Invasion of Privacy
Having called up on video chat, Andrea Allen (Amy Pietz - Stalked at 17) tells her daughter, Jodi (Kelcie Stranahan - The Stalker Club), that she has to work late but the new lens for her camera should have been delivered. Whilst her mum is still on the other end of the video chat Jodi goes to see only to end up attacked and raped by a man lurking in the shadows. It leads to Andrea and Jodi moving to a new neighbourhood where the paranoid Jodi has a penchant for photographing her neighbours, a curious bunch including Nick (Grant Harvey - She Made Them Do It) who runs a car repair business from his garage and who his neighbour, Lisa (Kelly Packard), has issues with. Whilst spying on her neighbours through her camera Jodi spots a shadowy figure in Lisa's home and whilst she tries to warn her it has no effect as she still ends up dead. Convinced Nick killed Lisa as she got his business closed down, Jodi takes it upon herself to investigate and prove he is guilty. That is until she starts to suspect Lisa's niece, Kristen (Katrina Norman - Christmas in Homestead), could have done it.
I am trying to fathom out the choice of title for "Stalked by My Neighbor" because I don't know whether it is really poor or so clever that it might pass some people by. I say that because with the set up of Jodi having already been a victim of an attack it makes you think that this young woman is going to be unlucky to end up a victim a second time in a new home. But then as we soon learn after the set up it isn't Jodi who ends up being stalked but in many ways her paranoia brought on from the initial attack has made her the stalker as she takes to snooping on her neighbours through her camera. I am leaning towards the intelligence of the latter which makes "Stalked by My Neighbor" probably sound quite good.
Ah but sadly "Stalked by My Neighbor" isn't that intelligent and sadly whilst watching Jodi snoop on her neighbours is reminiscent of "Rear Window" we don't really have much explanation. What I mean is that whilst Jodi snoops on her neighbours from her bedroom window she doesn't seem to be stuck in her home as she is more than confident to leave the home on her own. And that brings me to what "Stalked by My Neighbor" really is, it is a teenager playing Nancy Drew to solve a crime. And that crime, the murder of Lisa and what is really going on, is revealed to us by the half way mark and this then delivers the typical drama of Jodi ending up in danger because of her snooping.
Basically "Stalked by My Neighbor" is pretty stereotypical of the made for TV genre, and to highlight this one minute we have Jodi suspecting her neighbour Nick of being a bad guy and then the next they are becoming romantically involved. So yes we have many big plot holes in "Stalked by My Neighbor" as well as a storyline which initially appears different to what the name suggests but in a typical TV movie sort of way it is okay. So by okay I mean far fetched and the sort of movie which if you don't enjoy the easy nature of TV movies will be a bit too corny.
What this all boils down to is that "Stalked by My Neighbor" is for the most a stereotypical made for TV thriller with the sort of acting, camera work and plot holes which many of these movies feature. For some it will be painfully bad whilst for others enjoyably easy to watch, but which ever it is it doesn't have anything which is memorable to make it stand out from the crowd.
