Quartile rating: 5/10 · 1 rating
A recently cheated on married woman falls for a younger man who has moved in next door, but their torrid affair soon takes a dangerous turn.
The Boy Next Door is a formulaic and derivative erotic thriller that offers little the genre hasn't seen before, most notably recalling Fatal Attraction without the craft or tension. The plot is predictable beat-for-beat, the characters are thinly written, and the escalation of the antagonist's obsession lacks psychological credibility. Jennifer Lopez gives a passable performance but the supporting cast, particularly Ryan Guzman's villain, leans heavily into camp without earning it. Cinematography is workmanlike at best. The ending is generic and unsatisfying. Its novelty score reflects how thoroughly it recycles the genre's familiar playbook.