The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane

--Reviewed by Lindy Loo

Plotline: A strange thriller about a little girl (played by a little Jodie Foster) who lives with her father in a small town. Suspicion begins to grow in adult visitors when her father never happens to be around or is always "working in his study" when they drop by. A pervy child molester (Martin Sheen) quickly gets interested in the young girl when he realizes that perhaps she DOESN'T in fact have parents around, and things begin to get out of hand.

Scariness factor: I am hard-pressed to call this a horror movie, but since so many people consider it one (HERE, HERE, HERE, etc.), I figured I might as well review it. That being said, this movie is not scary at all. I'd argue (and heatedly, I might add), that it would more aptly fall under the "thriller" category and that calling it a horror movie (and its movie poster which plays it up as such) is misleading. So expect to go in being "thrilled" but not so much "scared" or "horror-fied."

Gross-Out Factor: There is nothing gross about this movie except a little bit of trickling bright-red blood.



Complaints: My major complaint is that this is NOT a horror movie and it will neither scare you nor entertain you as a horror movie. It is also fairly slow as well for a thriller. It was entertaining, but definitely definitely slow.

High Points: Martin Sheen plays a fantastically creepy and uncomfortable perv. Jodie Foster is pretty damn good as usual. What I most enjoyed about this movie though was its mega-1970's feel. The talk about smoking pot, the casual sex that Jodie Foster (who's supposed to be like 13) has, the music, etc. etc. all made it campily entertaining.

Overall: Don't go in expecting horror. That's all I can say. Not a bad movie, but definitely not anything that will creep you out or scare you.

Grade: As a horror film -- D, As a thriller -- B-