The Girl Next Door (Based on the novel by Jack Ketchum)
Directed by Gregory Wilson
Written by Daniel Ferrands
Featuring: Blythe Auffarth, Daniel Manche, Blanche Baker
www.thegirlnextdoorfilm.comThough I’d heard for years about how disgusting the original book was, the “based on a true story” rumors made the film version of The Girl Next Door appealingly troubling and wicked to me. Jack Ketchum’s The Girl Next Door is a very disturbing and hard-to-watch story of an abused girl and the very unlikeable and demented people who torment her. I doubt, however, that the story it is based on bears any resemblance to this one…
Beginning like a bad Stephen King made-for-TV short-story adaptation directed by Mick Garris, The Girl Next Door is a very whimsically shot mixture of coming-of-age in the 1950’s and over-the-top torture exploitation. 12-ish David (played by Daniel Manche),befriends the newest addition to the neighborhood; a beautiful young girl named Meg (Blythe Auffarth). Unfortunately, the actress playing Meg looks at least 20. It isn’t until it is established by the plot and dialogue that Meg is actually supposed to be about 13 that it is clear who she is and how she relates to david. It comes out that she and her younger sister Susan have arrived to live with their Aunt (Blancxhe Baker, the older sister in Sixteen Candles). Aunt Ruth has three sons by her estranged husband. She lets them, and the neighborhood children like David, drink beer, smoke, and otherwise run wild when in her house. Meg’s arrival seems to disturb her. She rants endlessly about how women are used and abused by men, and how Meg is nothing but a whore. Scenes of cruelty range from small beginnings (calling Meg “fat”) to severe (having Meg raped by her eldest son while she is tied up in the basement). Susan, herself crippled in the accident that took her and Meg’s parents, watches on horrified and suffers from beatings and molestation herself. The culmination of the film is in a brutal clitoral mutilation conveniently just before police arrive to “have a look around”.
"Darling is something bothering you? You're acting like... an asshole. And I think I know what it is. I think you're jealous that I'm getting married and that I'm getting all the attention."
David, the main character through whose young eyes we see the abuse, never tells his parents or the police about any of this. He shows up to watch the violence and rapes, only sometimes comforting Meg by bringing her crackers or completely half-assed schemes to allow her to escape. David does not save her, and because of this, we can’t quite discover how we should feel towards him. Though he claims to be disturbed by what he sees, he does nothing. Is he a coward? In which case, we hate him. Is he secretly enjoying the abuse? Then we hate him as well. Meg herself is a sympathetic character, but because she rarely fights back against her tormenters her ill-treatment becomes boring and blasé after the first ten minutes of paddling and screaming. It’s hard to imagine why this story needed to be told the WAY it was told. Yes, it is “based on a true story”, but if this is supposed to educate us and tell us this poor girl’s story the way she would have wanted, then it missed the mark. On the other hand, if this movie is supposed to be a sick, child/porn/torture jack-off session for perverts, then I think they have succeeded brilliantly.
I'm not really an interesting character
The Girl Next Door looks like a Lifetime television movie, with the same budget and cast (Grant Show puts in a good turn as David’s father, however too briefly) only the drama lies solely in Meg’s degradation, pain, and suffering. Blanche Baker is brilliantly subtle as a woman slowly emerging as insane and sadistic, but the dialogue and forced emotional drama on the part of David take away any real horror we might be feeling. In fact, if we feel horror at all, it is because watching this poor girl hung naked in the basement, tortured, raped, beaten, and scarred is kind of fun, and we really didn’t want to be reminded of that part of ourselves. If I want to see someone violated that badly (and yes, sometimes I do!) I’d rather it be a made-up gore-fest like Hostel where adults get themselves in bad situations and suffer the consequences. Exploiting the “real crime story” aspect (and also the name of Jack Ketchum) to sell this sick fantasy is just, well, sick. And pointless.
Ooh! Rape and Torture! How shocking.
Child abuse is terrible, and I’d rather watch a documentary about how to help stop it than provide fodder for all the sick weirdoes (including myself at times) that like watching young girls be treated this way. But that's just me. Technically, the film stands up, and the acting is fairly decent. If you can stand to watch exploitation with a semi-cheezy drama element, give it a go.
This is Daddy.
