Critics reviews

Subdued, intelligent, and at times, darkly comic, Neighborhood Watch is not a disposable piece of straight-to-video hackwork. But it’s also chronically unpresuming, to the extent that its insistent laconicism could be taken for, and perhaps even signifies, a lack of ambition. For better or worse, this is a film that’s far more comfortable existing on the small screen than a large one.

[A] compact and intense thriller... Writer Sean Farley and director Duncan Skiles... concoct a thriller that percolates old-school style, without an ounce of fat on its rope-a-dope narrative... The movie’s twists eventually escalate into galvanic instances of violence, and the movie makes you shudder at every one of them.

Neighborhood Watch thinks outside the box by telling a very familiar story in a new way... [The film] might have dark subject matter with two dark and broken characters, but there is sweetness and laughs in the realness. A heartbreaking tragedy is also one of the best feel-good movies of the year.

[Neighborhood Watch] recalls shaggier 1970s cinema in its emphasis on quirky character dynamics over suspense, action or plot intricacies. Once again taking a deft low-key approach to a sturdy script... and armed with engaging lead performances from Jack Quaid and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Skiles has crafted another accessibly offbeat not-quite-genre item.