The Girl Next Door (2007)
What to do with The Girl Next Door? The film is an unusually brutal (and effective) genre picture, adapted from the novel of the same name by controversial author Jack Ketchum. The critics will be able to write it off, it has enough shortcomings (some of the acting and writing), but it shouldn’t be written off, the film has a savage power that I’ve rarely encountered in a horror picture (or any other for that matter). Stephen King has called The Girl Next Door the most unsettling American horror film since Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, and he’s not exaggerating.
A man walks out of an office building in the middle of the city and heads down the street. Another older man, who would appear to be literally living on the streets, passes him and collapses a few feet away in an intersection. The man bends over and tries to save the older person. It would appear that he has some success in doing this and he sees the older man taken away in an ambulance. The man goes home, he’s clearly doing well, and sits down with a drink and looks at a picture that he’s had for some time. He begins to tell us a story.
So far, so Stand By Me, and for twenty minutes of so The Girl Next Door appears to be an inadequate cover of that film. We’re in the 1950s, we’re watching young boys play and trade bad dialogue and deal with their obvious fear of the opposite sex in the usual ways, and…but are they dealing with their fear of opposite sex in the usual ways? The opening feels off. Like many low budget horror pictures, it’s hard to tell whether the surreal stiffness is intentional or not. 1950s America is normally approached by the movies in one of two ways: as nostalgic utopia or as nostalgic utopia as hypocritical mask of unspeakable corruption. One guess as to where we’re going here.
Slowly though The Girl Next Door finds it’s footing, and, having seen the entire film, I think it’s fair to say that director Gregory Wilson’s execution in the beginning is at least partially purposeful, he’s seducing us, tricking us into putting our Jaded Horror Filmgoer hats on, and then, then…well, it was bound to happen sooner or later, the subgenre of “torture ______” has been too popular, too significant for it not to. Someone had to eventually go and make the Bonnie and Clyde of those films, a film that challenges and punishes us for allowing human suffering to be turned into a game show. The Girl Next Door is that film.
Two young girls move into the neighborhood after losing their parents in an accident. They are to live with their aunt now, who has several boys of her own. Our protagonist, the young version of the man we met in the beginning, is accustomed to visiting Aunt Ruth (Blanche Baker) and the boys. And he’s immediately taken with the older of the two girls, Meg (Blythe Auffarth). Ruth doesn’t seem to like Meg too much, and she has an uncomfortable way of letting Meg know that. She punishes Meg, doesn’t let her eat because (according to Ruth) she’s getting too fat. The boys tickle Meg, and touch her in a way that’s inappropriate. Meg slaps one of them. Ruth responds by beating the younger sister. Then the boys and Ruth begin playing truth telling games with Meg in the basement, games that develop with remarkable speed and cruelty. Our protagonist is appalled, tries to tell his mom…but can’t. He tries to tell his dad….but can’t. He continues to visit the house, to check on the games, and things keep getting worse and worse and worse and, as viewers, we’re stuck, along for the ride.
Have you ever read Harlan Ellison’s “The Whimper of Whipped Dogs”, a short story in which a woman is murdered in a city neighborhood and no one does anything? The Girl Next Door has the same unblinking relentlessness. Many will hate this film, will resent what it’s doing to them, but Wilson plays fair. The film, visually, is tamer than most R-rated slasher movies. But Wilson isn’t staging a gory, cathartic exhibition, he’s watching a family bind together to torture and demean a young girl and he’s appalled. How novel. I confess. I almost turned this DVD off several times. This is 90 minutes that feels like two and half months and there’s no way out, and no real payback for the Aunt and her children. By the end of the film, other neighborhood boys and girls are watching, joining in the fun, and NO ONE does anything to stop it.
I can’t imagine watching The Girl Next Door again, but the film should (maybe) be seen once. Our cages should be rattled like this occasionally. I’ve read a few responses to this film on the web, some people called the movie “absurd” and “pointless”. The “absurd” issue is not entirely untrue, more context of the dynamics of Ruth and her household would have probably helped, but I can’t imagine how someone could watch the film and disregard it entirely. And one question for those who call The Girl Next Door pointless, if the man hadn’t seen Meg die all those years ago, would he have stopped to help the older man in the street?
★★★
January 15th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
Very interesting. I’m hesitant about a film like this, but since I’m trying to broaden my horror horizons, maybe I’ll have a look.
I’m not squeamish or easily disturbed, but there are dark places I’m not always sure I want to go…and yet when I know they’re right there I can’t help it.
January 16th, 2008 at 7:41 am
I know exactly what you mean Craig. Would be interested to see what you think of this.
January 17th, 2008 at 10:34 am
I’ve said it before but it bears repeating: I’m totally relying on you to broaden my horror/thriller horizons. I haven’t gone crazy, but I’m keeping a list. So far you haven’t steered me wrong on The Host or Descent.
March 3rd, 2008 at 1:20 pm
The Girl Next Door is undeniably effective, but I’m left to wonder if it’s worth being taken places I don’t necessarily want to go.
From a purely technical level, I like what you touch on here about how the movie is set up and about what it becomes. Even from the very start, there’s something unsettling about it. It almost reminded me of a Cronenberg movie. Things aren’t exaggerated exactly, but there’s a hyper-reality to them almost and everyone seems uncomfortable, like they know what horror is lurking below the surface and the audience just isn’t privy to it yet.
The way it escalates it makes it easier to see how the characters could get sucked into this evil without really questioning the right and the wrong of it. Each step along the way is only a little more disturbing than what came before so that by the time the blow torch comes out…we’ll we’re rightfully horrified, but it’s not a stretch to see how the characters are almost numbed to it by this point.
Like you, I’m not sure if I’ll ever watch it again, but there was something compelling about it. I’m more curious now about The Lost, but also more uneasy. We’ll see.
March 3rd, 2008 at 1:30 pm
I think The Girl Next Door works, and Ketchum’s writing (I thumbed through the book) is spare and beautiful. Ketchum catches the forbidden erotic pull that a scenario such as this could hold over a mixed up young man, and the film, I think, with much less room, also approximates this well. The film REALLY REALLY bothered me, and I think the scene that disturbs me more than any other is the moment when Meg, blind folded, asks if the boy (the protaganist) is there. And they say yes. That is such an unforgettable moment of pain and violation, this is true horror. And, again, I feel that the film plays fair, it never goes for “cool” or for hip or cathartic.