Jack Ketchum’s The Girl Next Door (2007/Horror)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C Film: C
As yet
another indictment of suburban living and the 1950s, Gregory M. Wilson’s
version of Jack Ketchum’s The Girl Next
Door (2007) starts out with some promise as a lonely man (the
always-welcome William Atherton) reflects on his life and starts to recall (in
voice over) the worst incident of all.
After a while, just about the rest of this affair is in flashback.
At first,
the story is set up well, as we learn about the neighborhood, summer life and
smooth living in the suburbs.
Unfortunately, as soon as the story turns to a sick woman who is beating
and then torturing adopted children and encouraging her birth children to do
the same thing, it pulls the rug out of everything in the lamest way and this
all implodes in dull predictability, becomes as shallow as it does predictable
and never recovers. By the time it is
all over, which is never soon enough, the bookend with Atherton is pointless as
is you bothering to watch it at all.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image originates on digital High Definition
video and looks it, with poor detail and a slight haziness throughout beyond
the stylized look of the flashback. The
Dolby Digital 5.1 mix tries to spread out the low budget sound, but is not much
better than the Dolby 2.0 included.
Extras includes a DVD-ROM PDF of the script, trailer, making of
featurette, on camera cast/crew interviews and two audio commentaries that both
do not include Atherton and add up to little.
- Nicholas Sheffo
