Reviews: The Girl Next Door (2007) Movie Review
Genres: Horror, Thriller, Drama, Crime
Subgenres: Psychological, Thriller, Dysfunctional Family, Madness, Teens, Torture
Where does The Girl Next Door (2007) stand among horror films? Our review examines the scares, pacing, and what makes it unique in the genre.
The Girl Next Door (2007) is an American drama crime horror movie that is loosely based on a real event. Sylvia Likens was tortured and murdered by Gertrude Baniszewski in 1965 during the summer. The Girl Next Door is an adaptation of Jack Ketchum‘s 1989 novel, The Girl Next Door. The story is altered a little bit for the movie and takes place in the 1950s in New Jersey. Director Gregory Wilson (Home Invaders (2001), Ghoul (2012), Chiller 13: Horror’s Creepiest Kids (2011)) did an amazing job capturing this true story into a movie. The movie was sad, and I honestly had to see it more than once because it was too gruesome, sick, twisted that I did not have the heart and courage to sit through the entire movie and see the tortures that took place. It was terribly wrong what the aunt did to these girls, especially Meg. The movie contains r*pe, appalling content, torture of innocent little girls, bad language, a sad**tic aunt that have the neighborhood boys torture her niece, adult content and the movie is just sad.
The Girl Next Door is about sisters Meg (Blythe Auffarth - Keeping the Faith (2000), The American Mall (2008), An Invisible Sign (2010)) and Susan Loughlin (Madeline Taylor - Changeover (2014), Loop Planes (2010), John Adams (2008)) who lost their parents in a car accident. David Morin (Daniel Manche - I Sell the Dead (2008), As the World Turns (1956), Jug Face (2013)) was a Wall Street player when he witnessed the accident of the girls parents in 1958. The girls were sent to live with their psychopath aunt Ruth Chandler (Blanche Baker - Sixteen Candles (1984), Taking Chance (2009), Raw Deal (1986)) and her three sons Willie, Ralphie, and Donny. David has been Ruth’s neighbor since they were kids. He was infatuated with Meg upon her arrival at aunt Ruth’s home.
Aunt Ruth rule for her house is that anyone’s kid in the neighborhood can come in and out of her home as they wish. She offers the kids cigarettes, beer and treats them nice unlike the way she treats Meg. Aunt Ruth does not like Meg, and it shows by her talking down to Meg and calling her all sort of names like wh**e and other names children should not be called. Ruth also starves Meg when she desires to. Ruth beats Susan because Meg pushed Ralphie to the floor after he brushes her breast. Meg’s cousin held her down as her sister took a beating for something Susan did not do. Ruth is one ruthless person when it comes to the girls - she took away Meg’s ring that she wore around her neck. She tells the neighborhood kids to beat, cut and burn Meg when they feel like it. The ring means a great deal to Meg because it belonged to her deceased mother. Meg tried to get the help of an officer, but her aunt was tremendously upset when he became aware of it. Ruth punished Meg by tying her in the cellar, making her sons and their friends play a game with Meg. The game is called “confession”, and if Meg does not confess then she will be stripped naked. This monstrous aunt even had her son and neighborhood kids taking turns r**ing Meg. r**ing her was not enough for the evil, devilish aunt. She did more horrific, unimaginable things to Meg including using a fire iron.
Sources Used to Shape This Review
Insights in this review are drawn from director interviews, fan commentary, production notes, and long-form breakdowns across genre-specific platforms. Content is written uniquely and reviewed for accuracy.
- The Girl Next Door Rating Scores
- Our Score: 8/10
- Overall Score: 6.29/10
- IMDB: 6.5/10
- MetaCritic: 2.9/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 6.7/10
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