‘The Boy Next Door’: Movie Similar To Shocking True Story

The Boy Next Door, Jennifer Lopez’ new fatal attraction movie, sounds like it could be based, or at least inspired by, a true story. First the premise: A middle-aged, newly divorced woman, Claire Peterson, is pursued by a boy, Noah Sandborn, who lives next door. The persistent young man is struck by her beauty and is hell-bent on getting his sexy older neighbor into bed.

When Claire is finally seduced by Noah, she quickly regrets it and tries to put some distance between them. That distance is just what the boy needs to start his relentless pursuit of her through stalking her, following her, threatening her, and trying to destroy her reputation. As she tries to find out more about Noah, she discovers that the clean-cut boy has a dark past.

The Boy Next Door, which is directed by Rob Cohen, is sure to keep viewers glued to their seats as they watch the twists and turns in this provocative psychological thriller about a scorned lover. Jennifer Lopez will give her loyal fans a special treat with her nude and nearly nude scenes.

The producers don’t say what the inspiration was for the sexy upcoming thriller — which depicts a forbidden love affair involving an older woman and a young lover — but there are parts of the movie that are reminiscent of an old true crime case that happened in the Deep South decades ago.

In that true story, the older lady was a woman in her late 30s. The former beauty queen was also a teacher in the community. The guy with whom she had the illicit affair was a 19-year old teen boy who lived not too far away from her. The affair was secretive, intense, passionate, and violent.

Here are some similarities that stand out in The Boy Next Door and a shocking true story that happened a long time ago.

• The Boy’s Intensity: The way Noah grabs Claire and forcefully pulls her close to him—and the way he blocks the doorway so that she cannot get away from him—were all important details in this Southern true crime story.

• The Language: The passionate and intense language that Noah uses with Claire: “God, you’re beautiful.” And, “Please, don’t go.” These intense statements were very similar to statements made by the young man in this same true case.
• The Xeroxed Copies Or Printed Copies: In this same true story, the boy became so obsessed with the older woman after she tried to break it off with him that he xeroxed copies of love letters that she had sent to him, but instead of spreading the letters all over the teacher’s classroom as depicted in The Boy Next Door, he spread them all over the country club where she was a member.

Sadly, in the true story that is similar to this movie, a murder occurred. The murder rocked the town to its core, and is definitely a crime to remember. There was also a movie made about the case in the early 1990s, which starred Susan Lucci as the sultry older woman. The movie is Between Love And Hate, and it was based on the murder of Harriet Robinson.

Yes, The Boy Next Door is different in many ways, but those similarities just can’t be overlooked. In any event, this movie is sure to go down in movie history as one of Jennifer Lopez’s best films.

[Photo Credit: Twitter]