The Boys Next Door is a 1985 crime drama directed by Penelope Spheeris (The Decline of Western Civilization, Wayne’s World) and starring Maxwell Caulfield (Grease 2, Empire Records) and Charlie Sheen (Platoon, The Chase). The film cold-opens with documentary-style footage, including interviews, with multiple serial killers, and then introduces our main characters, Roy and Bo, on their final day of high school.
Roy (Caulfield) and Bo (Sheen) are best friends with each other, but don’t seem to have any other friends at school. More than that, they are the object of derision and denigration from their peers. They have a weekend off after graduation, after which they will spend the rest of their lives in mundane factory jobs. Bo’s grandparents send him $200 as a graduation present, and Bo suggests they use that to take a weekend vacation. Roy suggests Los Angeles. As they drive, Roy discusses the inevitable futility of their future as blue collar laborers, and also talks about his strange rage and a desire to kill. Roy beats an attendant at a gas station close to death as soon as they enter LA. This gets the attention of the police, led by a pair of detectives played by Christopher McDonald (Happy Gilmore, Stargate Universe) and Hank Garrett (Car 54, Where Are You?, Three Days of the Condor).
Roy becomes emboldened by seemingly getting away with beating the clerk, and scales up his attacks. He savagely beats and kills a gay man, shoots a young couple in their car, and beats and murders an older woman while she is having sex with Bo. The cops catch up to the boys, who run into a closed shopping mall. Bo tries to get Roy to turn himself in, but Roy wants to go out in a blaze of glory. Instead, Bo shoots him dead and surrenders to the police.
Roy’s character is a teenage boy filled with rage, repressed sexual energy and a futility about his future – seemingly the prime ingredients for a rage serial killer. Bo is slightly more stable – he accepts his fate working in the factory and makes the best of it. The only person he kills is his best friend. It’s a fine line between the two. At the beginning, their characters are interchangeable dicks. As the film progresses, we see Roy embracing the darkness within and Bo slowing inching away from his friend’s actions. He tries to steer Roy back, but doesn’t do much more than protest the killings.
It’s a tight little film with great direction, good score by George S. Clinton (Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery) and compelling performances by the two leads. McDonald and Garrett don’t get to do much with their cop roles, but they’re still fun to watch. Also, look out for brief appearances by character actors Carmen Filpi (Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, Beetlejuice) and Vance Colvig (UHF, Bozo the Clown).
