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The Girl Next Door is a disturbing, effective, and hearbreaking tale. It's a hard film to take, even though there is no gore to be found in the entire movie. The ideas presented in the film are enough to make you shiver when you think that this actually did happen.
I don't know if I could ever reccomend The Girl Next Door, but I think fans for realistic horror might want to see it.
I absoulutely loved this movie. It was one of my favorites of 2007. I am a fan of the book as well so I was hoping the movie would be a good adaptation and I was more than happy with it. The performances were fairly good with the supporting cast, but Blythe Auffarth and Blanche Baker were excellent in their roles. This a very sad, heartbreaking and brutal movie to watch with almost no redeeming value at all, very "human" I thought.
ModernCine is building a studio in michigan and showed The Girl Next Door in the local theater. i have been wanting to see this movie for a while but it has been hard to find. i have never seen a movie that lived up to its hype. truely a distrubing movie and long walk down hell
I'm starting to dig Jack Ketchum. The girl next door is a harrowing drama that is completely ruthless in a polite way. The film is hard to watch so I highly recommending watching this one as a family for some together time. I really don't want to tell you too much what the film is about but just think "the sandlot" meets "people under the stairs" but with more of a snuff film involving minors. Sound like fun ????
Director - Gregory Wilson
Writers - Daniel Ferrands
Philip Nutman
Jack Ketchum (book author)
Actors - None I recognize, but amazing actors. The mother is played by Blanche Baker and is sickening in her all too believable portrayal. The kids are the most talented and heart-wrenching in their naivety as children and still gruesome torture.
Who Will Love It - Jack Ketchum fans, "Stand By Me" fans; but take the intensity times ten, Horror in the Real World Enthusiasts
Who Will Hate It? Hopefully everyone. Not that everyone will hate the film itself, but the feelings evoked from it. You should feel sick and angry, but not for spending the time and energy watching another "Saw" installment. Here’s where I make a distinction. I think everyone should see this movie. Not because I enjoy the torture and abuse of a child, and some of you do, and should either seek help or be shot. The reality is, this is based on a very real crime that happened to Sylvia Likens in Indianapolis in the early 1960s. Her aunt, Gertrude Baniszewski led her own children and neighborhood kids in savagely beating and mutilating Sylvia and her sister until her death. Even at trial, Gertrude never took responsibility for what was done to Sylvia. Today this disregard continues.
I’m a fan of horror movies, and always will be. It isn’t that I’m pissed off at the world and I think innocent people should die. I am however, fascinated by the idea of fear, and examining what human beings are really afraid of. I also enjoy that in the safety of my own home, I can push all my worries aside for an hour and a half and become completely enthralled in the chaos of a monster chasing naughty teens to a cabin. I get to forget my real stresses and instead scream and jump at imaginary ones. I get to vent my everyday anger and frustration at people and things by watching FANTASY violence happen to FANTASY people. My primal urge to lash out at others is contained, because I can vent it second hand at a TV screen and let it go lightheartedly. I love the artistry in special effects, and the detail and thought taken by these people to make me laugh or cover my mouth.
Back to "Girl Next Door", the film follows Davey, a neighborhood boy in the 1950’s. He hangs out at Ruth’s house, a single mother and drinker who keeps up all necessary appearances for the locals to think otherwise. Meg and her sister are staying with Ruth, and something is triggered that takes the story to an unspeakable depth. Ruth leads the way in "disciplining" Meg by way of sexual and physical abuse by her own children and friends. Davey looks on, feeling helpless to help Meg as a child, and a child who’s concerns are ignored by everyone, even his own parents. The film examines the change in a child when they are forced to deal with the atrocities of real life. It looks at the power of rightness and morality to validate human suffering. It shows the underbelly of the Perfect 50’s Family. It forces the question that if this is something that can happen then, in the time of supposed innocence, than what more is going on in the chaos of today?
The discomfort people will feel from viewing this film is to be leaned into, not pushed away. Leaned into, so that we as a society can realize this can happen to us, this does happen now, and this can be done by us.
I consider this film a drama, but what makes it Horror is the abuse of a child; done in such a way that it makes the viewer feel in the room, not watching outside it. So if you don’t want to see it, than don’t. But at least stop moving for a moment, and stop focusing on your immediate worries about the price of gas, or going to work. Stop and think, of other human beings and their struggles or pain. Feel, if not the effects of your own life, than of theirs. A moment of empathy is worthwhile, especially from those of us who barely feel our own fragile humanity. In the end, you can enjoy pleasantly ridiculous horror movies like The Leprechaun, return to a state of fantasy stress of whether Jennifer Anniston will ever outrun the murderous midget and stop using Aquanet; feeling like a whole human being again.
I loved this movie. The mother did an excepional job and I felt the story was excellent. Also, I havent heard any negative feedback from anyone elsethat has seen this film.
The whole story (although true) was a little weak and pointless. The last dialogue with the tortured girl was inaudible!!! Fine acting of a person dying, crying and whispering... therefore we couldn't hear a thing. Everything else was fine in the movie, except for the storyline. Waste of time.
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