No other horror movie has made me feel a sense of growing anxiety that turns into dread with each cycle of abuse and eventually torture getting worse. By giving the characters of David and Meg some sentimental scenes early on you empathize with them more. The film effectively puts you in their place and makes you feel the same emotions they do. A powerful commentary on the bystander effect, reverse misogyny, psychological dependence, and inversion of suburbia. I wouldn't like this movie as much if it didn't have some kind of bittersweet ending to it. The film doesn't deny you some kind of silver lining which I think you need having to watch this to end. The reflection by one character as they are older makes this similar to something that Stephen King would write and I always like that kind of reflection. It only helps that Blanche Baker gives an unprecedented performance as what could be my most hated villain in any film I've seen.
The film starts with a man named David Moran (William Atherton) witnessing a hit and run. He attempts to resuscitate the man. David then goes home and in a narrative voiceover he talks about reflecting on his time back in the summer of 1958. While out trying to catch crayfish he meets his neighbor Meg Laughlin (Blythe Aufforth). David also meets her on the night of a carnival and goes on a ferris wheel with her. Meg and her younger sister Susan (Madeline Taylor) are staying with their Aunt Ruth (Blanche Baker) after their parents were killed in a car accident which left Susan with injuries. Ruth also has three sons, Donny (Benjamin Ross Kaplan), Willie (Graham Patrick Martin), and Ralphie (Austin Williams).
Aunt Ruth's behavior toward Meg grows more and more hostile. One day while doing house chores Meg doesn't want to pick up worms and Ruth scorns her in front of everyone. When the boys are playing around with her one day one of them grabs her breast and Meg hits him to which one of them complains to Ruth. As Susan had witnessed the attack but not done anything to "defend" her cousins she spanks her both for being in league with Meg and to spite Meg. One day while David goes to get something to eat at a stand she says Ruth has been starving her and David buys her some food. While there Meg attempts to tell a cop what is going on. This is also called out in front of everyone at home. Meg is forced to be tied up, gagged and blindfolded in the basement. That is when the more torturous parts of this start.
Spoiler Section
The second half of this film mainly focuses on Meg's torture escalating. Since Ruth is an adult giving her kids permission to do it they think nothing of it. She all ready lets them drink beer and smoke cigarettes and treats her kids more like friends that she feeds than actual children. More kids from the neighborhood, including two girls eventually come to see. David knows everything is wrong yet he finds neither the courage nor the support to do anything about it. While he is never shown to want to partake in any of the torture his standing around doesn't make him innocent either. David eventually tells Meg he will hide money somewhere for her when she escapes after untying her one night. Meg is unable escape because she tried to also get Susan.
There are multiple times when David tries to tell his parents what is going on. While talking to his father he asks if it is wrong to hit a woman and his father all but says no unless you need to. Not good advice but David cannot bring himself to tell him what is really happening. He tries to tell his mother but she won't wake up. David eventually goes back to the house after Meg has tried to escape and Willie is downstairs raping her. So you now see how far the torture and abuse has gone. Ruth then carves an explicit message into Meg's stomach with a heated bobby pin and then finally burns her clitoris with a blowtorch. This is Ruth's way of making sure Meg will never have to live with the burden of children. David had tried to escape before the mutilation happened and he is knocked. David uses a part of the wood shop table to break free of his rope. He takes one of Susan's crutches and beats Aunt Ruth to death with it as she enters the room. The cop from before comes and arrests the brothers. David has a final moment with Meg who says that she loves him before dying. The older David reflects on his time while near a river and sees Meg's reflection. He kept the watercolor painting she had made for him all those years earlier. He ends the movie by saying the one thing he learned was, "its what you do last that counts."
The movie is both an interesting study on the bystander effect and psychological dependence. I think Meg would be fighting more throughout this film if she wasn't afraid of what would happen to Susan. The kids, while probably knowing what they are doing is wrong don't think anything of it because they have Ruth's permission. She doesn't treat them like kids. Ruth is an interesting character in that we know her husband left her. She doesn't seem to like the idea of having any children let alone two more to take care of. Yet she starts to have more of amusement torturing them. As Meg is becoming older and closer to being a woman she seems more hostile toward her and in her own way wants to prevent Meg from being in a similar situation. That is the misogyny of it all is that she is actually blaming herself and her own sexuality I think for getting her in that situation in the first place. Meg also has to take whatever Ruth can give her in terms of water and food which isn't much. More psychological dependence. While people live in the suburbs because they think it would be safer the same time of abuse. mutilation, torture happen in that house that happens in other parts of the world and I think that even makes this movie more impactful. I started to think about how some of the stuff that Meg is subjected to in this movie happens in other places though maybe not all of it at once like on her. The movie even makes a jarring transition from the friends all playing hide and seek type of games in the woods and talking in caves at night about Playboy. It turns suburban innocence into evil real quick.
The early scenes of her and David qualify as those scenes I love in dramatic movies. The scenes where two people connect for a moment of happiness in otherwise visceral or harrowing movie. The ending even has that and I was moved to point of tears for a second. The ending happens so quickly that it almost seems more real than cinematic. The villains, well most of them, maybe not every kid in the neighborhood get their punishment but in Aunt Ruth's case you see David hit her once or twice and that's it. You almost want something worse to happen to her for all of the awful things she has done to Meg. The movie gives you satisfaction but you find yourself wanting more which makes me ask is that done to guilt the audience members further and maybe make them think about how this stuff can happen? I'm not sure but it did that for me. As a fan of Carroll Baker's giallo movies it is interesting seeing her daughter, who looks quite a bit like her in this role. Every time I watch a Carroll Baker giallo movie now I might have this on my mind.
Rating: 9.5/10 I cannot give this movie a 10 due to rewatchability. I will not be viewing this one again anytime soon but the way made me feel and how it even moved me at times deserves the highest of marks.
Trivia: When the boy's are in the caves talking about celebrities who have big boobs one of them mentions Carroll Baker, the real life mother of Blanche Baker who plays Ruth.
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