Directed by Gregory Wilson
Review based upon the US Anchor Bay DVD release
“The Girl Next Door”, based on the novel by Jack Ketchum, takes an unflinching look at 1950's American suburbia only to find its heart black and tainted through torment.
We first meet David, a young boy whose three friends all live next door. Their mother, Ruth, is liked by all until she is forced to take in her sister's children after a fatal car accident. The two girls, Meg and Susan, are emotionally scarred through losing their parents, and find it hard to fit in. Meg and David become close as it becomes clear that Ruth bears a lot of hatred for the two girls, becoming verbally and emotionally abusive. As time moves on, the abuse intensifies and David must ask himself if there is anything he can do to stop it…
The movie poster proudly carries an endorsement from Stephen King, who describes “The Girl Next Door” as “The dark side of the moon version of Stand By Me”, and that description is completely accurate. It is no surprise that King enjoyed this film; it is very similar in tone and feel to a great deal of the author’s work, as it is generally the horror within that make his stories terrifying and ultimately disturbing.
“The Girl Next Door” is a very disturbing film on many levels. It is, at its core, a film about the two extremes of love, and how the balance of light and dark can literally destroy a human being. Indeed, light and dark contrasts can be found all over the images in this feature, culminating in a hot summer full of brightness while Meg is being held hostage in a dark c
ellar.The violence, when it erupts in the final 35 minutes of this movie, is shocking and very difficult to shake off. It sticks in the memory not just because you actually see very little, but also because the characters are portrayed so convincingly that you really care about what happens to these children. Blythe Auffarth and Daniel Manche as Meg and David respectively put in astonishing performances, while the rest of the young cast also do a great job here. It’s a combination of their performances and an excellent screenplay by Daniel Farrands and Philip Nutman that makes “The Girl Next Door” such a difficult yet compelling experience.
The film is not without faults, however. Clearly made on a low budget, this film is very much shot like a TV movie, which does at times prove to be a little distracting. It could also be argued that the prologue and epilogue of this feature are unnecessary (David as a fifty year old looks back on the events of his childhood), but it’s only after considering the content carefully that you can see that without them what remains would be a very negative message indeed.
Blanche Baker as Ruth puts in a truly terrifying performance here, her character moving convincingly from fri
end to foe through the 90 minute running time. She is evil and abhorrent yet normal to the outside world, one of the most convincing portrayals of genuine psychopathic behaviour since “Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer” in 1990.“The Girl Next Door is gripping and powerful, but also incredibly difficult to watch and impossible to enjoy. It is a movie to be appreciated for the message and the screenplay, but like Gaspar Noe’s “Irreversible” it is not something that you would want to watch more than once in a hurry. Having said that, like “Irreversible” it is a film to be recommended to those who want to have their beliefs and views challenged. It is also a very intelligent study in psychosis, something that makes the piece even more unsettling as Ruth could literally be anyone you know.
A film for intelligent audiences, “The Girl Next Door” is not for everyone. But it is a movie that everyone should see.
8 out of 10
A truly unsettling and disturbing journey into the hell of American suburbia... but approach with a strong stomach
