RIGHT AT YOUR DOOR

"I'm not doing anything until my wife comes home!"

Just like any other morning, Brad (Cochrane) and Lexi (McCormack) prepare for the day ahead. Lexi heads off to work in downtown Los Angeles and Brad stays home to organise his band. As he listens to radio, an emergency broadcast interrupts the music and informs him that there has been multiple explosions in Los Angeles. Panic-stricken Brad heads out to find Lexi but with every route into the city blocked by the police, he returns home to discover that it was dirty bomb and toxic chemicals have been released into the atmosphere.

With the western world stirred up into a panic about the imminent threat of terrorism, a movie about the effects of an attack is all the more frightening.

After the attacks on New York, London, Madrid, Bali and numerous places around the world, threat from terrorism has never been so great. Radical extremists who use violent methods to raise awareness of their cause and have no fear of killing civilians are becoming a real danger to everyone in a democratic society. 'Right at your Door' highlights his but instead of a visual effects filled wave of destruction with cities been destroyed and carnage covering the streets, we see the effect of an attack from a civilian point of view.

We have had numerous movie showing the affect of terrorism on the armed and rescue forces but we have only ever had the civilian point of view from the families of these soldiers, fire fighters or police officers who have been caught up in an attack. This movie is shows you the affect on ordinary people when a dirty bomb filled with a chemical virus explodes in Los Angeles and spreads toxic ash over the city. As with any disaster, the media, government and emergency forces tell you to stay in your home but what happens if one of your loved ones was on their way to work when the explosions happened and you can't get in touch with them to find out if they are safe?

'Right at your Door' shows actually this and far more frightening than any big Hollywood FX filled dramatisation. Seeing the affect of an attack on husband and wife is filled with emotion and fear, conveying exactly how you would feel if this happened to you. Writer/director Chris Gorak creates tension, panic and sheer fear with only a handful of characters and essentially just one set. This is exactly what you would go through, with no extreme acts of heroism, superhero like feats or a civilian taking on the terrorist in his vest and slippers. It also pulls no punches in revealing how the US authorities would react to a chemical attack and the way it would be reported via the media.

The core of the movie is the performances of Mary McCormack and Rory Cochrane, as Lexi and Brad. Successfully making the switch back to movies after appearing on television shows like 'The West Wing', 'ER' and 'CSI: Miami', both McCormack and Cochrane show that they are fine character actors who can portray the full cavalcade of emotions needed for this dramatic situation. Cochrane is especially good as he goes through panic, fear, rage and grief as the realisation of what is happening becomes all too apparent. The supporting cast have little to do but there is a good performance from Tony Perez as handyman Alvaro.

For its limited budget and small cast, this is a terrorist movie that creates more fear and panic than any big budget Hollywood epic could ever do. It is the realism that will really strike a cord with the audience and with a finale that is hard to forget, 'Right at your Door' is more frightening than any horror movie because it could happen.

United 93

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2006