Review of Arlington Road (1999) by Steven H — 12 Jul 2008

Pretty frightening and mostly forgotten late 1990's thriller with a great performance by Tim Robbins as the seemingly normal neighbor next door. The film falls apart towards the end though and the directing can be a little bland. Still, this is a suspenseful and a very entertaining take on the sinister neighbor next door and calls back to time when the terrorists we were most worried about were domestics like Timothy McVeigh, it's almost refreshing to watch this.

Now and see how different the American mindstate was. If they were to make this movie now the neighbors would be muslims and it would come across as a racist, jigoistic, piece of trash. One of my favorite thrillers and worth watching just to see how much the idea of terrorism has changed since 9/11.