The Girl Next Door (2007 film)
| The Girl Next Door | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Gregory M. Wilson |
| Produced by | William M. Miller Andrew van den Houten |
| Screenplay by | Daniel Farrands Philip Nutman |
| Based on |
The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum |
| Starring |
Blanche Baker Daniel Manche Blythe Auffarth |
| Narrated by | William Atherton |
| Music by | Ryan Shore |
| Cinematography | William M. Miller |
| Edited by | M.J. Fiore |
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Production
company |
Modernciné
Modern Girl Productions |
| Distributed by | Starz Home Entertainment |
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Release date
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Running time
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91 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Girl Next Door (also known as Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door) is a 2007 American horror film adaptation of Jack Ketchum's 1989 novel of the same name. The film is loosely based on true events surrounding the torture and murder of Sylvia Likens by Gertrude Baniszewski during the summer of 1965.
In 2007, David Moran (William Atherton), a Wall Street player, witnesses a hit and run by a car. That evening, he reflects on his past in 1958, when he meets two adolescent girls, Meg (Blythe Auffarth) and Susan Loughlin (Madeline Taylor) who, upon losing their parents in a car accident, are sent to live with Ruth Chandler (Blanche Baker), a reclusive woman, and her three sons, Willie, Ralphie, and Donny (Graham Patrick Martin, Austin Williams and Benjamin Ross Kaplan).
As a child, David (Daniel Manche) is the next-door neighbor to the Chandlers. When Meg arrives, he instantly develops a crush on her. Aunt Ruth allows the children of the neighborhood to travel freely in and out of her house, offering them beer and cigarettes. Meg quickly becomes a target to Ruth, who belittles her, making suggestions that she is a whore and starves her. One day, David arrives at the house to find Meg's cousins tickling her. When Ralphie brushes her left breast, she knocks him to the floor, warning him to back off and runs from the room. Ruth beats Susan for Meg's actions, as Meg's cousins hold her back. Ruth then takes the ring that Meg wears around her neck, which belonged to her mother.
A few days later, Meg stops a policeman, Officer Jennings (Kevin Chamberlin) and tells him what happened. As punishment, Ruth, her children, and their friends bind Meg in the cellar with her hands tied to the rafters. They play a bizarre game of "confession", and when Meg has nothing to confess, she is stripped naked. They blindfold her, gag her and leave her there. That night, the boys sneak back downstairs, giving her water. They agree to loosen her bindings, but only if she lets them touch her. She refuses, but David loosens them anyway.
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Wikipedia