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Created Feb 03, 2008 08:39PM PST • Edited Feb 03, 2008 08:39PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Perfect 5.0

   The Girl Next Door is a horrific film based on the novel by Jack Ketchum, which was taken from the abuse and eventual murder of a young teenage girl. This girl was Sylvia Marie Likens. The police responded to a call made about this, but she was already dead at that point. She was covered with cigarette burns in nearly a hundred places on her body. Sylvia was even marked with scars that spelled out “I am a prostitute and proud of it”. The crimes committed to Sylvia were done by a group of kids some as young as 11 years old, led by the current caretaker of Sylvia and her younger sister who was disabled by polio, Jenny. There were some minor differences such as the story taking place during the fifties rather than the sixties, but for the most part it seems to be a pretty accurate film or dangerously close at least.

   Meg (Loughlin) and her sister, Susan (Taylor) have recently lost their parents in an accident. They are now living with the Aunt Ruth (Baker) and her children. From the beginning it is clear that Ruth doesn’t care for Meg very much. Her cousin’s make sexual comments about her, but pretty much the only person who seems to genuinely like her is David. He is friends with Ruth’s sons and is over the house a lot. Meg doesn’t really do anything wrong. The boys claim she did though and Susan is punished simply for being her sister. Ruth begins beating Susan frequently as well as sexually abusing her and claiming that it is Meg’s fault. Meg goes to the police in hopes of doing something about this. Of course Ruth denies the whole thing to the police and nothing is really done to Ruth. This is definitely not the case for Meg though. This is just where her nightmare gets worse.
   A device is set up in the basement where Meg is forced to hang from her arms while her mouth covered. Ruth and the boys play games with her and try to get her to claim acquisitions that are far from the truth to satisfy their sick pleasures. When they are done with her they leave her there through out the night. Meg is in such bad condition that she can barely even move the next morning. Even just chewing is a bit much, which just gets her in more trouble. She hangs from that rope for days and days. Just about anything the boys want to do to her they can. Ruth verbally assaults her during this as torturing her physically. This includes cutting her and putting the cigarette burns over it, raping her, burning her vagina, as well as carving a phrase in to her skin about being a whore. This gets to be too much for David. He tried telling her mother. When that didn’t work he was planning on bringing the cops to witness the crime and let Meg and Susan free. This backfired on him after he tried to stand up for Meg and he became a prisoner in that basement as well.

4. Acting

   Perfect 5.0

   Blythe Auffrath gave a very compelling performance as Meg. She gave justice to poor Sylvia Marie Likens and the horrible incidents that were forced upon her. She really captures all of the fear, pain, and desperation in her role. Blanche Baker was amazing, I had so much rage towards her character, which is really proof to how well her acting was. She seemed to be such a twisted individual that it made you question whether she had any human qualities left in her. Daniel Mache displayed one of the only neutral characters in the film in David. He actually had a level of morality that could not be denied. Perhaps he could have acted sooner, but his life had been threatened and if Meg couldn’t be freed, he didn’t want to make things worse for her. Madeline Taylor portrayed the victim well in Susan. She was a victim through the abuses that were done to her, but to her sister as well since she felt responsible.

5. Male Stars Perfect 5.0

6. Female Stars Perfect 5.0

7. Female Costars Perfect 5.0

8. Male Costars Perfect 5.0

10. Film

    Perfect 5.0

    The depictions of the characters are shown wondefully. I really have to wonder why Ruth had it out for Meg and Susan so much. Ruth didn’t treat her boys or her boys’ friends anything like them. She would give out beers constantly and wouldn’t care if they smoked. The slightest complaint from one of them and there was hell to pay, which was taken out on Meg and Susan. This makes me think that maybe she just hated girls. Woman are talked about as the inferior race so this could be the mothers rage against this label. There were other girls there who witnessed and even encouraged the horrible acts and Ruth never did anything bad to them. The only other logical explanation left is that perhaps Ruth disliked their parents and took it out on them. In real life, the woman who did this wasn’t their relative at all, just someone that her parents left their children with. Perhaps she was just a very insane individual who took out all of her inferiority and weaknesses on these two girls in hopes of feeling superior. Either way, she clearly had many problems and was very unstable. I don’t think she thought what she was doing was justified as she claims, but rather an excuse to be that much more cruel. It is really mind boggling that while Sylvia and her sister were being tortured, their parents were out touring carnivals.
    The kids are almost as disturbing as Ruth is. Growing up with a mom like her explains a lot, but still their behavior it so unbelievable. At first they seem like completely normal, nice kids. They are the ones who introduce the game that begins the torturing of Meg. They are the ones who are can’t wait to cut and rape her from the beginning. One of the kids gets angry that he can’t rape Meg because his brother just did and that that would be like mixing his juices with his brothers. Yes, that is sick, but so is forcing sex on your cousin, especially if you’re around the age of 11 and the victim has already been brutally beaten and tortured for days at a time. Somehow that thought doesn’t go through their minds though. They do care for their mother and are ready to kill anyone who threatens her way of life in the slightest way. They are even ready to make David a victim even though he has been their friend for years. In many films where peers are shown as evil, they are fairly flat characters. Here though, we understand how these kids could get away with it for as long as they did, because the true colors aren’t shown to the rest of society.

11. Direction Perfect 5.0

12. Play Perfect 5.0

13. Music Perfect 5.0

14. Visuals Perfect 5.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Obscene 5.0

    During the most intense scenes not everything is shown. Don’t get me wrong this is an extremely intense movie that sends chills down your spine until the end, but there are moments where although we know what is happening we are not seeing the exact details of it. If we were shown these details, it might be too much. The movie shows that terrible horrors can happen anywhere. The Girl Next Door is a darkly disturbing film, quite possibly more than any other film I have seen. I expected that it would be a frightening film, but I was still shocked to the level that this was true. There were many moments where it almost got to be too much. I hardly ever stop a film without finishing it even if it is uncomfortable or just a very poorly done film. I was very tempted during The Girl Next Door. It is one of the very few horror movies that is genuinely scary. It makes you very aware of what you have. Although, I highly doubt that anything like that would ever happen to me, it gets you to fear it and question how you would bare it if it did. The movie sticks with you, whether you like it or not. If I ever watch The Girl Next Door again, it will not be anytime soon. However, it is an excellent film full of terrible circumstances and true terrors, with amazing execution.

17. Sex Explicit 5.0

18. Violence Monstrous 5.0

19. Rudeness Vile 5.0

21. Reality

    Natural 1.0

    The Girl Next Door is the ultimate display of domestic violence. Any form of this is a tragedy, but this is such a severe case. When torture happens it usually by strangers or at least by an abductor. In this case it is by a guardian, being stuck in that home there is really no way out. Especially since once the torture starts it doesn’t end, giving no chance for much hope of chance of escaping or getting help. Not to mention, that if you are kidnapped at least people are looking for you. This started in the summer so it is not even as if they would be missing from school. Much of the time when a child is being abused, unless there is a reoccurring pattern and physical proof that is viewed and documented by a police officer than the parent is believed to be innocent. Even if they are not, it takes awhile and many instances of proved abuse for anything to be done. It is terrifying that this story wasn’t even exaggerated but completely true.

22. Circumstantial Natural 1.0

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0