The Man Next Door

I bought it because parts of it were filmed in my hometown in California.And me & my dad were extras in it.

Michael Ontkean and Pamela Reed give compelling performances in this tightly tailored telefilm. Centering on a released rapist (Ontkean) who resides in a rural town, the script does a good job of trying to see the situation from various points of view--that of the convicted felon, the parole officer, the neighbors. The tale holds your interest and makes you think. It's not heavy on the melodrama, but instead gives the serious nature of the story room to breathe.

As far as the film itself, this is a low budget film that is pretty low quality. At times it is almost cheesy in the music and effects. It's surprising that the movie was made in the late 90's. because it looks more like it was made in the 80's.The one good thing about this film that I noticed were the scenes where the rapists were in their little "group therapy" sessions. The film did a good job of portraying the fact that these men do not have empathy and do not believe they did anything wrong by raping women. It was pretty disgusting to hear one man say "I didn't rape her, she wanted it" and hear the rest of the men in the group laugh. Clearly they are not showing remorse. After being asked over and over what he thinks his victim was feeling when she was raped by him, he kept avoiding answering and saying he didn't know because it was dark. Eventually he admitted that she was crying. The counselor asked if he ever cried and what a person is feeling when they cry. Finally he showed some emotion and said that a person cries when they are sad or scared. To see these rapists being rehabilitated was one of the higher points of the film. It makes you wonder whether it is possible for actual rapists in real life to change, and whether our prison system could possibly help these people so they don't rape again.The rest of the movie made me more annoyed than anything else. I think they were trying to make an emotional statement with the movie about how rape hurts people, but they didn't succeed very well. The way the town reacted was ridiculous and unrealistic. These people must be extremely ignorant. I agree that there should have been laws to notify them that there was a registered sex offender in the area, but the people kept saying "so you're not going to do anything?" and "you're just going to let him stay here?" Apparently they don't realize that this is a free country, and you can't just make someone leave because you don't like them. Then when a woman gets raped, they automatically believe it's the released rapist and harrass him. They also expect the police to lock him up even though there is no evidence against him. Completely ignorant.The most ridiculous part about this is that women (and men and children) are raped every single day and most rapists and molesters are never even caught. They have such contempt for this released rapist, and don't even realize that they probably come into contact with rapists and child molesters in their own community and don't even know it. It is such a big deal when a woman gets raped, and they don't realize that for every reported rape or molestation case, there are many more that are never even reported. People live under this false sense of security where they think that convicted sex offenders are "bad" and don't realize that unconvicted sex offenders walk freely among them.One part of the movie that I particularly disliked was the next door neighbor woman who is a rape survivor. She has such contempt for this rapist (understandably), except it is a little overdone. She talks about how even after all these years she brushes her teeth multiple times a day and can't walk on the sidewalk because she is afraid of being raped. I understand her anger, but the woman really needs to get some therapy and let it go. You can't let a traumatic experience affect you for the rest of your life. It did bring up one good point though, the fact that after she told him she was raped, he just said "I didn't rape you, lady." Another example of him not having empathy.The conclusion to the movie was poorly done. The main parole officer goes into the house alone even though I don't think that would be done in real life, then when the guy points a gun at her she immediately drops her gun. Also don't think a cop would do that in real life. He then goes to some sort of facility, not sure if it's correctional or just a home. The movie brings up all the wrong questions and doesn't answer them, and really falls short in making an actual point about sexual assault.

I sat through it, but would never purchase for my home collection. Pamela Reed is always great, so that was the high point of this TV movie. The other actors were not believable, and Annette O'Toole (who I usually love) was just awful! I am a big fan of the TV movie and miniseries genre, but this movie was not worth my time. Would not recommend.

Great look and locations

I liked this movie very very good okay