Saw franchise veterans Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton (co-writers here, with the former on directing duties) channel their inner Hitchcock (with flashes of Scorsese and Michael Mann thrown in for good measure) with this home invasion thriller.

John (The Collector and The Collection‘s Josh Stewart) and his wife Rosie (Starry Eyes‘s Alex Essoe) are stuck in a small Mississippi town, running illicit errands for John’s uncle to raise a bit of cash. They’re just finishing off their final few jobs before running away to a dream life in Mexico. But, as they’re about to leave, Rosie disappears and John goes over to their neighbor Troy’s (Bill Engvall) house to ask if he’s seen her. It soon turns out John and Rosie aren’t the only ones who’ve been hiding something.

It’s a neat set-up, and the film’s plays out as a kind of action-packed Rear Window update. Rosie has a telescope by the front door of their house and frequently spies on Troy but, as is so often the case, her voyeurism gets her into deep water. But she’s not the only scopophiliac, and the more sinister lookers suffer an apt demise during a wittily self-reflexive moment in the finale.

That being said, the violent fight back at the film’s end doesn’t feel entirely earned. We’re presented with a set of desperate characters that engage in criminal activity because they need the money, and Stewart’s sensitive performance asks interesting questions with that in mind: why do we care about this criminal? However, the treatment of the antagonists seems far less even-handed.

Troy’s actions are too brutal to be justified by the we do what we gotta do explanation he proposes. So, in the end, he just becomes a pretty straight-up bad guy. It would have been more interesting to watch Dunstan and Melton actively engage in that middle ground. Josh and Troy never come across as two sides of the same coin: in fact, they could hardly be further apart. So the vengeful finale doesn’t carry the heft, or the moral ambiguity, it could have.

The film looks and sounds great throughout. Dunstan and Melton reteam with Saw composer Charlie Clouser and his work here is strong. His pulsing score keeps tensions high even when the film around it slips up. Cinematographer Eric Leach lays on the anamorphic flares, and adds a real sense of visual style. He also shoots some grungy B-roll that crops up throughout the film. But, while these retro intercuts are fun to watch, Dunstan doesn’t quite make the most of this technique and, if anything, leaves the viewer unnecessarily confused as the first montage plays out over the opening credits.

There are also a few moments of confusion when it comes to the characters’ actions. Troy seems strangely unfamiliar with his own home, which took me out of the movie a bit and seems constructed simply to keep the cat-and-mouse game going for as long as needed.

There’s also an issue with how the film treats its female characters. In keeping with most crime thrillers, this is a male-dominated affair. But, even still, Rosie, the principal female character, isn’t treated all that well. She starts out as a pretty boring partner, who doesn’t do a whole lot apart from getting John into trouble. She then becomes a damsel in distress, of sorts. Again, this isn’t an issue in itself, because most of the film plays out as John’s story. But, for some reason (and not meaning to spoil anything), she gets to have her revenge. This sequence feels unearned and has the effect of muddling the film’s narrative drive. There’s also the issue of a troubling cop character (Jacqueline Fleming), whose arc never surprises and she just comes across as a bit of a mean-spirited creation.

Dunstan and Melton make good use of their setting and the South is presented in a provocative, if unflattering, way. It’s full of people with something to hide, and that works nicely. Especially when the film plays with the idea that however heinous your own secrets, your neighbor likely has plenty of skeletons in their own closet. They also foreground the idea of family, in keeping with so many crime films, and ask interesting questions about how far people will go for their blood relatives, even when the relationship may seem toxic to an outsider.

The Neighbor clocks in at a trim 87 minutes, but it could have done with dedicating more time to the characters outside of the establishing work done in the first act. This would have hopefully had the effect of giving the film a clearer sense of purpose, because it’s certainly aiming for more than just your average twisty home invasion crime thriller. It just doesn’t always hit the mark.

The Neighbor opens in select UK cinemas and VOD Sep. 16 with a DVD release slated for Halloween.