Review of Right at Your Door (2006) by Aaron T — 13 Aug 2008

This movie is a unique experience.

There is a disaster and there's a poison in the air. So people indoors must seal themselves inside, even away from their loved ones. The origin of the poison is unknown, its effect is deadly, and it spreads very easily.

I'll get my complaints out of the way. The neighbor who stays with the main character for a short while is given no real story arc. His character seems to be there only to make the movie not drag and to show the situation getting more stressful. Otherwise, there's pretty much no real drama or development of his character. I think there could have been more personal interaction or development between the two main characters. Past that, the movie is great.

The script is pretty solid. The dialogue in the film feels very natural. It's hard to know who to sympathize with more: the man locked inside away from his wife, or the wife who is locked outside where the poison is. Eventually you sympathize with both as the mysterious poison comes after more and more people.

One of the scariest elements of the whole movie are the men in masks. They explain nothing of what's going on, and are a constant threat upon the main characters' safety. They feel like a real-life version of the soul-sucking monsters from Harry Potter, and they're intensely frightening. Mainly because they're supposed to be helping our protagonist get out of the situation, but they seem more interested in keeping him in the bad situation, and for no apparent reason.

The suspense is the best I've seen all year or longer. I can't remember the last time I was having to stop and remind myself to breath so often. This movie kept me on edge the whole time.

Some people are complaining about the ending for some reason, all I saw in the ending was beautiful irony that left my jaw hanging. I thought it was a great twist for a great ending.