The truth is often stranger than fiction, but in the case of the 2007 film The Girl Next Door, the story behind the movie is much more horrifying than what filmmakers elected to put onto the screen. Inspired by the murder of Sylvia Likens, The Girl Next Door is a riveting entry that is as tragic as it is horrifying.
The Girl Next Door
The Girl Next Door opens with middle-aged David Moran witnessing a hit-and-run accident in New York City. The incident causes him to recall events from a summer decades before. It was 1958, and teenage David was becoming acquainted with the new girl in the neighborhood, Meg Loughlin.
Meg and her sister Susan had recently lost their parents in a car accident. The girls are sent to live with their aunt, Ruth Chandler, and cousins Donny, Ralphie, and Willie.
A Brutal Environment
The Girl Next Door introduces Meg and Susan to an environment with no real adult supervision. Their aunt allows her boys and their friends to do most anything they desire, even giving them beer and allowing them to smoke cigarettes.
Ruth is cruel to Meg and constantly dresses her down in front of her cousins and their friends. When Ralphie tries to force himself on his cousin, Meg strikes him in self-defense.
An enraged Ruth takes her anger out on Meg, however, instead of focusing on her attacker. She beats Susan and makes Meg watch as punishment, leading Meg to go to the police to file a report for abuse.
Full-Blown Torture
Of course, the police do nothing and Ruth’s abuse escalates into full-blown torture. The last half of The Girl Next Door involves Ruth keeping Meg captive in the basement and encouraging her boys and their friends to take turns beating and sexually assaulting her.
David, who had developed feelings for Meg prior to her confinement, does his best to alert authorities to Ruth’s crimes but finds that the system is about to fail Meg once again.
Based On A Terrible True Story
When the payments for her and her sister’s care began to arrive later than promised, their caregiver, Gertrude Baniszewski, began to subject Sylvia to the severe physical abuse that eventually claimed her life.
Tough To Watch
The film adaptation of Sylvia Likens’s Torture and Murder is brilliantly shot but extremely difficult to watch at times.
The filmmakers do a great job depicting the brutality without taking the visuals to the levels of Hostel or Saw. Though the torture happens on the screen, much of the graphic details are left to the imagination. However, the filmmakers still manage to get the dread and fear across to audiences, a mark of great filmmaking.
Streaming The Girl Next Door
The Girl Next Door also does a wonderful job of adapting real events to the screen and turning them into interesting (and depressing) storytelling.
The film’s actors are relative unknowns, save for the adult David Moran, portrayed by William Atherton (Ghostbusters), but all make for a believable set of characters.
The Girl Next Door is a depressing film, and certainly not for the faint-hearted. Its style falls short of exploitation and, thankfully, tells a terrible story in the best possible way.
You can stream The Girl Next Door for free with Freevee and Tubi or rent it On Demand with Vudu, Google Play, AppleTV, and Prime.
News
The Rings Of Power: All 7 Clues The Stranger Is Gandalf In Season 2
Amazon Prime Video’s The Rings of Powercontinues to hint that The Stranger is Gandalf, with several new pieces added to the puzzle in season 2. Daniel Weyman plays The Stranger in The Rings of Power cast, a character who’s a bit of a…
Adar Killing Sauron Makes Much More Sense After The Rings Of Power’s Morgoth Reveal
A flashback in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2, episode 1 saw Adar murder Sauron, and this makes a lot more sense after episode 6’s big Morgoth reveal. The Dark Lord Morgoth, who had been Sauron’s master,…
Pharazon’s Sauron Vision Is Hugely Exciting For The Rings Of Power Season 3
Pharazôn had an eerie vision when he touched the palantír in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2, and what he saw was an exciting setup for Prime Video’s next installment. 2024’s episodes have been predominantly dedicated to…
Can Sauron Control Balrogs? What The Rings Of Power Season 2’s Moria Tease Really Means
Sauron pays a visit to Khazad-dûm in The Rings of Power season 2, episode 6, and there’s a worrisome tease that suggests the villain could use the Balrog against the Dwarves in future installments. The Rings of Power has been teasing the Balrog within Khazad-dûm’s mines…
The Rings Of Power Season 2 Is Directly Copying The Two Towers (& Not Trying To Hide It)
The Rings of Power is obviously going to have a lot in common with The Lord of the Rings, but season 2 is directly copying The Two Towers — and it isn’t even trying to hide it. The Rings of Power season 2 is approaching its final episodes, and…
Why Sauron’s Elven Form Looks Different From Other Elves In Rings Of Power Season 2 Detailed By LOTR Designer
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power designer Barrie Gower has explained how Sauron’s Elven form differs from the show’s other Elves. Abandoning his disguise as the mortal Halbrand, season 2 sees the future second Dark Lord of Middle-earth transform into…
End of content
No more pages to load