The Girl Next Door review

My favorite line in this movie was at the beginning, when the main character, David, reminisces about his childhood. Referring to a summer that took place sometime in the fifties, he states, “It was a time when even the guilty displayed a rare innocence.”

The film recounts the tale of a summer that David will never forget; one which included running around the forest playing games with his friends, visiting the carnival, catching fish by the river, and watching his deranged neighbour slowly lose her mind and inflict the most painful anguish possible onto a young girl. This film is not the typical modern horror movie that most audiences of Hollywood fare have come to expect.  There are no teens taking a wrong turn, no fanged heroes and no masked killers. In fact, this movie explores a taboo topic: child abuse. What makes it even more disturbing is that unlike The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, it is actually based on a true story.

Megan is a young girl who, along with her even younger sister Susan, is placed in the custody of her Aunt Ruth. Aunt Ruth is seen around town as the “cool mom”. She sits around with her sons and their friends talking about sex, and she lets them have as many beers as they want. This is the only Aunt Ruth David knows. Unfortunately, he witnesses a much nastier side to her once Megan and Susan arrive. With every visit, he becomes more uncomfortable as he observes Aunt Ruth gradually becoming more abusive towards the girls, focusing most of her aggression towards Meg. Eventually, David realizes that everything has spun completely out of control: Meg is being kept in the basement enduring unlivable conditions and Aunt Ruth is no longer the only person taking pleasure in her abuse. Torturing Meg becomes an everyday activity in which the neighborhood children all take a great deal of pleasure. Everybody knows that kids can be cruel, but this is like no playground bullying that I have ever seen.

This film is both intense and frustrating. The scenes of Meg’s torture, one of which was particularly brutal, were next to impossible to watch without cringing. The figure of Aunt Ruth served to make everything even more unnerving.  The way she sneaked into a scene, cigarette in one hand and an insane look in her eyes, actually made me jump.  And while David liked Meg and seemed like a good kid, for some reason, he could not bring himself to do the right thing. True, he never participated in Meg’s torture like the other children did, but he stood aside and watched in silent fear for most of the movie. Some might say this makes him just as bad as the others.

Though it may be too much for some, Jack Ketchum’s THE GIRL NEXT DOOR is not a film that any genre fan should miss, even if the real horror of what might be happening next door is too terrifying to deal with.

Screenshots: