it seems as though the whole thing peters out early on. Maybe it's just that there have been so many movies about mysterious neighbors that this one came across as a rehash. It wants to be an homage to "Rear Window"; instead, it ends up being more of a joke. Juliette Lewis, William Hurt, Austin Pendleton, Shelley Duvall (with bleached hair!) and Tobin Bell (Jigsaw in the "Saw" movies) are wasted. As it turns out, the movie got released theatrically in Germany, but went straight to video in the US. Truth is, either they should have written a better script or not made the movie at all. Really, truly saddening.

A young woman inherits an apartment on "The 4th Floor", and discovers some deadly secrets. Jane Emelin's grandmother passed away after a bizarre accident in the building, so she gets the apartment on the fourth floor. Immediately she meets her crazed and wacky neighbours, some of whom seem very off. She also has a slew of people doing weird things across the street from her, she has a perfect view from her place into theirs. It has a "Rear Window" feel to it, very well done. Pretty soon after, her neighbour below begins banging on the ceiling scaring Jane late at night and even during the day telling her to keep quiet. The person below soon fills Jane's apartment with rats, frightening her! But this person's issues go much deeper than wanting Jane to keep the noise level down... and the person goes further than simply putting a few rats inside of the apartment.

I liked 'The 4th Floor', it was a pretty well done suspense film. Jane is basically being harassed by her neighbour below in an attempt to get her to move out. We get some suspects; her boyfriend who wants her to move in with him, a creepy female neighbour, a locksmith who lives across the street and a nice but odd male neighbour who takes a liking to Jane. According to everyone in the building, the neighbour below is an old lady who NEVER comes out. We of course find out differently, and also discover what really happened to Jane's grandmother. Lots of mystery.

Acting was well done by all in this one, with Juliette Lewis in the lead heroine role. "The 4th Floor" doesn't have all the blood and special effects that others have, but it doesn't need it. It's story and very creepy conclusion/twist that make this a must see!

6/10

I was looking last night in my video shop and found this in the really cheap area and thought hmmm the story line looks ok, straight to video so I thought what the hey i'll get it out and see what it's like.

I strongly reccomend watching this film alone with the lights out. The film itself is nothing special no big special effects, but I still found it quite scary. The feeling of being alone and lack of privacy and conspiracy all seem like powerful points to this film. A definite Rosemarys Baby comes through with the strange characters all being possible suspects and the building itself almost feeling alive very shining. (Note the lens on the room 4's door).

The films has it all frights, the bad guy is truly crazy and the twist at the end leaves a nasty taste in your mouth.

If you have seen all the new releases definitly give this a try. I can't promise high budget but can promise you the creeps

I tuned into this late last night on Lifetime. What caught my attention was that my cable guide info button said it was starring Juliette Lewis and Artie Lange. Being a Howard Stern fan I was intrigued. I missed the first 15 minutes or so but did not hear Artie utter one line during the film. All I saw him do was spackle. Also - he gets billing over William Hurt? Not a bad flick though. I got a Single,White Female vibe from it. Big build up, little pay off but still entertaining. Austin Pendleton is always good to see. Unfortunately Shelley Duvall's acting has not improved over the years. I barely recognized her until she spoke. Pretty funny that her character's name was Martha Stewart and the 4th floor lady was Alice Cooper.

'The 4th Floor' is a decidedly mediocre film starring Juliette Lewis as a young interior designer with a heck of a problem neighbor. Jane (Lewis) has recently inherited a terrific 5th floor apartment from her grandmother, and per agreement with the landlord, gets a ridiculously low renting rate. Her boyfriend (William Hurt as a creepy weather man) wants her to move in with him, but she wants her own space. So she moves in, and weird stuff starts happening, and because this is a B-grade horror flick, there's a dumb, not-to-be-found-in-reality reason why. As the none-too-intriguing Jane keeps trying to tell others- her boyfriend, the police, coworkers- what's going on, everybody thinks she's losing it. So, of course, she has to face the problem- the lunatic living right below her- alone. Neither scary nor interesting, The movie's single saving grace is Lewis. She's a very fine actress but poorly used here, which is not to say she isn't the best thing about this flick- because she is. She has feral charisma and holds the screen better than a dozen of the silicone bimbos that routinely populate this type of movie. This type of movie, though, is not worthy of her- which is ironic, given that she's probably the only reason anyone would see it.