my preliminary research into this adaptation of a tale of demented human cruelty have me prim to expect a grueling viewing experience and if only i could be sure i would make it to the uk premier screening . but it be look a if london tube be against me . time be tick by and and the announcement of a fire alert at hyde park corner only serve to induce a fierce sense of frustration in me . decide to change line and i quickly scramble up the escalator at south kensington and switch to the circle and district line that could take me to embankment and from where it be only a quick sprint up the northern line to the leicester square tube station a mere stone throw away from my final fright fest destination . a i hurriedly take my seat in a darkened auditorium and i wipe the sweat from my brow and settle down to the narration of david and a 50 plus man remember a painful past . i have make it and but only just . brace yourself i think and my journey into torture and child abuse be about to begin . obviously haunt by a series of traumatic past incident and his own conflicted involvement and his monologue of regret quickly segue into a vivid portrayal of an idyllic 1950s u suburbia and or so it would seem . a in david lynch blue velvet and the viewer realise that still water run deep and that all will not be a it seem and make the anticipated revelation all the more shocking . in the girl next door we be wait for this idyll of childhood innocence to be shatter after all and it have haunt our narrator for nigh on 50 year . aware that forthcoming scene have lead to some instance of horrified audience walkout and i take whatever solace i could in this preliminary scene setting and desperately hop that young david first foray down into the basement would be a mere tease from the filmmaker . at first the young david seem like a lucky fellow play game with local friend and drink beer next door at his neighbour place and and meet meg and a lovely young lass who be adjust to a new life at auntie ruth house with her caliper splint wear sister after lose her parent in an automobile accident . ruth son aren not quite so likable however they enjoy watch ant devour worm . it could just be harmless childhood curiosity and but a it happen and it serve to augur something far bad . similarly and ruth dispensing of beer to underage kid might also be write off a relatively harmless and but again it serve to signal the potential for something else . we begin to realise that something scary lurks behind that smile and all that hospitality . ruth perspective on the world be subtly skew . ultimately and she resent her lonely and man less predicament and burden by three son and and hold neither the male nor the female sex in high regard . it here that the girl next door display a remarkable economy of storytelling a few key action and utterance be all that be require to create a set of fully realise and psychologically plausible character by which a remarkable set of occurrence be make credible . full credit have to go the scripting and the casting and the acting . less film with more generous budget would require 2 hour to achieve what the girl next door manages in only one and a half . the pacing be also remarkable by the time meg have be imprison in the basement and the game have begin and we have become unwilling but necessary witness of a despicable crime and uncertain a to the precise point at which the line be irrevocably cross . so many otherwise innocent child have come under ruth sway and observing and engaging in act they would never normally countenance and and it doesn not even seem remarkable and merely plausible . this be no mere sensationalist exercise in exploitation . as painful a it may be to become party to david anguish and meg suffering and our identification with their plight provide the only tolerable way to participate in the witnessing of a crime that all the more shocking because something so very similar really happen . without it basis in veracity it might not even be justifiable a anything but perverse voyeurism . and this be why this film will be remember . i anticipate a chain of chinese whisper accord this a deserved notoriety and assure the girl next door a special place in film history alongside such shocking and cautionary work a peep tom and a clockwork orange and and 10 rillington place . like all of these film and the girl next door be profoundly disturb and not for it visceral content and but for the psychological implication of it character action . after brand meg belly with derogatory expletive and then light a blow torch ( at which point a member of the audience vacate the cinema ) and you know ruth have go beyond sanity and beyond any hope of an existence that can ever escape the mental ramification of her sadism . once meg suffering have conclude and ruth evil have be extinguish and i emerge from the cinema tear stricken . anger and repulsion and pity may have be pulse through my gut and but my spirit be celebrate the power of cinema . i will be forever touch by the atrocity this film force me to confront . the girl next door be a film of rare pedigree .