The Girl Next Door

I dunno- looks a little classy to me. And I can't have that!

Anyone wanna fill me in on the story?

I find it hard to believe that anyone would have the balls to follow through with filming the last third of that book. But I have to admit that all of the pictures from the movie do convey the feel of the book. There is just no way that movie could be anything less than NC-17 to do the book justice.

I wonder if they'll get Jim Carrey to play the narrator. (sorry, my wife was watching Simon Birch this past weekend).

I haven't read the book, but after reading a couple of reviews, this seems like this movie will be either soul-crushingly great or completely stupid.

I'll be interested to see how it turns out.

And to make things even worse, it'll probably be cut down to a PG-13 rating. Then again, maybe if the R-rated horror continues to make money at the box office, maybe they will go R.

This was one of the few books that I honestly couldn't read again. I felt dirty after finishing it.

It is good to see Ketchum getting some movie love. I liked what I've seen from The Lost, and the Girl Next Door Poster is promising. I also read somewhere that Red was going into production with Lucky McKee at the helm. That should also be interesting.

Oh. My. God.

I litearlly JUST finished reading this book. Holy shit. I tore thru this thing in record time. I couldn't put it down. You do feel dirty and horrified (not terrified, but horrified) reading this. But you CAN'T look away. I DEFY you to read the last 2 words in chapter 45 and not be deeply disturbed by the matter of fact way it's said. The bald fact of it just lying there. After all you've read, even if you knew it was coming, the plain, matter-of-fact way they're written. . . It really hits you where you live. Or it should. I'm almost ashamed to say I "enjoyed" this book. It kind of beats you about the face and ears with horrifying, disturbing imagery and concepts, the worst of which is that a) there's not a supernatural element to be found in this book; it's all man's inhumanity to man, so to speak, and b) it's based on a TRUE story. The edition of the book I have has an afterword by Ketchum that says he eased up on the facts in the real story. Considering what made it into the fictionalized account in the book. . . you have to wonder what the hell he kept out.

But I really don't think I want to know.

In short, I can't remember when a book has affected me this deeply. It sure ain't good clean fun, it may not even be anyone's definition of "enjoyable", but Goddam if it isn't worth it for the emotional ride. I cannot recommend this book highly enough to any horror fan. jesus, I hope they do a good job with this movie. A book this powerful deserves nothing less.

I got this book today, too. Even though I'm on the third chapter, and nothing bad has happened yet, but knowing the facts of the Baniskewski case (which unnerved me for days, and I have the fucking Encyclopedia of Serial Killers on my bookshelf), I kind of already have this pit in my stomach waiting for the shit to hit the fan. I think it has to do with the early pubescent sexualization of the girl.

Chapter Thirty.

Man, fuck this book.

Also, I'm surprised that there's been no mention that The Man With No Dick, William Atherton, is playing "Adult David" in the flick.

Finished early this morning. Jesus Christ.

I mean, seriously, Jesus Christ. I wanted so much for the girls to make it through this -- even after the incident with the tire iron -- and Ketchum is so very, very, very good at making the small changes to the Baniskewski (sic) story that from the first page onward, you can't help but wonder if maybe, just maybe, the girl next door is going to win, and it's a hope and feeling that stays with you until the last page. And I can already tell that this is a book, if and when I can reread it, that the same feeling will be there -- a hope that maybe this time, she'll be all right.

Jesus H. Christ.

The very existence of this movie causes me anxiety.

Just like with the book, it's going to sit there waiting for me to watch it and I'll eventually cave in, even though I know it will fuck me up. I don't know where the filmmakers are going with this movie but it has the potential to be the one of the nastiest ever put to celluloid.

Just finished reading this. Pretty much wanted to kill almost every single motherfucking character in it.

How the hell is this going to be a movie? No theatrical distributor will want to touch it. It'll make Audition look like a Nora Ephron film.

HUGE FUCKING SPOILERS; BEWARE AND STUFF
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I have to say, the more I think about this adaptation, the more I agree. I mean, how the fuck are you even going to imply the fact that they burn a fourteen year old girl's clitoris off with a tire iron and walk away with anything less than a NC-17? Christ.

Agreed. On one hand, a watered down version of this book will be pretty worthless and underwhelming. On the other hand, how faithful to the book are they going to go that am I going to want to see visually?

I'm all a-twitter. Can't wait!

Great review, Alex. I'm a little bummed to hear that they softened David's character, however. As I mentioned in the Current Reading thread, I thought it was really brilliant (and uncomfortable) that Ketchum's narrative forces you into the mindset of this ambivalent, sexually confused little kid. It seems like the movie has to lose something in the translation because part of the payoff is watching David finally attempt to do the right thing (especially after you've spent pages 30 to 200 or so wanting to knock the hell out of the little bastard). Still, I've got to see it.

Now, I wonder if I can convince the wife to go. She's already read the book (so it's unlikely).

how could they possible do this book justice? it's tough for me to think of a book as unfilmable as this one...

i can't wait to see what they did with it.

oh man, meg is the chick from keeping the faith. this is gonna be a tough watch...

Still no release date, official or otherwise? Or any word on how wide a release it'll get?

Man, they certainly got a kid who looks like a young William Atherton, didn't they?

I kind of don't want to see this, but I kind of do. I'm torn.

Those bastards!

I've been waiting for this to go into a wider release. I guess I'll have to be satisfied with the DVD release.

This played its last weekend in NYC this weekend, and even though I was in the city, I simply could not bring myself to see it. I wanted to, and I'll definitely check out the DVD, but the thought of seeing that final atrocity on a big screen was just too much.

I really would have liked to have seen this movie in the theater, but at least im going to get to see this one.