The Girl Next Door (2007)
Have you been itching to see a deceptive, manipulative, badly acted, poorly written film about a teenage girl getting tortured and gang-raped that lacks a satisfying conclusion? If you pop Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door into your machine, that's what you're asking for. Who watches movies to be entertained, right?
The plot (told in flashback) begins in 1958 when teenage Meg (Blythe Auffarth), and her crippled sister Susan (Madeline Taylor) have been orphaned by a car crash and now live with their psychotic aunt. As Meg's only friend (Daniel Manche) watches powerlessly, Aunt Ruth (Blanche Baker) entices the neighborhood boys into physically, mentally, and sexually torturing Megan.
Years ago, I had started this film and turned it off in disgust. It haunted me ever since. Having finished it now gives me no satisfaction. I must grant the picture certain points. Its objective (exploitative as it may be) is to generate outrage within the viewer. This story is inspired by true events. If you didn't know who Sylvia Likens was before this film, you will afterward, as the story compels you to dig deeper into what happened in real life. It succeeds... but so what?
If you're going to springboard someone's real-life suffering into a movie, you better have a good reason. Otherwise, you’re just a cheap, manipulative sleaze. Of course, I was moved by the story, but who wouldn't be? What does this movie do that a newspaper article about the real case couldn't?
Maybe your skin is so thick you're not worried about the nearly-traumatic impact this story will have upon you. Even then, the movie is not particularly well made. Blanche Baker is terrific as the villain. You hate and believe her character - one-dimensionally evil as she may be. The child actors are not up to this material. They can’t sell the dialogue they've been given and multiple times, the camera fades to black as a character is about to cry because there's no way director Gregory M. Wilson could've gotten them to deliver the waterworks. The dialogue is uniformly stilted, though more experienced actors might've been able to make it sound more natural.
The Girl Next Door raises many strong emotions. Unfortunately, its bleak and extremely violent story proves to be its biggest strength... until they eventually undo any potential it might've had. You power through the lackluster performances just to see what's coming next but in the end, what are you left with? What do you learn about yourself? About people? Not much. It isn't even a matter of whether you're thick-skinned or not. No one could see this film and emerge untouched but I can't imagine anyone sitting through it and leaving satisfied or enthusiastic. Who would YOU recommend The Girl Next Door to? I can't think of anyone. (On DVD, February 25, 2015)
