Director: Antti Jokinen
Writers: Antti Jokinen, Robert Orr
Stars: Hilary Swank, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Lee Pace
Run Time: 1 Hour, 31 Minutes
Synopsis
We open with Juliet Devereau jogging through Central Park. We see that she’s a heart surgeon who lives in a hotel. She starts hunting for an apartment, and finds a nice big one for a good price. It’s being renovated, but the owner, Max, seems like a really nice guy. He warns about the lack of cell reception, and there is an El Train that passes by regularly. She’s good with it, and he even helps carry her things in. Juliet meets Max’s grandfather, August, a creepy old man who looks like Christopher Lee.
She moves in and starts to get comfortable. In the middle of the night, she hears something and investigates the sound. She doesn’t see anything, but we know that there’s someone hiding in the shadows. The next day August is friendly, but she’s a little creeped out by him. She runs into Max at an art show the next evening. Max explains that August had a stroke last year, and he’s not quite the man he used to be. Juliet explains about Jack, her Ex, and that she’s not connected.
Juliet takes a bath that evening, and we see that “someone” can see everything through the backside of her mirror, as well as through vents and other strategically placed peeky-holes. Someone is definitely watching her. She gets closer and closer to Max, and before long, they are romantically connected. We flash back to see how Max orchestrated Juliet hearing about the apartment and meeting at the art show; none of it has been coincidence. We also see that he’s been inches away from her, and she never even noticed him.
August tells Max that he knows everything that goes on his Max’s head. Juliet tells Max that she needs more time since her breakup with Jack. Max has a flashback to when his father killed his mother and then himself. Max is all kinds of disturbed.
Juliet finds a hidden room, a boarded-up wine closet, and Max says he’ll fix it up for her. He uses her toothbrush while she’s out. He lays in her bathtub and touches himself. When he finds out Juliet is having dinner with Jack later, he is not amused. He watches through one of his peep-holes as they “make up” after their break-up.
Jack leaves, and Max drugs Juliet and has some fun with her as she sleeps. She realizes that she’s been late for work a lot lately, so this wasn’t the first time. She has a feeling something is up, so she gets a motion-activated security camera for the apartment. Meanwhile, Max kills August. Max then follows Jack and shoves him down the stairs. It doesn’t kill him, but it hurts.
The night, Max drugs her and does things to her while she sleeps. She wakes up halfway through, and he injects her with more drug. The next morning, she finds part of the syringe and there are 7 new recordings on her security footage. Then she does a blood test on herself at work.
The next afternoon, Jack brings ingredients for dinner, and he arrives while Max is laying in her bed. He finds the secret door, and Max gets him from behind. Juliets blood tests h=shows she has a bunch of Demerol in her system. She calls to warn Jack not to go to the apartment, but it’s too late for him. She sees the security footage, and now she knows everything.
Max comes over with a bottle of wine, pre-opened. He injects her, and she stabs him. They struggle in the kitchen, and she cuts his arm, but he gets outside while she’s locked inside. She can’t call 911 on her phone; he cuts the power, so she can’t use her computer. He comes back, and they fight some more.
She locks herself in the bathroom, and he seems to go away. He breaks the mirror and pulls her through. She then gets away and runs through the secret passages in the building. She finds his nail gun and shoots him a couple of times, but doesn’t stay to finish the job. Juliet finds Jack’s dead body and nails him a few more times.
Commentary
It moves fast, and it’s really very entertaining, but there’s nothing we haven’t seen before. Once we see that yes, it is really Max who’s been peeping, then the suspense and mystery fades fast. The finale is a lot of cat-and-mouse through a dark maze of passages; again, nothing new.
Christopher Lee doesn’t really do much here; he looks creepy for the first five minutes, but then we learn that he’s not the danger, and he doesn’t do anything else until his death about halfway through. The death didn’t really have any logic behind it other than maybe to show us Max was capable of killing. Still, it was great seeing him in his actual, truly final Hammer film, 34 years after his previous appearance.
Hilary Swank and Jeffrey Dean Morgan are both wonderful here, the production values are high, it doesn’t get boring or drag, but it’s really nothing new. It’s a solid story that you’ve seen plenty of times before. If you like lunatic “he’s in the house!” Kind of stalker films, you’ll like this one.