| The 4th Floor | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Josh Klausner |
| Produced by | Boaz Davidson Naomi Despres Danny Dimbort (executive) Avi Lerner (executive) Danny Lerner (executive) Trevor Short (executive) John Thompson William Vince Brad Weston |
| Written by | Josh Klausner |
| Starring | Juliette Lewis William Hurt Shelley Duvall Austin Pendleton |
| Music by | Brian Tyler |
| Cinematography | Michael Slovis |
| Editing by | Tricia Cooke |
| Distributed by | Millennium Films Top Floor Productions |
| Release date(s) | 1999 |
| Running time | 90 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The 4th Floor is a 1999 film, written and directed by Josh Klausner. The film stars Juliette Lewis, William Hurt, Shelley Duvall and Austin Pendleton. The film was released in 1999. It was filmed on location in New York City and Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. The original music was written by Brian Tyler.
Contents |
This film follows Jane (Juliette Lewis) who has inherited a rent-controlled brownstone apartment from her aunt, and, despite her boyfriend's (William Hurt) appeals, has decided to move in and live on her own for the first time. Almost immediately she is introduced to the pleasures of living in an apartment building, as she quickly draws the ire of her downstairs neighbor (on the titular 4th floor), who pounds on the ceiling when she makes any noise at all. The next morning, she finds a warning note on her door, which she quickly dismisses. However, as more drastic actions seem to be taken against her, such as infestations of mice and live maggots, and even break-ins, Jane begins to suspect that her neighbor wants her out. Determined to stand her ground, Jane ignores her boyfriend's pleading and decides to stick it out. But when she is attacked in her home, Jane decides to take action herself.
The attacker is revealed to be a seemingly-kindly older man who warmed up to Jane and seemed to look out for her initially. He invites her into his apartment and when Jane realizes that his ceiling is "mapped" with the layout of the apartment above - just as she discovered in the apartment beneath hers - she sees the truth of what's going on. After being knocked out, she fights her way through a room full of packing noodles, injuring her attacker by hitting him in the head with a metal rod she finds in the room. She then runs to her apartment and locks herself in.
She soon realizes that she is in effect trapped and can't leave because her attacker has tied her door knob to the stairway railing. Seeing that the window is the only way in/out, she decides to hide in the fireplace, behind the fireplace shield. Her attacker breaks through the window and eventually finds her. After a brief struggle - involving a creepy locksmith she called on earlier, (Tobin Bell) who comes to her rescue but is quickly subdued - Jane stomps on the floor until a large decoration hanging over her doorway falls on the attacker. She then runs out the door which had been untied by the locksmith and is quickly caught again in the hallway. Suddenly, Greg, (William Hurt), her boyfriend, appears and asks the attacker to hand over the knife he is holding against Jane. During the pause, Jane suddenly lunges at her attacker, pushing him over the stair railing and down 5 flights of stairs to his death.
Later, as Jane is continuing to unpack boxes and put things in their place, she is talking to her attorney in the office. The attorney tells her that the locksmith, (who lives across the street and within view of Jane's apartment), had something to show Jane. She says that was good because she meant to thank him. The final scene reveals that the locksmith is looking through the window and sketching/painting what he sees. The camera pans through the room and we see him working on a new sketch as well as several of the pictures he's already completed from what he's seen in Jane's building. The camera stops on a picture showing Greg and Jane's attacker talking at a table in front of the typewriter used to type threatening messages to Jane.