‘Restless’ (2025) Review – Neighborly Feud Is Gripping And Introspective

The adage, fences make good neighbors, is certainly apt for Nicky (Lyndsey Marshal) in the film Restless. As a single empty nester, she battles more than loneliness and isolation, but the neighbors from hell. Rather than delving into the territory of a straightforward revenge thriller, Restless takes its time, toying with us and exasperating our patience. Nicky is a stand-in for the audience, the frustration at the powerlessness. The movie is a volatile exercise in self-control and manages to subvert our expectations with brash humanity. The story stretches like a rubber band, going far and then snapping with a warning, delivering something truly unexpected.

We meet Nicky, a lonely middle-aged woman adjusting to being an empty nester. Her peaceful life falls apart when new neighbors move in next door. This aggressive core of hard partiers brings not only disruption but potential danger. The owner, Deano (Aston McAuley), is oblivious to his antics and foments a rivalry with Nicky. Sleep when you’re dead is his response to her complaint of sleepless nights. Tensions reach a boiling point, and Nicky finds herself losing not only her patience but her sanity, too.

Restless takes its time with its story. Despite a runtime of an hour and thirty minutes, the movie utilizes every beat to show the exasperation and powerlessness that can arise when dealing with a troublesome neighbor. The partying goes on all night. Music blares through the walls, and Nicky, to her credit, attempts to confront her new neighbor peacefully and courteously. As expected, Nicky finds herself talking to a brick wall, and the antics ratchet up. Her sleepless nights erode more than her patience; it begins to work on her sanity.

Lyndsey Marshal exemplifies grace under pressure. She is the stand-in for anyone in the audience, whether familiar with a neighbor’s feud or drowning in a sea of powerlessness. She leads the story with quiet courage when the neighbor’s situation tests her repeatedly. On the flip side of the argument, Aston McAuley is a perfect composite of every neighbor from hell: rude, vacuous, and conceded. The story reflects real-world feuds and further exaggerates the drama into a compelling and unnerving tale of terror.

The film brilliantly avoids much exposition on Deano but does give his side of the neighborly dispute. Peace offerings and apologies are exchanged, but the feud persists. Anyone who has been on Nicky’s side will relate to the challenge. As she attempts to rally her other neighbors, she finds no one wants to join her protest, leaving her alone and bitter. The story ultimately becomes one of revenge as Nicky finds herself at the breaking point, but the film painfully takes her to a dark place.

“Painfully” is not a knock against the film but a demonstration of how people’s patience wears thin in a powerless situation. As she attempts to reason with the neighbors, unheard, she breaks into Deano’s house and destroys his speaker system – sending the feud to a dangerous height. Nicky’s trigger is when her cat goes missing, escalating a neighborly feud into a full-scale war. Alone and without a damn left to give, the proverbial rubber band snaps, and the movie accelerates into the somewhat farcical territory. Again, this will either make it or break it for the audience. Ultimately, the ending feels satisfying because of its cathartic nature and the need for the primal scream.

Restless captures how sleep deprivation contributes to a shocking imbalance. The longer the sleeplessness goes on, the worse it becomes for Nicky. She is angrier, edgier, and perhaps amazingly, she is justified. The film showcases depravity mixed with unruliness. In the third act, the film will either wholly work or fall apart for audiences. Until this point, the movie moves like a symphony, building towards a shocking climax.

Thanks to the restraint in the first half, it allows for a welcome boiling point. As the audience, we expect Nicky to lose it, and in some ways, she does; the film is clever at subverting our expectations and the familiar tropes for something richer and cathartic. The movie turns the themes of isolation into a battle cry for resilience and community. He story inverts the themes of loneliness into a reflexive introspection that allows Nicky to rise out of her situation while learning from it.

Director Jed Hart is not afraid to mix humor with horror, and there are many points where audiences will respond with shocking guffaws at Nicky’s actions. She becomes a one-woman army as she responds to tragedy and exasperation. The operatic needle drops propel the story to hilarious and dramatic beats.  

Restless is as shocking as it is cathartic and manages its kicks by layering the story with deft humor and idle terror. The film is not a straightforward horror tale but a meditative examination of the isolation permeating suburbia and the farce that can be Love Thy Neighbor.   

Restless is currently available on digital platforms courtesy of Quiver Distribution.