The Girl Next Door (2007)

"One sound down here and I promise I'll kill the both of you. 

Not just punish you, kill you. Dead."

I was not physically or emotionally prepared to watch this film...

After her parents are killed, a young teenage girl is subjected to unspeakable abuse by her aunt whom she has been sent to live with.

After spending some time looking for new and unusual horrors to watch, I stumbled upon 'The Girl Next Door'. A film that I had never even heard of but apparently had a reputation behind it for being powerful and disturbing. I had to import it from the U.S. but when I finally got down to actually watching it I was totally taken aback. 

It's not 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' or 'Halloween', where you're egging on the killer and having a pretty fun time revelling in the horror, 'The Girl Next Door' is a serious and harrowing look into a severe case of child abuse. 

This film isn't even just a horror. It is truly horrific drama.

Based on Jack Ketchum's novel of the same name, the film is set in 50's America in the suburbs of a sweet little town. It plays on the expectations of the glossy, romantic feelings we have of that time period. Teenage kids having fun, drinking coke and riding their bikes. Underneath this picturesque 'Stand By Me' type town lies a dark and horrific underbelly of violence, abuse and torture. All this fuelled by "Aunt" Ruth Chandler.

The film centres around young David Moran and his orphaned crush - Meg Loughin - who, along with her crippled sister, has just moved in with her Aunt Ruth. Things begin to take a turn for the worse for Meg as David notices some strange goings on in the Chandler household.

There is an ever present sense of dread throughout the whole first act of 'The Girl Next Door'. This isn't an enjoyable tension that a lot of horror fans thrive on, this is the uneasy feeling that things are going to go from bad to worse and you're not sure if you even want to stick around for it. You're not waiting for a masked killer to strike, this horror comes from the home and from a figure in authority. A mother.

The level of realism that the film creates is both fantastic and unbearable at times. You genuinely feel shocked at what you are seeing and it can be hard to keep looking at the screen. A lot of this believability comes from the acting talent in the film. When you think horror, great acting is not normally what springs to mind for a lot of films but 'The Girl Next Door' actually had some really solid and engaging performances.

Blanche Baker as Aunt Ruth was the standout performance of the film. Ruth abuses her power as the authoritative figure over the group of young teenagers and convinces them into doing her bidding. Her portrayal of Ruth is terrifying, calculated and unhinged but most importantly, alongside director Gregory Wilson, she brings a psychology to the role that a lot of directors and actors would miss. Despite her manipulative personality and blatant abuse of power, you get a sense of where she is coming from. To her, it's perfectly rational what she is doing. This is what is even more terrifying about her character and makes her all the more devastating when she's in control of the young group of boys.

The two young leads of the film - David and Meg, played by Daniel Manche and Blythe Auffarth, are both very confident in their characters and have some extremely challenging scenes that even the most seasoned actors would find daunting. 

The torture and violence in the film isn't gratuitous, fetishised or exploitative. It's integral to the plot and, unlike modern torture porn that continually crops up, it's not there for enjoyment. What happens is sickening to even think about let alone watch on screen. Despite the extreme nature of the scenes, it's handled very creatively and tastefully for what it is. Child abuse is always an insanely grey area and is so borderline that few filmmakers have the ability, vision or balls to do it. It can so easily go wrong for any director of any level.

The film deals with some really challenging themes and ideas and pushes you to the limit of what you can emotionally handle. It makes you feel uncomfortable and makes you question your own involvement as an audience member. By watching these scenes along with the characters, it implicates you and makes you feel involved. By watching David struggle it makes you want to scream at the screen and you feel powerless to help, as he does. 

Overall, 'The Girl Next Door' is not an enjoyable experience but it's an experience nonetheless. It hits you in the gut with some really hard to swallow ideas and images. It's got a crystal clear message and hammers it home with a sledgehammer. Even I barely managed to finish it. I found myself groaning in shock and horror at the events that unfold in the climax. I'm glad I've seen it but I don't think I'd like to watch it again, once was enough and certain scenes will stick with me for a long time.

For all it's gruelling to watch, it's got some really important things to say. Child abuse is still happening in this day in age and this film gives us a pretty clear insight into what needs to be done and the consequences of not acting. 

It's a hard film to get through and I can't really say that it's rewarding to get to the end. If you're strong enough to sit through it until the credits without flinching or cringing then you've got cajones man...