Stalked By My Neighbor is a 2015 Lifetime Movie of the Week Thriller, written and directed by Doug Campbell.
Jodi Allen (Kelcie Stranahan) is a teen girl who's a talented photographer. She was horrifically attacked in a home invasion in her big city apartment during a webcam conversation with her mother Andrea (Amy Pietz), a nurse who had to work late that night. Andrea could only watch helplessly and call 911. To recover, they move to a seemingly safe suburban neighborhood, but Jodi, still suffering PTSD, is suspicious of everyone and everything and has decided to document her neighbors from her bedroom window with her camera.
So yeah, this is Rear Window, Lifetime style.
Anyway, Jodi takes pics of the people living across the street, and captures some neighborly conflict: real estate agent Lisa Miller (Kelly Packard) threatens hunky teen neighbor Nick Thompkin (Grant Harvey) over playing his music too loud while working on cars, and confronts another neighbor, Ted Wilcox (Ethan Erickson) over something. Things get complicated when Nick briefly steals Jodi's camera, and the Allens become friendly with Lisa and her niece Kristen Chambers (Katrina Norman). Then one night while taking pics, Jodi sees an ominous shadow in Lisa's house, then a little while later Lisa's dead body is discovered. As she grieves, Kristen stays with the Allens, while Jodi starts investigating Nick. But since we're only halfway into the movie, many twists and revelations are forthcoming.
From the same network and writer-director as Stalked By My Doctor, but otherwise not connected.
Stalked By My Neighbor contains examples of:
- Age-Gap Romance: Thirtysomething Ted, recently separated from his wife, and high school aged Kristen.
- The Alibi: Kristen was away at a church camp when Lisa was killed, so she's never suspected in the crime. But she plotted it and had Ted do it.
- Anti-Hero: For a teen protagonist in a Lifetime movie, Jodi is surprisingly three dimensional. Yes, she's a recovering rape victim, but she's also salaciously sticking her nose into the business of her neighbors (who she barely knows), jumps to hasty conclusions about Lisa's murder (and gets an innocent person arrested partly because of comments she makes to the police), and constantly disobeys her more level-headed mother. And as mentioned below, she falls victim to Love Makes You Dumb.
- Asshole Victim:
- Bitchy, high-strung Lisa isn't a particularly likable person.
- And Ted, who has an adulterous affair with an underage girl, ends up getting murdered by her.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Apparent from the start between Jodi and Nick, but they ease into a relationship after his Heel–Face Turn.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Kristen, the sweet, pretty Ingenue who spends her weekend at a church camp, is having an affair with the much older Ted, plots the murder of her Aunt Lisa with him so they can inherit her money, then kills Ted and tries to kill Jodi.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Kristen, the sole beneficiary of her Aunt Lisa, has Ted kill her so she can inherit millions of dollars, promises to split the money with him, then turns around and kills him so she can keep it all to herself.
- Conveniently an Orphan: Kristen's parents are dead, so Lisa offered to take her in.
- Conveniently Timed Attack from Behind: How Andrea rescues Jodi at the end, by hitting Kristen with a huge stick.
- Dramatic Irony: We're clued in that Ted was the murderer and plotted the killing with Kristen while they were having an affair long before Jodi figures it out.
- Heel–Face Turn: Nick, who at the very least comes across as kind of a jerk in his early scenes, becomes Jodi's boyfriend.
- Forced to Watch: The film's opening shows Andrea video-calling Jodi from work—which leads to her being forced to watch as her daughter is attacked and raped by an intruder.
- Frame-Up: The pipe used to bludgeon Lisa to death is planted in Nick's house by Kristen and Ted.
- Irony: Jodi, the home invasion victim, ends up breaking into Ted's house to do her "Rear Window" Investigation.
- Lady Macbeth: We don't really see the events leading up to it, but Kristen enlisted her paramour Ted to kill her Aunt Lisa.
- Love Makes You Dumb: Really, Jodi? All it takes to make you go from suspecting that Nick is a cold-blooded killer to vehemently proclaiming his innocence is for him to tell you he has a crush on you and to ask you out on a date? She turns out to be right, but still...
- Make It Look Like an Accident:
- At first it seems like Lisa died when she hit her head after slipping while she got out of the tub, but forensic analysis shows the injuries to be more consistent with bludgeoning.
- Later Kristen tries to stage her murder of Ted to look like a suicide.
- Mama Bear: Andrea follows Kristen and Jodi at climax, and despite getting shot by Kristen, manages to rescue Jodi by knocking Kristen out.
- Meaningful Name: A devoutly Christian girl named Kristen, except she's just playing the "good girl" role to throw off suspicion about her and Ted.
- Never Trust a Trailer: The Johnson Production Group trailer has a scene of Andrea grabbing Jodi and saying "it was necessary," making it look as though she would be revealed as Lisa's killer. There's also a shot of what appears to be Jodi's attacker being shot by a police officer. Neither scene appears in the official film, though it is confirmed in dialogue from Andrea that Jodi's rapist was killed by the police.
- Non-Indicative Name: Many people have noted that the title doesn't make much sense, as the protagonist Jodi isn't being stalked. In fact, if anything, she's the one stalking her neighbors by spying on them (which might make it count as a Sarcastic Title). Presumably Lifetime retitled it to fit into its Stalked By... Thematic Series (of which Stalked By My Doctor is the most famous).
- Plot-Based Voice Cancellation: We can't hear what Lisa is saying to Ted when she confronts him because of a plane flying overhead. She was scolding him for his interest in Kristen.
- Plot Hole: Other than a passing Blackmail threat that he never goes through with, Nick stealing Jodi's camera has no real point in the story other than a rather tortured Meet Cute for him and Jodi. Also, why does Lisa have a spotlight in her living room?
- Rape as Backstory: The opening scene doesn't go into too much detail about what happened in the home invasion, but Jodi's extreme PTSD suggests she was raped, and later, during a conversation with Kristen, a flashback confirms that to be the case.
- "Rear Window" Homage: Bordering on Whole-Plot Reference, though there are some novel variations. Jodi's injury is mental, rather than physical, and her assistant/love interest is initially her murder suspect. Also, a blonde woman named Lisa is the victim here.
- Shirtless Scene: Nick gets one as he washes his truck, with Jodi taking pics of him (then, despite parading around that way, somehow gets upset about her taking photos of him "half-naked").
- Suburbia: The movie takes place on a very tidy, upscale cul-de-sac with big houses.
- Time Skip: The movie opens with the home invasion, then skips three months to the main story.
- Wham Line: When Jodi follows Nick to the nightclub and confronts him over the mysterious items he's selling to someone (which she thinks is Lisa's jewelry).Nick: Not only are you WAY offbase, but you are also incredibly obnoxious!Jodi: Am I?Nick: Yeah, you are, but that's okay because I kinda have a crush on you.Jodi: What did you say?
- What the Hell, Hero?: The police detective scolds Jodi for taking pictures of her neighbors without their permission.
- You Are Grounded!: Andrea ends up doing this to Jodi, not for any wrongdoing, but to prevent her from causing more trouble with her "Rear Window" Investigation antics. Jodi pulls a Bathroom Break-Out anyway.
