Season 2: Episode 49 - 2 FOR ONE: The Girl Next Door (2007) / An American Crime (2008)

The Girl Next Door (2007)

 

Based on a book by Jack Ketchum with a screenplay by newcomers Daniel Farrands and Phillip Nutman and directed by Gregory M Wilson, is a film that is very hard to watch but notable as it is loosely based on a true story.  Ketchum was so haunted about the story of Sylvia Likens whose aunt and neighbourhood children would torture, rape, beat and eventually kill her over the summer. 

 

The Girl Next Door is a hard hitting story that does not shy away from the situation that presents itself with an excellent performance by Blanche (Sixteen Candles) Baker as the diabolical Aunt Ruth.  The film does have its own retribution level that doesn’t happen in the real story with one of the children trying to save Meg from her Aunt. 

 

The film is very brutal and although this is a fictionalized account of the Sylvia Likens murder, it still gives a very strong punch.

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An American Crime (2008)

 

One year after The Girl Next Door, Showtime produced and aired ‘An American Crime’ which tells the true story of Sylvia Likens murder.  Script by Tommy O’Havers and Irene Turner and directed by Tommy O’Havers.

 

This true story is the shocking tale of Sylvia Likens who was beat, raped, branded and killed by her aunt, cousins and neighbourhood children in 1965.  The film would have difficulty finding a distributor due to the subject matter but Showtime would show the film in 2008. 

 

The film would star an up and coming cast which included Ellen Page, James Franco, Evan Peters, Scout Taylor-Compton and an award winning performance by Catherine Keener. 

 

Opening Credits (.20); Introduction (4.49); Forming the Plot (29.11); Commercial Break (34.02); Film Trailer (34.32); Scene by Scene (36.52); Forming the Plot (1:20.39); Commercial Break (1:22.01); Film Trailer (1:22.50); Lights, Camera, Action (1:24.49); Epilogue (2:20.27); End Credits (2:25.12); Closing Theme (2:26.26)

 

Opening Credits – The Kids Aren’t Alright – by The Offspring from the album Americana

 

Closing Credits – Gone Too Soon – by Rachel Tucker from the album The Reason

 

All songs rights reserved

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All song available through Amazon.