I saw Lakeview Terrace yesterday and it’s still on my mind. Normally movies with a crazy neighbor (bonus points if he/she is a cop) and the hapless newcomer to the neighborhood they terrorize don’t stick with me or even bother me but this movie is still on the brain.

It made me think more about interracial relationships, the work that goes into one and the idea that you could be a target of such hatred just because of who you are with. Granted, this is a movie and I hope that no one would go to such extremes no matter the motivation, but it puts that thought in the back of my mind… are people so race crazy they would go to these lengths? Could I have stuck it out in an interracial relationship? Is it worth the hassle?

Film analysis after the jump,  just to be safe so I get no bitching about possibly spoiling the movie

Samuel Jackson portrays a widower (Abel Turner) with a teen daughter and younger son who live in California. He’s a 28 year veteran cop and is a very strict authoritarian with his family. The house next door seems to be vacant, until the morning the film starts.

He sees what he thinks is a black couple with an older man and younger woman. He seems to disapprove of this but is probably thinking ok, their black at least. He sees the white guy hauling in boxes and thinks he’s the moving help and not an occupant. His whole demeanor changes when he sees the older black man drive off and the young interracial couple embracing in the driveway.

Just before he starts spying on his new neighbors, we see him chastise his son for wearing a Kobe Bryant jersey, and its not obvious why he’s so anti-Bryant until the spying scene. He’s pretty much anti-mixed couple and flat out racist against anyone who isn’t black. There’s little things back and forth between him and the neighbors, but its clear he’s crazy, just plain crazy and even seeing them together makes his anger (and psychosis) go into the stratosphere.

While the movie is a “thriller” as it were, it does put some questions out there for the viewer to ponder while the characters go through hell with their psychotic neighbor. Do we have kids? How do we protect them? Or how would you protect them is posed to the white son-in-law (Chris) by his black father in-law. The fact that the wife (Lisa) is obsessed with starting a family and seems oblivious to what bringing a mixed-race child into the world means in terms of work, dealing with stupid people, hatred, etc.

We find out late in the film that the reason Abel is so over the top filled with rage at white folks is that his wife had been killed 3 years prior in a head on collision while in a car with her white supervisor. He wonders “what was she doing with him on the 101 in the middle of the day when she was supposed to be cleaning up some old Jew on Fairfax?” This comes as a slightly drunk confession to Chris when they run into each other at the neighborhood bar after an ugly confrontation over some rose bushes Chris and Lisa had planted along the fence that divides their properties.

I thought the movie could have gone a little deeper into Turner’s psyche and his hatred of white men because it just seemed like this anger over a question he could never get answered seemed to be too much to carry for this long. Granted, we don’t get too much of a peek into Turner’s past other than the mention of how his wife is killed and why that’s his motivation for his racism. Who knows, maybe he always hated white people and that’s what drove him over the edge?

Either way, I think its a good film for what it is and I do like the twist that the crazy is race motivated but I think it could have been a deeper film on the back end reasons for the character motivations. Maybe I’m asking too much from a film that’s billed as a thriller?

Published by cypheroftyr

Tanya DePass is the founder and Director of I Need Diverse Games, a not-for-profit organization based in Chicago, which is dedicated to better diversification of all aspects of gaming. I Need Diverse Games serves the community by supporting marginalized developers, attendance at the Game Developer Conference by participating in the GDC Scholarship program, helps assist attendance at other industry events, and is seeking partnership with organizations and initiatives. Tanya is a lifelong Chicagoan who loves everything about gaming, #INeedDiverseGames spawn point, and wants to make the industry better and more inclusive for everyone. She’s part of the Rivals of Waterdeep actual play stream on twitch.tv/rivalsofwaterdeep, a partnered Twitch variety broadcaster; and often speaks on issues of diversity, feminism, race, intersectionality & other topics online, at conventions and as a public speaker.. She’s also contributed to publications at Green Ronin, Paizo and Monte Cook Games and is the co-developer for the Fifth Season RPG based on N.K. Jemisin’s three time Hugo award winning Broken Earth trilogy. She’s the creator and Creative Director of Into the Mother Lands, a Twitch supported RPG and Actual Play stream, airing weekly on her channel, twitch.tv/cypheroftyr. Additionally, she is a Senior Annenberg labs Civic Media Fellow at USC. She’s also the creator and Creative Director of Into the Mother Lands, a new sci fi afro-futurist RPG developed with a team of all POC and Black creators; live streamed on her twitch channel, /cypheroftyr. She’s named as one of The Game Awards Future Class 2020, a diverse group of builders, thinkers and dreamers whose voices elevate and diversify our artform. It recognizes individuals around the world who represent the bright, bold and inclusive future for video games. She was also named as one of Gamers of the Year 2020 by Kotaku along with three of her contemporaries. She was also invited to the Xbox MVP program in February 2021. Her work to make the industry more inclusive has been highlighted in Game Changer, Directed by Tina Charles, WNBA star & olympian as well as filmmaker. The short documentary premiered at Tribeca 2021, as part of the Queen Collective; an initiative started by Queen Latifah, supported by Proctor & Gamble in an effort to get more Black women into film making. Game Changer was also featured as part of BETHer’s 2021 Juneteenth Programming on 19 June 2021. Tanya is the programming & diversity coordinator for OrcaCon and GaymerX. She also serves on the Board of Directors for OrcaCon and was named the Chair for Take This in January 2023. She often speaks on issues of diversity, feminism, race, intersectionality & other topics at conventions. Her writing about games and games critique appears in Uncanny Magazine, Polygon, Wiscon Chronicles, Vice Gaming, Paste Games, Mic, and other publications. She’s the editor of Game Devs and Others: Tales from the Margins (2018, CRC Press) and contributed to The Advanced Game Narrative Toolbox. (2019, CRC Press) Writer Bio for pubs: Tanya is the Founder and Director of I Need Diverse Games, a not-for-profit organization based in Chicago. She’s part of Rivals of Waterdeep, an actual play D&D show on twitch.tv/rivalsofwaterdeep; the programming coordinator for OrcaCon & GaymerX; and often speaks on issues of diversity, feminism, race, intersectionality & other topics at conventions. She’s on the Board of Take This as well as a Stream Ambassador, and was part of the inaugural cohort of The Game Awards Future Class. Her work to make the industry more inclusive has been highlighted in Game Changer, Directed by Tina Charles, WNBA star & olympian as well as filmmaker. The short documentary premiered at Tribeca 2021, as part of the Queen Collective; an initiative started by Queen Latifah, supported by Proctor & Gamble in an effort to get more Black women into film making. Game Changer was also featured as part of BETHer’s 2021 Juneteenth Programming on 19 June 2021.