The Evil Next Door

You will forget about it while you're watching it.

The epitome of dull and derivative, The Evil Next Door is a poorly made ripoff of higher-quality horror films about haunted houses where a child is the first person in the house to communicate with the evil spirit.

Audience goodwill can only go so far, and this film lacks the ability to build to a climax that matters.

The Evil Next Door has some imagery that will linger in the imagination, and some solid scares. It's not great, but it's good enough.

[T]his film ... tells a simple story ... and creates an air of foreboding and menace at every possible turn.

A movie made by 'Conjuring' fans who managed to cop some of the tricks to scare the viewer without fully understanding why those movies work.

So many B-movies have used this very plot that "The Evil Next Door" is pretty much in the horror movie public domain the moment it opens.

This is awfully familiar stuff: nothing offends, necessarily, but it's very much like watching something unfold on autopilot.

this home with its resident evil is a structure with two sides to every stor(e)y, and falls into a long tradition of haunted houses which allow a family's intimate psychodramas to be played out as horror.