THE BOY NEXT DOOR is a very predictable example of the psycho-thriller genre with worse and more generic scripting than something like DISTURBIA. It suffers hugely from having Jennifer Lopez as the miscast lead, because she fails to invest her character with any particular personality or wit, and she's entirely unsympathetic to boot. There were only two scenes in the whole film I liked, and the blind date is one of them, but the rest is just ho-hum. As the story's antagonist, Ryan Guzman is laughably out of his depth and entirely unimposing, as well as qualifying for one of the oldest supposed teenagers I've ever seen. The story plays out slowly and predictability, nothing that hasn't been done before, and only picking up in the last ten minutes for a cliched but amusingly violent showdown.

"And here's to you Mrs. Peterson. Jesus loves you more than you know." This movie is a twisted version of "The Graduate" (1967), although not only has Mrs. Robinson become Mrs. Peterson, but in this movie it is the teacher being seduced. Noah Sandborn (Ryan Guzman) moves next door to Claire Peterson (Jennifer Lopez), a teacher of Classical English Literature at the high school Noah will be attending. Claire is on rocky terms with her husband as the two struggle to be civil for the sake of their son Kevin (Ian Nelson). Noah is orphaned, and has moved in to help his elderly uncle who is going for an operation and Noah intends to provide help as he recovers. Noah quickly befriends the Petersons, and one night, while home alone, he calls upon Mrs. Peterson to come to his rescue on a failed attempt to make a chicken dinner. She goes over, and Noah seduces her, and in the vulnerable state she is in, she succumbs. The next morning, when Mrs. Peterson tries to say what a mistake had been made, we see Noah has become obsessed and now has this incident to use as blackmail. Part of the problem with this movie is there is not enough character development. It would've been better if it toyed with your emotions, making you first really like Noah before he becomes evil; but the movie gives you a creepy feeling about Noah right from the beginning, in his action, in his dialogue, and even in the music they play right from the opening credits. Overall the whole plot is pretty far-fetched. Not a great work of art, but bottom line the movie does make you wonder how it's going to end. Unfortunately not even the ending is that exciting.

This is not as bad as some of the reviewers make out. I have seen far worse. It is a story that has been told many times before. It is entertaining. The type of movie you grab some popcorn and don't think too hard about. Jennifer Lopez is not a great actress but she is easy on the eye and the film exploits that repeatedly. It has some exciting moments and Ryan Guzman is very menacing in a number of scenes. The ending is a bit unrealistic and some of the dialog cheesy. It won't win awards but as a piece of escapism it was enjoyable.

Okay so this movie was really something.You know that kind of scares you off stalkers and people like that.What Claire did in the end was awful,terrible and macabre maybe.This was something I couldn't even think of doing even to my captor-to be quiet honest!He was a clearly obsessed and this obsession or passion led to his own destruction.I mean he was so blinded by obsession that he couldn't think straight.Well I enjoyed the movie on the whole but the last scene was kind of dreadful for me.And the memory would last.However,Ryan Guzman is devilishly handsome and this character pretty suit him.J-lo is not really my favourite but she did really well though.So on the whole it was prolly based on a different theme which played well I must say!