The Boy Next Door
Claire Peterson (Jennifer Lopez) separates from her husband Garrett (John Corbett), after he was caught cheating with his secretary. Her colleague and best friend Vicky Lansing (Kristin Chenoweth) urges Claire to divorce. Claire meets 19-year-old Noah Sandborn (Ryan Guzman)—the orphaned nephew of her wheelchair-bound neighbor—who has just moved in next door. Noah befriends Kevin (Ian Nelson), Claire's teenage son, and begins attending his school, where Claire teaches English literature. Noah is drawn to Claire, expressing love for Homer's Iliad. With Kevin and Garrett away on a fishing trip, Claire watches a naked Noah in his room through her window.
Claire goes on a miserable double date with Vicky and her boyfriend Ethan (Travis Schuldt), and his ill-mannered friend Benny (Bailey Chase). With Kevin still away, Noah calls Claire over to help him cook. She ends up having dinner with him, during which he unashamedly flirts with her. Despite Claire's hesitation, she lets Noah seduce her and they have sex. Claire tells Noah that she regrets their night together, causing him to punch a wall in rage. The school year begins, with Noah joining an uncomfortable Claire's class after hacking into her computer, making it appear as if she had requested this. Noah manipulates Kevin into hating his father, causing him to lash out at Garrett. Later, Kevin overexerts himself at the gymnasium and goes into shock; Noah saves his life by injecting him with Kevin's EpiPen. Claire receives flowers from Noah, and she confronts him about this. Noah witnesses Claire and Garrett on a date together, which escalates his obsession with her.
After an incident where Noah—in defense of Kevin—slams a bully's (Adam Hicks) head into a locker repeatedly, Vicky (who is vice principal at the school) discovers that Noah was kicked out of his previous school for disorderly conduct. After an encounter where Noah insults her, she expels him. During the fall fling, Claire goes to investigate a leak in the boys' bathroom, where she instead sees the words "I fucked Claire Peterson" written on the wall before Noah emerges. He attempts to force himself on her, but she fends him off and demands that he stay away from her and Kevin. The following day, Noah leaves a printer running in Claire's classroom, with images of them sleeping together scattered everywhere. When Garrett's car brakes fail to work, he and Kevin are nearly involved in an accident. Noah blackmails Claire; telling her that he has a tape of them having sex, which he will relinquish to her if she continues sleeping with him. She refuses, and organizes a plot with Vicky to steer Noah away from his house. Claire breaks into Noah's house and sees hundreds of images of herself in his basement. She finds his laptop, deleting their sex tape, and also sees images of car brakes, implying that he rigged Garrett's brakes. She meets with Detective Chou (François Chau), who informs her that Noah's father was killed after swerving into a truck with his minivan.
Noah binds and gags Vicky with duct tape and uses an audio recording of her voice to lure Claire to her house. When Claire arrives, she discovers Vicky's dead body, with her throat having been slashed by Noah. A horrified Claire contacts the police, but runs into Noah again. He reveals to her that his mother killed herself after his father cheated on her, so he rigged the brakes of his father's minivan, killing him and his mistress. Noah takes Claire to a barn house where he has kidnapped Garrett and Kevin, threatening to kill them unless Claire stays with him. A violent altercation occurs as Claire attempts to free them. Noah pours kerosene around the barn, causing it to ignite in flames. Garrett, having freed himself, attempts to choke Noah with a rope, prompting Noah to shoot him in the chest. Claire stabs Noah's eye with Kevin's EpiPen. When Noah removes the EpiPen from his eye and blindly attempts to strangle Claire to death, she then jams her thumb into the same damaged eye to blind him further, much to Noah's agony and he strikes her across the face. When he later holds Kevin at gunpoint, she pulls a switch that drops an engine on Noah, killing him. Claire and Kevin then help a wounded Garrett exit the burning barn house as the police arrive. Garrett is put in an ambulance. A paramedic says that Garrett will be fine. Claire and Kevin ride in the ambulance with him and Claire tells Garrett that he's gonna be okay and promises him after he arrives at the hospital, "we're going home.", hinting at a family reconciliation between Claire, Garrett and Kevin. As all three family members remain together in the ambulance truck, the ambulance then drives off into road to the hospital and the camera pans out to the moon hovering in the night sky.
suspenseful, murder