Miscellaneous Humanity Reviews

Now She's Perfect

The Girl Next Door
directed by Gregory Wilson
posted by Kattastrophe

 


So, I’m home alone and not doing anything that requires a lot of thought. I start up the 360 and scroll around the Horror section of Netflix, seeing if there’s anything new. There is. A movie called The Girl Next Door. The summary said something about a girl forced to live with her psychopathic aunt.

When I started this movie, I was expecting something like a typical slasher movie. But this movie doesn’t really deliver any of the thrills or chills that a horror flick should. Don’t get me wrong, it is horrific and terrifying, but not at all in the way I was prepared for. The torture that Meg suffers is different from most of the other torture porn movies. It’s not like Hostel where the characters kind of annoyed you anyway. Or Saw where they all perversely deserve it. Meg is just a girl. She’s portrayed with such heartbreaking reality that… I lack words.

It follows Davy, a normal kid in a neighborhood full batshit folks. He falls in love with the pretty Meg after she comes to live with his friend’s mother, Ruth. At first, Ruth is a little callous to Meg and her sister, but that turns to abuse, and, slowly, to torture.

Ruth, clearly a woman scorned, not only heaps the abuse on Meg, but also encourages the neighborhood children to participate. One of the most chilling moments comes when Davy expresses his doubts about having Meg tied up and naked in the basement. One of the other children motions to Ruth and says, “What? We got permission.” It’s like the Milgram and Stanford experiments mashed together. Ruth has told the other kids that Meg is less, so they treat her as such. Then, with Ruth’s authority, they do awful things to her, because it’s not only okay, it’s considered good.

The whole thing hurdles at the speed of pain to a crescendo of rape, sadism, and sexual mutilation that left me feeling sick. I watch a lot of graphic bullshit. I have the internet. Back in the day, I knew Ogrish.com’s archives inside and out. But this movie seriously, honestly freaked me out. Gave me nightmares.

Part of it might have been the “based on true events” tag after the title. Horror movie fans see that a lot, though. It could have meant nothing. So, I looked it up. TruTV.com has a pretty in depth article on it. The real life Meg was named Sylvia Likens. Her parents didn’t die in a car accident, they were carnies and didn’t want to take her and her sister. Her sister, IRL Jenny, wasn’t mangled in the fictional car accident, she had polio. And IRL, Sylvia was probably never raped, nor was she… well… that’s a spoiler. But the IRL Sylvia was forced to eat feces. And more people in the IRL case saw what was happening and didn’t say a word to stop it.

Ultimately, if you’re looking for a no-brainer scary movie, this is not it. But if you’d like to be truly disturbed, absolutely watch it. I had some trouble figure out what to rate this, because it really wasn’t enjoyable to watch. But it is expertly done.

nWoD Inspiration:
The world. It is the World of Darkness. The apathy and indifference that the people show is absolutely in line with it.