The Girl Next Door (DVD)

Is passivity a crime? That's one of the many thought-provoking questions explored in The Girl Next Door, a new-to-DVD indie flick based upon respected genre author Jack Ketchum's novel of the same name.

Throughout the film, children and teenagers (think, albeit loosely, River's Edge or Stand By Me) keep silent about the unspeakable thereby leading to a chain of unthinkable events. These unthinkable events are actually based upon true ones (in 1965, young Sylvia Likens was tortured to death by a neighbor lady and several local children), which makes The Girl Next Door that much more chilling.

The barely-fictionalized tribulations of the ill-fated 14-year-old, Meg (Blythe Auffarth), are shown through the eyes of a younger boy, dreamy David (Daniel Manche), and begin by introducing him as an adult (played by William Atherton) still coping with issues of guilt for not having done more to rescue his childhood friend. Set in Eisenhower-era middle America, The Girl Next Door slowly builds as orphaned Meg and her younger sister Susan (Madeline Taylor) move in with their distant relative, Ruth (Blanche Baker), and Ruth's three adolescent sons.

Auntie Ruth is a bitter harridan who chain-smokes cigarettes, swills cheap beer and lays around in her housecoat spewing her hateful philosophies to anyone who will listen. As it turns out her sons their friends are listening, and they soon focus their venom on the outsiders: Meg and Susan. With the ruthless and deranged adult guiding their minds and bodies, the kids get caught up in a cruel game of cat and mouse. Sacrificing herself to shield her younger sibling from the sordid sexual abuse, Meg bears the brunt of the terrible torture which ultimately leads to the event that will haunt David for the rest of his life.

More a morality tragedy than a fright flick (although its pedigree of Ketchum and co-screenwriter Daniel Farrands will have the horror hounds baying), The Girl Next Door is scary nonetheless. Unlike the admittedly entertaining and elaborately plotted Hostels and Saws of the current cinematic landscape, this genuine torture porn will hit far too close to the core for most viewers. The Girl Next Door is realistic without being exploitative (we never actually see anything close-up and personal, and there's very little blood spilt), it's harsh (don't expect any comic relief), and it's austere (forget about seeing any elaborate set pieces of torment).

Another reviewer likened this movie to Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, and that's a pretty accurate assessment — but The Girl Next Door has no action and does even less to explore the motivations of the villain. It's pretty basic. Fortunately the caliber of acting, its biting dialogue and above-par cinematography elevate the somber story with its somewhat drowsy direction into something worth watching. Once.

Additional release material includes a making-of featurette, showing on-set interviews with director Gregory Wilson, actor Blanche Baker, and, separately, screenwriters Philip Nutman and Daniel Farrands (who, incidentally, is impolitely interrupted a couple of times by an unidentified  someone off-camera).

The screenwriting pair, along with novelist Jack Ketchum, provide an interesting (the trio touch on the real back-story) and anecdotal (Ketchum hates Meg's watercolor artistry) commentary, while the director and his crew talk about the more technical aspects of the film on a separate track.

Note: The Anchor Bay DVD claims to offer closed-captioning for the hearing impaired, but I was unable to invoke them no matter what I tried (the dialogue is overly quiet and a bit muddy in places).

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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson