On DVD: The Girl Next Door

Directed By Billy Ray

Starring Chris Cooper, Laura Linney, Ryan Phillippe

I had to consider this film for some time after viewing it.  How do you say "I liked it" or "it's a good film" to a film like this?  It reminded me of reviewing a film called Irreversible where I found myself in the same quandary.  The answer I came up for with that film applies to this one too.

The Movie

This film is based on a novel which is loosely based on real events,  Having a film like this one even being loosely based on relity is a scary thing.  Let me explain;

The film, set in the 50's, is about a young girl and her disabled sister move in with their Aunt Ruth.  Ruth is mentally unstable to say the least and she not only favors her two sons but also most of the neighborhood boys.  She lets them hang out in her house and drink beer.  She starts out over disciplining the older of the two girls and eventually transitions to torturing her.  In the story the pack mentality takes over and when Ruth gets her sons involved in the torture the boys in town also begin to participate.

Yes this film is about torture, but it's also about the pack mentality, it's about the pressure young kids are under when they are the outsider, and there's even a layer of unrequited love between the young girl and one of the boys who doesn't participate in her torture.  I didn't know what to expect when I dropped this DVD into my player but by the time the film was over I was sitting in my recliner chair stunned.  Seeing all of this happen in the overly innocent 50's era adds an additional layer of impact to the proceedings.

So, I can't say I necessarily liked the film but I can say I was effected by it, so much so that I will recommend it and I will say it will stay in my library.  Like Irreversible I will return to this film later as a benchmark for realistic horror and thriller films.  If you call yourself a fan of horror you have to see The Girl Next Door.  The acting is solid throughout, especially from the victim and the period sets and costumes are spot one.  Overall this is solidly executed film.  This is much scarier than your typical boo! type film.  Oh, one other thing, I know there is another film starring Elisha Cuthbert with the same title.  Skip that film and get this one, the one from Anchor Bay.

9/10

The Video

The widescreen transfer features bright vivid colors and well defined black levels.  There's a bit of grain and I noticed some softer images here and there but overall the film looks quite good.

8/10

The Audio

The surround sound presentation features a solid clean mix of dialogue, score, and effects.  Everything comes through loud, clear, and distortion free.  With that said the audio isn't extremely immersive but it does get the job done.  The audio is above average for an independent film.

8/10

Packaging and Bonus Features

The single disc release comes in a standard amaray case with effective artwork that does a good job of representing the film.

First up for bonus features we get a feature audio commentary with the director, producer, and cinematographer.  The commentary is fairly energetic and it offers a good bit of behind the scenes information.  I will say that some of the information is doubled in the featurettes but it's definitely worth a listen and you'll probably be compelled to listen to it as well as every bit of bonus stuff on the disc after you've finished the film.

There's also a second commentary with the writer of the original novel and the screenwriters.  As you might expect this one's more focused specifically on the writing and some of the differences in the novel and the screenplay.

For featurettes there is a making of documentary and a featurette made of a group of cast and crew interviews.  I think both of these featurettes could have been combined for one nice beefy making of featurette but I guess the extra bullet point makes the DVD looked more feature packed.  With that said there's some really great information between the two featurettes.  The interviews cover the first idea of making the film all the way to the production.  Most of the main players, including the children participate sharing their experiences and thoughts about the script.  Together the featurettes go way beyond the typical marketing video.

Other than that there's a trailer and the script on DVDROM.  I'd have liked more extras with even deeper coverage but what we get is all fairly solid information.

7/10

Overall (Not an Average) 8/10

The Review

The Movie 9/10

The Video 8/10

The Audio 8/10

The Packaging and Bonus Features 7/10

Overall (Not an Average) 8/10

-Stephen Lackey