THE GIRL NEXT DOOR

There appear to be several movies or shows with this same title, The Girl Next Door. The one we are reviewing here is from a Jack Ketchums novel. The film was released in 2007, and the story is based on a true events.

I don't want to give anything away and spoil the movie, yet after watching it myself, I feel I owe it to the next viewer to offer some hope for justice, in a no-win, no-hope type of film.

I regretted seeing this movie and yet felt an obligation to see it to the end. Hoping against all odds that the victim would be rescued and see justice, I watched truly disturbing and unspeakable acts of cruelty and torture against a teenage girl. I guess that knowing it was based on true events, I felt if this girl could go through all this, the least I could do is cross my fingers and hope for her. This was silly, I know considering the film takes place the year I was born, in 1958, and the story long ended and forgotten.

I couldn't help thinking that everyone has skeletons in their closets, and you can never really know what they might be, even if the people live right next door to you. The thought also haunts me that these same things are probably going on somewhere right now, as I write this, and as you read it, and we, as the boy in this film are helpless to stop the horror.