[REL] The Girl Next Door (2007)

[Debaser]

Ill tell you what, the younger daughter had some interesting scenes.
Yes shot carefully, but good none the less!!

[rmt@36]

Holy Crap Batman!

Are you sure this this is an american movie, if so those involved had a lot of balls making this movie.

I am glad you brought it to my attention Debaser.

It really pushes the envelope, which is what we want in american movies. Disturbing as hell.

Thanks for this

Holy Crap, very different movie to be sure, was not expecting this.

Thanks again

[billanben]

That was very tough to watch.

[kev]

That was very tough to watch.

Very tough!! As in 'American Crime', the horror that Meg/Sylvia suffered at the hands of her caretaker is almost unbearable to watch.

imdb link:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0830558/

Synopsis:

Set in 1950s suburbia (the actual crime took place in the 1960s), the film's protagonist is a boy whose adult self is remembering the events that unfolded. David (played by young Daniel Manche) is friends with a number of other boys in the neighborhood. The most popular mom in town lives next door is an alcoholic, Ruth (Blanche Baker), who has just gained custody of the two daughters of her late sister. The older sister Meg (Blythe Auffarth) is a beauty and David quickly develops a puppy love crush on her.

Over the weeks, he begins to notice Ruth abusing the daughters. Then, one day swings by their house to see Meg tied up and gagged in the basement, being taunted by the mother and her sons. Things get progressively worse from there with other children – boys and girls – invited over to torture the victim and the mother growing more or more of a mental case as the days progress.

Echoing similarities to 1970s fear films like "Last House on the Left" and "Candy Snatchers," "Girl Next Door" is even more chilling because it's based on a true story – and seems to be part of a wave of true-crime horror films hitting screens and DVD shelves in recent years. There's also a particularly disturbing "Lord of the Flies" element to it because it involves kids.

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This film [being a more 'fictionalized' account] is grittier and harder to watch than 'An American Crime'. The character of Ruth is much more evil, but her sway and control over the neighborhood children is almost as believable.

I wish, though, the characters had been a little more fleshed out: David's characters continued silence at the beginning when something could have been done still frustrates and sickens me: I can't fathom, just from the relationships I witnessed on the screen, how any person could allow such inhumanity to be perpetrated on someone else without getting involved and helping somehow...

(Website for the girl that played Meg's younger sister Susan, Madeline Taylor: http://www.maddietaylor.com/ Demo Vid of her films: http://www.maddietaylor.com/demoreel2008.html )

kev.

[Amadeus]

Damn.