The Girl Next Door (2007)

Director: Gregory Wilson

Starring: Blythe Auffarth, Daniel Manche, Blanche Baker and WILLIAM ATHERTON!

More Info: IMDB

Tagline: In this town murder became the neighborhood game

Plot: Based on the Jack Ketchum novel of the same name, The Girl Next Door follows the unspeakable torture and abuses committed on a teenage girl in the care of her aunt...and the boys who witness (and participate) and fail to report the crime.

My Rating: 8/10

Would I watch it again? Yup.

Wow. Don't make this part of a double bill with MARTYRS (2008). Wow. I was not prepared for this. I had heard it was harsh but...wow. What makes it so horrifying is that it easily feels like it can happen. That it takes place in 1958 helps in the horrific nature of the subject as Americans tend to view that decade like an episode of LEAVE IT TO BEAVER (no pun intended, btw, for those of you who have seen this).


What really helps in the film being unsettling is how innocently it starts and how strangely smooth the steps along the way bring us to its unnerving end. The way Meg's Aunt goes downhill, bringing the neighborhood boys (and girls) with her is cold and logical (for someone in that state). She projects her own failures as a woman onto her nieces, Meg and her younger sister, Susan. It is both sad and sadistic. She has the neighborhood teen and pre-teen boys and girls over, including her two pre-16 sons, for beer and smokes. It's humorous at first, not knowing if she's just trying to be the cool mom or if she's trying to get laid (or is planting the seeds, so to speak). That she slowly takes them into this abyss of sadism is reprehensible.


This is certainly not for mainstream audiences and it's going to disappoint many horror fans looking for a 'scary movie'. With all of the crazy shit that I've seen over the years I'm still pleased and surprised by films like this that put me on edge without resorting to gore and hyper stylized sound effects. It illustrates that the coldest horror is that which can actually happen to you...and me.