| release date | December 4 2007 |
| studio | Anchor Bay |
| director | Gregory Wilson |
| writer | Jack Ketchum, Dan Farrands |
| starring | Blythe Auffarth, Blanche Baker, Blythe Auffarth, Daniel Manche |
| site | thegirlnextdoorfilm.com |
| trailer 1 | Trailer #1 |
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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.
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.
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’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 ????
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
An American Crime is MUCH better.
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.
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.
A very disturbing film. Not your average horror movie. It kinda upset me.
Whoa…
This is not a horror film, though it certainly is horrific. The content is so disturbing, and magnified by a thousand because it’s all involving children. I hope and I pray that the “true story” is nothing like this.
This movie leaves you wanting to mess some people up. If you are not prepared, then it is probably just better to pass on this, because it is extremely difficult to watch. Though it’s not a poorly executed film, I don’t know that I could recommend this to anyone. If I had truly known what was in this, I wouldn’t have watched it myself.
If you want to watch stuff like this, I’m not sure that that is a very good thing….
Yeah, I even skimmed through it. This really happened to a girl in Indianapolis. Not cool, but it was tame compare to what really happened. However it still was very very disturbing. It was a success for being really messed up.
very very brutal movie, its harsh i felt like a bad person for watching it, its strong if you can take it its good though, watch cartoons afterwards
ouch! that is one twisted B*tch
spoiler:
the main character (boy) angered me, he could have stopped everything! all he had to do was go to the cops and tell his parents after they tied her up!
A Completely horrifying and gruesome and a devastating and enraging true story about the indiana torture murder of Sylvia Marie Likens. See it but it definitely won’t make you feel good for a while because it definitely stays with you especially the true story.
The movie is so emotional. The poor girl suffered so much. Damn I have to watch this movie again.
excellent movie, just thinking that this actually happened make me think that humanity is just dead, i am just glad that davey finally grew a pair at the end, as they say the ending is all that matters.
I really enjoyed this movie, although not a horror movie, it is a true crime story. This is one movie that actually made me feel real emotion for the characters.
This poor teenager suffered alot both physically, and by mental humiliation. If anyone wants to read about the true story and everthing that happened (it’s not all covered in the movie) check out tru tv’s site.
trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/young/likens/1.html
Sometimes a story is so sad, so compelling, so brutally chilling that the person who hears, or in this case observes, asks themselves why anybody would ever write that story. They wonder why ever make such a sick, sad and brutal film. Initially I asked myself that very question. I wondered if this film was done simply because it could be made. I figured nobody ever asked if it was proper to make a movie like this.
The Girl Next Door is merely a bird’s eye view into the depravity that lurks within many of us, particularly the young and impressionable. It shows how clearly some people are simply waiting for permission to inflict pain and misery on others. It is a story of humanity, depravity, tragedy and little in the way of redemption.
It revolves around a group of kids in the 1950s who seem to always hang out with Ruth, the neighborhood “cool mom”. We quickly see how Ruth gives the boys beers and lets them do whatever they wish, while making comments about sex and other equally inappropriate things for a woman to share with children. Ruth has recently taken in some distant family who lost their parents in a tragic car accident.
It quickly becomes apparent that Ruth doesn’t like the disturbance these girls have brought to her existence, as quickly the verbal and then physical abuse occurs. This all leads to the eldest girl being hung in the basement by her arms and then tortured by the mom, her kids and even the neighborhood kids. All the while the narrator kid merely observes and agonizes.
In 2010, the notion that somebody could do this to a child and nobody would notice, or not let it get out what is happening is appalling. What makes the Girl Next Door truly chilling is that this all takes place back in the 1950s, where people seemed willfully ignorant of the plight of others and folks were perfectly happy to turn a blind eye so that they didn’t have to get involved.
While this movie is adapted from the novel of the same name by author Jack Ketchum, this story is actually based on convicted murderer Gertrude Baniszewski and her victim Sylvia Likens. The real-life tragedy is every bit as sordid as what is described here, in fact in some instances what actually happened to young Likens was infinitely worse than what has been depicted in this film.
For all the great achievements of humanity, the depravity and brutality that lurks within us is truly stunning. Hopefully by shedding light on this story, it will shine light into the dark places in all of us and prevent anything like this from ever happening.
This movie was sad ang good but was torture for my eyes due to the situations
very sad and disturbing
This movie is based on the book of the same name by Jack Ketchum; which is also based on a true story. Not to be confused with the teen sex comedy of the same name from 2004. This film was made a few years later and although it does have teens and sex, the story lines are worlds apart.
