Next Door 2026 (Wild Dogs Productions) Review
Wild Dogs, the movie studio which never sleeps, is back with what may be one of their darkest outings yet, in Next Door. That isn’t to say there are not moments of levity and some humor to break things up over the course of it’s run time, but Next Door digs into themes of domestic abuse, neglect, and mental illness. Taking place in a quiet suburb, new couple Scarlet (Shauna Richardson) and Luke (Will Livingston) move in, excited to start a new chapter of their life together. But things start to unravel as abuse, infidelity, emotional manipulation, drugs, and a missing son mystery unfold among their neighbors.
Who is ready to talk about their feelings?
Next Door backs a solid cast, with Madison (Rosanna Wyant) and Jack (Michael Fredianelli) delivering the most dynamic and best performances out of the three couples. Their relationship ebbs and flows over the course of the film, ranging from malevolent noisy and violent breakdowns to acting like nothing wrongs and everything’s dandy. Nathan (Trevor B. Nagle) and Penny (Casey Semple) portray a family that is broken over their missing son who vanished 10 years. Their trying to hold it together and present themsleves as normal, but you can tell something isn’t quite right. Scarlet and Luke start out doing fine, but they soon become engulfed by the cosmic nature of eradication around them that is consequential and seems impossible to avoid.
Bryan Palacios, a long time collaborators of Wild Dogs films, seems to have taken on Cinematographer duties instead of a acting role this time around (Although he still makes a on screen appearance here). For his first feature outing, he has done a fantastic job. There’s one really cool innovative garage shot that really helps to heighten the tension of the scene it’s used in. There also shots where the camera moves slightly by getting closer to the characters or spinning around them which adds to the visual flair and style of the film.
It’s uh, awkward bro time!
Next Door bounces between all three main couples over the course of it’s runtime, offering a bit of an slice of life approach. There are various small subplots that the film goes through, with a cheating affair arc that is both funny and dramatic. Some scenes are backed by some sharp dialogue and one liners that really pop. It seemed like the missing child mystery was going to play a bigger role, but it is kinda gets sidelined for most the film until it comes into play for the film’s climax. Which brings us to the ending, which mostly just confused me. It’s hard to talk about without spoiling the film, but the character's motivations don’t quite line up and it doesn’t feel like the film has the right build up to pull off such a ending. I don’t know if things were left vauge for the audience to figure out, but it seemed like it needed a tad more fleshing out to have a more satisfying punch.
Next Door definitely plays with some interesting ideas and the missing kid arc is messed up, kinda in a interesting and thought provoking way, that I was hoping there was more time dedicated to it. It’s also in this way, that I think the ending could have been dark and more tragic had more characters been alive then dead at the end of film. But considering I had sat down for a Wild Dogs Screening, I can’t say the ending surprised me as it currently stands. If you know, you know. (Also, I gotta mention those cereal references, that green Grinch cereal looked pretty good)
