''Jack Ketchums The Girl Next Door'' (also known as ''Jack Ketchum's Evil'') is a 2007 American

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...

directed by Gregory M. Wilson from a screenplay by Daniel Farrands and Philip Nutman. It is based on

Jack Ketchum Dallas William Mayr (November 10, 1946 – January 24, 2018), better known by his pen name Jack Ketchum, was an American horror fiction author. He was the recipient of four Bram Stoker Awards and three further nominations. His novels inclu ...

's 1989 novel of the same name, which was inspired by the real-life

murder of Sylvia Likens Sylvia Marie Likens (January 3, 1949 – October 26, 1965) was an American teenager who was tortured and murdered by her caregiver, Gertrude Baniszewski, many of Baniszewski's children, and several of their neighborhood friends. This abuse in ...

, to whom the movie is dedicated.

Plot

In 2007, a man named David Moran witnesses a man

hit and run In traffic laws, a hit and run or a hit-and-run is the act of causing a traffic collision and not stopping afterwards. It is considered a supplemental crime in most jurisdictions. Additional obligation In many jurisdictions, there may be an ...

by a car in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He responds to the situation and tries to resuscitate the victim. That evening, he reflects on his past in the summer of 1958, when he meets his first teenage crush, Meg Loughlin. Meg and her disabled sister Susan have lost their parents in a car accident and are now living with their aunt, Ruth Chandler, and her sons, Willie, Ralphie, and Donny. Ruth freely allows her sons' young friends, including David, to her house, where she entertains them and offers them beer and cigarettes. Meanwhile, Ruth starves Meg, subjects her to

misogynistic Misogyny () is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women. It is a form of sexism that is used to keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the societal roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been widely practiced fo ...

lectures, and accuses her of being a

whore Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-penet ...

while her children listen. After an incident when Meg hits Ralphie when he inappropriately touches her, Ruth strips and spanks Susan for being a "conniver," forcing Meg to watch. Ruth then confiscates Meg's ring necklace that had belonged to her mother. Meg reports the

abuse Abuse is the improper usage or treatment of a thing, often to unfairly or improperly gain benefit. Abuse can come in many forms, such as: physical or verbal maltreatment, injury, assault, violation, rape, unjust practices, crimes, or other t ...

to a local police officer named Officer Jennings, but law enforcement does not criminally charge Ruth. As punishment, Ruth and her sons bind Meg in the basement and torment her, strip her, and then leave her overnight, hanging by the arms from the rafters. She eventually becomes dehydrated and is unable to even eat the dry toast Ruth tries to feed her. Ruth again spanks Susan's bare bottom as punishment for Meg. With Ruth's approval, the neighborhood children visit the Chandler residence to tie, beat, burn and cut Meg for fun. Ruth cauterizes the wounds Meg receives with cigarettes. David tries to tell his parents but is unable to do so. Officer Jennings checks in once more, answering another call about Meg’s abuse, but Ruth and her sons convince Officer Jennings that they were simply roughhousing. While they are distracted speaking to the officer, David loosens Meg's bindings and tells her to escape that night, even offering to leave money for her in the woods. Meg very nearly escapes but is caught when she comes back for Susan. David returns to the Chandler house and is guided to the basement, where Meg is being

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ag ...

d by Willie. Donny also wishes to rape Meg, but Ruth refuses because she thinks it would be

incest Incest ( ) is human sexual activity between family members or close relatives. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by affinity (marriage or stepfamily), adoption ...

for him to "skinny dip in his brother's scum". Ruth then carves a sexually explicit message into Meg's abdomen with a heated bobby pin and burns her clitoris with a

blowtorch A blowtorch, also referred to as a blowlamp, is an ambient air fuel-burning gas lamp used for applying flame and heat to various applications, usually metalworking. Early blowtorches used liquid fuel, carried in a refillable reservoir attache ...

. David attempts to leave and get help, but the boys tie him up and kick him in the groin before turning their attention back to Meg. Later in the day, David awakes still on the basement floor. He frees himself from his bindings and finds Susan sitting with an unconscious Meg. Susan reveals that she had confessed to Meg about Ruth molesting her, making Meg hesitant to escape alone. David plans their escape and lights a fire in the basement. As Ruth enters, David beats her to death with Susan's crutch. Ruth's sons arrive in the basement, and Willie attempts to cut David’s throat with a knife before Officer Jennings intervenes and arrests the Chandler boys. The police take Susan from the basement so that she can testify in court, leaving Meg with David. David returns the ring necklace to Meg, who uses the last of her energy to thank David for what he has done and profess her love for him before finally dying from her injuries. Back in 2007, the adult David reflects on how his past still haunts him. However, as Meg taught him, "It's what you do last that counts."

Cast

Additionally,

Mark Margolis Mark Margolis (; born November 26, 1939) is an American actor. He is known for playing Alberto "The Shadow" in '' Scarface'', Antonio Nappa in '' Oz'', and Hector Salamanca in '' Breaking Bad'' and ''Better Call Saul''. His performance in ''Break ...

portrays the homeless man struck by a vehicle at the beginning of the film and

Peter Stickles Peter Stickles (born October 8, 1976) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as the voyeuristic Caleb in the John Cameron Mitchell film ''Shortbus'' and as Damian, leader of a gay vampire cult, in the Here TV original series ''The Lai ...

portrays an EMT.

, the author of the novel that the film is based on, appears as a carnival worker.

Production

Blythe Auffarth Blythe Auffarth (born April 23, 1985, in Pleasant Valley, New York Pleasant Valley is a town in Dutchess County, within the Hudson Valley of New York, United States. The population was 9,799 at the 2020 census. The town is centrally located i ...

asserted all the scenes in which she is hung up and blindfolded were wearing for her. "It's extremely humiliating and it's a little bit scary being so without control. It's scary being helpless and it's humiliating hanging and dangling there, and it's even more petrifying to have your senses taken away from you," she said. The film's original score was composed by

Ryan Shore Ryan Shore (born 29 December 1974) is a Canadian composer, songwriter, conductor, music producer, and music director for film, television, virtual reality, records, games, concerts, and theater. He is often known from his scores for '' Star ...

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, it has an approval rating of 67% based on reviews from 15 critics, with an average rating of 6.1/10.

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

gives the film a score of 29% based on reviews from 5 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...

said about the film, "The first authentically shocking American film I've seen since '' Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer'' over 20 years ago. If you are easily disturbed, you should not watch this movie. If, on the other hand, you are prepared for a long look into hell, suburban style, ''The Girl Next Door'' will not disappoint. This is the dark-side-of-the-moon version of '' Stand by Me''."

References

External links