The Girl Next Door. Gregory Wilson, 2007.
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Edition screened: Anchor Bay DVD, released 2007. English language. Runtime approximately 91 minutes.
Summary: Earthworm torture.
Details: At 7:24 a single night crawler is removed from a group in a can, and placed in a red ants’ nest. The ants begin to attack it, the camera shift to boys discussing ant wars, and the camera returns to a second image of the worm under attack, 7:44.
The Girl Next Door is based on the real story of a young girl who is imprisoned and tortured in the basement of an Anytown USA house. While many aspects of the story and the way in which the story is told merit discussion, this particular telling of the lie of mid-century innocence is especially heavy and makes a clunky weapon.
The viewer is intended to identify with young David, who is almost the hero and who almost tried to save the poor girl. The story is told by poor, poor David, now in his fifties and making a huge salary on Wall Street. From time to time poor David is very upset by his recollection of watching a nice girl being slowly tortured to death over the course of one summer in his youth. He is so upset that he just has to put on his boots and walk into the woods and toss a rock in disgust.