Originally posted on 11/19/19
Penelope Spheeris may be best known for her comedies, but she gave us one of the hairiest, scariest thrill-killer flicks of the 80s when she directed THE BOYS NEXT DOOR (Severin Films, 1985).
Maxwell Caulfield (GREASE 2, "Dynasty") and Charlie Sheen (YOUNG GUNS, HOT SHOTS!) play high school misfits Roy and Bo, just graduated but faced with the dull prospect of going to work in a local factory for the rest of their lives.
These kids are filled with aggression and frustration and are just itching to take it out on the world, starting with their classmates whom they terrorize at one of those graduation parties held by someone whose well-to-do parents are out of town.
But that's not enough to quell the fire in their bellies, so they head for Los Angeles, where cruising Sunset Strip is just the beginning of a weekend of wild abandon that will quickly escalate into violent crime and, eventually, murder.
THE BOYS NEXT DOOR makes a halfhearted effort to "say something" about violence in society, serial killers, etc., but it pretty much boils down to total exploitation with some slasher-horror elements. (Which, of course, is a good thing.)
It's actually not all that scary--it never gets as intense, horrific, or graphic as, say, HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER. It's more like an edgy adrenaline rush that gets the blood going while leaving a sour taste in your mouth.
Caulfield is so much better here than in his pretty-boy, nighttime soap opera-type roles, never overplaying but giving us just enough "crazy" bubbling up beneath the sweaty surface.
His sociopathic young "monster-in-progress" character is always wire-taut and on the lookout for people he can violently take out his impotent frustrations on, channeling his pent-up sexual aggression into narcissistic rage.
While his friend Bo is constantly on the prowl for girls, especially ones that remind him of his unobtainable blond heartthrob from school, Roy seems so sexually paralyzed as to be violently asexual.
We wonder if his biggest problem is impotence with girls or a fear that he's actually gay, one which he acts out by attacking an innocent homosexual who invites them back to his apartment after meeting them in a gay bar.
Sheen gives an equally strong performance as an impressionable, easily-led type who tries to maintain a cool fascade while his own deep-seated emotional problems are coaxed into action by the stronger personality.
We wonder if he would be capable of such antisocial behavior on his own, and, like so many serial killer duos, the two disturbed youths combine into one very dangerously psychotic entity that thrives on acts of swift, senseless violence and murder.
Iconic 70s-80s actress Patti D'Arbanville (BILITIS) plays Angie, a sophisticated Hollywood girl who unwisely lets herself be picked up by these two very bad eggs.
The film also follows the progress of two dogged, world-weary police detectives (familiar faces Christopher McDonald and Hank Garrett) who are on the killers' trail.
Each murder sequence builds inexorably as the unsuspecting victims are dispatched in quick, jarring bursts of rage that come seemingly from out of nowhere, mostly at the hands of the ever-unstable Roy as Bo either looks on in shock or is compelled to join in.
Spheeris (WAYNE'S WORLD, BLACK SHEEP) directs it all in taut, crisp fashion, giving us plenty of action (including a couple of exciting chase scenes) as Roy and Bo head nonstop for the inevitable bad ending.
The Blu-ray from Severin Films looks and sounds great, and comes with a well-stocked bonus menu which includes a commentary track with Spheeris and Caulfield, several interviews and featurettes, alternate titles and extended scenes, and the film's trailer.
Watching THE BOYS NEXT DOOR is like watching a driver speed down the wrong way on a freeway and knowing he's eventually going to crash, taking out a number of innocent people along with him and doing it just for sick, suicidal thrills.
Buy it at Severin Films
Special Features:
Audio Commentary with Director Penelope Spheeris and Actor Maxwell Caulfield
Blind Rage: Interview with Stephen Thrower, Author of Nightmare USA
Both Sides of the Law: Interview with Actors Maxwell Caulfield and Christopher McDonald
Give Us Your Money: Interviews with Street Band Performers Texacala Jones and Tequila Mockingbird
Caveman Day: Cinemaniacs Interview with Director Penelope Spheeris and Actor Maxwell Caulfield
Tales from the End Zone: Interview with Actor Kenneth Cortland
The Psychotronic Tourist – The Boys Next Door
Alternate Opening Title Sequence & Extended Scenes (Silent)
Trailer
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