This is the true story of two sisters who were orphaned back in the late 1950′s when their parents were killed in a car accident. Meg is the older sister at about 15 and her sister Susan is about 10 or 11. Susan is also a recovering polio survivor and has to wear leg braces. These girls taken in (or pushed upon) by Aunt Ruth a popular neighborhood spinster. All of the neighborhood boys hang out at Ruth’s, they range in age from about 8-15, she gives then beer lets them smoke and so much worse.
The story is told through flashback by David, the one boy who sought to save the girls from the evils that happen in the basement of Ruth’s house. David and Meg meet on a few occasions and strike up a nice friendship, but when Meg tells him that that she and her sister are not being fed, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Ruth is brutally strict to the girls and purposely humiliates Meg in front of the boys. Things rapidly escalate, when Meg goes to the police about the abuse. Meg is then tied up in the basement and stripped naked with everybody present. Ruth rants to the boys her slanted views of young women, but tells them not to touch her. This doesn’t last long.
This movie works on so many levels; it’s a brutal psychological horror film, an intense character study, and a coming of age story. Ruth is obviously severely disturbed, but doesn’t know it. David feels powerless to stop Ruth and the other boys. Susan is abused, but not beaten; she is also forced to watch as her sister is tortured by the boys. This movie goes to the darkest places you can imagine. Some scenes are just as brutal to the audience as they are to Meg. David plans an escape attempt for the sisters but that too is snuffed out by Ruth. Can this story have a “happy” ending? Doubt it. It is an intensely heart wrenching film that will stay with you for days. Like most movies that claim to be “true stories”, parts were probably embellished and made more dramatic but the core story is still disturbing beyond belief.
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This movie gets a 3 despite the budget and cinematography. If you can find some sort of psychological justification for artistic sake out of this then my hat is off to you. If you get off on watching children be completely destroyed physically and emotionally for half an hour this is your movie. That being said. If you get off on children being molested and destroyed, please leave me your home address so I can show up with my shot gun and take you out of your misery you sick fuck! This movie hit my trash can. I would never wish for anyone to find it. I would rather watch the lowest of the low budget movies than to ever watch this again (and I HATE low budge). I may be a horror freak, but I do have certain principles. Would you like to know how I can love movies like Saw, Human Centipede, Collector, Texas Chainsaw or the like? Let me explain… They all involve adults. I bet you never saw Jigsaw throw a child into one of his killing machines. NO! Jigsaw had principles. Don’t get me wrong, I am a true horror fan. But this is something different. This is something that I never wanted to see and I love sick twisted horror movies. Knowing myself, If I was to read this review I would probably want to watch this movie for the hype factor. Don’t say I didn’t warn you when Aunt Ruth pulls out the blow torch.
A gut-wrenching tragedy that’s experienced more than watched.
This movie is deeply disturbing but I came here for one reason. Whoever wrote the review for this site got the facts of the Sylvia Likens case disturbingly wrong. I think that before someone posts on a public forum of any kind they should get the facts right. Even if it is just out of respect for the girl who lost her life in October of 1965….She WAS NOT raped and you failed on the year by darn near a decade.
A deeply disturbing movie, made even more disturbing by the fact that it was based on true events. I found myself gaping at the screen in horror as it played out, wondering just what was going through this woman’s mind as she allowed, ncouraged, and participated in the brutal events that unfold. My heart ached for the poor girl, as well as for the boy who tried to save her and finds himself forced to watch most of the torture and abuse. Realistic, stunning performances by the cast, the only thing wrong with the movie is the fact that it actually happened to a real person. I rate this movie high because I do believe its a powerful, heartbreaking tale, but I would not reccomend it to people without a warning; its very hard to watch. You’ve been warned.
The Ultimate Movie Review! – http://tss5078.blogspot.com – @tss5078 – Jack Ketchum’s 1989 novel and the subsequent film are based on one of the most infamous sex crimes in American history. The crime was truly horrific, unfortunately the film is equally as bad. The story is about a young girl who is living with a relative for the summer, a twisted and evil relative, who not only abuses the girl, but allows the neighborhood children to take advantage of her as well. The story is more than a little disturbing, but it’s made worse by a film that is ridiculously tedious and boring. This story was much too straight forward and simplistic to make for a good movie, especially when they’re choosing to focus on the crime itself. The one bright spot in this movie is soap actor, Daniel Manche. I’d never even heard of him prior to this film, but he was really great. It’s a shame this film was so bad and cost him the recognition he deserved, but this kid was on target and really displayed the emotions that the viewers were feeling. There is another film about this crime, which focuses specifically on the ensuing trial resulting from the crime. It’s called An American Crime, and while I already know the outcome, I have to see it, because it stars one of my favorite actors, Jeremy Sumpter. I can only hope that that film is more interesting than this one was.