The Girl Next Door is Horror in the Most Disturbing Sense

In Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door the basis for the story of beatings, torture and murder come from a true-life neighborhood nightmare, bringing to light the real horror that can exist in a typical suburban neighborhood.

Written by BHM Contributor The Zombie Master
April 23, 2009


Release: 2007
Directed by: Gregory Wilson
Written by: Daniel Farrands & Philip Nutman

Starring:
Blythe Auffarth as Meg Loughlin
Daniel Manche as David Moran
Blanche Baker as Ruth Chandler

Here of late I have noticed an intense discussion among the horror aficionados concerning the question, “What is horror?” I believe that this is healthy for any genre because we do not want to lose sight the core, or foundation, that all sub-genres are built upon. H.P. Lovecraft once stated that “horror is a genre that is supposed to be against the world, against life, against civilization.” I believe that about wraps it up in one neat little sentence. Because of this I feel that the horror genre has to have a strong base in true horror.

Case in point, in October, 1965 a young girl by the name of Sylvia Likens was found dead in the home of Gertrude Baniszewski. She had been beaten and tortured by Gertrude, her children, and several neighbor children. The trial that followed was highly publicized and showed America that true horror can be next door.

In 2007, The Girl Next Door, based on the book by Jack Ketchum, was released and is loosely based on the Likens story. As told through the eyes of David Moran (Daniel Manche), a young boy who lives next door, we see Meg Loughlin (Blythe Auffarth) and her sister Susan (Madeline Taylor) who has moved into the house of their aunt Ruth Chandler (Blanche Baker) after the death of their parents. We witness the slow psychopathic decay of Aunt Ruth with the help of alcoholism as she becomes more and more brutal with the sisters, Meg taking the brunt of the abuse. Meg ends up being bound in the basement where Ruth, her three sons, and the neighborhood children both physically and eventually sexually abuse her. David attempts to help her before it becomes too late for either of the girls to escape.

Around the same time that The Girl Next Door was released, An American Crime was released focusing on the same subject matter. An American Crime however is a crime/drama that is based on the actual transcripts of the trial of Gertrude Baniszewski. A good movie in itself, with Ellen Page in the lead role, but it was not filmed as part of the horror genre.

The Girl Next Door, on the other hand, is exactly what Lovecraft was talking about. The worst aspects of the Likens story are brought out into full view for the world to see and it is truly “against the world.” Although not gory, The Girl Next Door is disturbing in its visualization of the subject matter. The most disturbing aspects, in my opinion, were the willingness of the children to be involved and the unwillingness of the adult neighbors to be involved. In the real case, four children were convicted of either second degree murder or manslaughter for their involvement and the testimony of a next door neighbor, who heard all of the screams and cries, was used by the prosecution against Gertrude.

Even if you find the subject matter hard to get through, I do suggest that you watch The Girl Next Door, because without “evil”, we have nothing to base “good” on, and without “real horror” we have nothing to anchor our sensationalizations to.