Summary

Based on the critically acclaimed novel by Jack Ketchum, "The Girl Next Door" unfolds in the summer of 1958 on a dead end street in New Jersey called Laurel Avenue. 12-year old David Moran (Daniel Manche) discovers that his next-door neighbors, the Chandlers, have adopted two girls; Megan Loughlin (Blythe Auffarth) and her younger sister Susan (Madeline Taylor). The parents of the two girls have recently died in a car accident, leaving Meg and Susan (who wears leg braces from the accident) to live with her aunt, Ruth Chandler (Blanche Baker) and her three sons. At 14, Megan is two years older than David and he quickly gets a crush on the new girl in town. Things are not what they seem as David begins to notice Ruth's harsh treatment of the girls in her care. Since her husband, Willie, has left for another woman, Ruth is raising her three sons, Woofer-10 (Austin Williams), Donny-12 (Benjamin Ross Kaplan), and Willie Jr.-12 (Graham Patrick Martin), all by herself. Things quickly escalate from verbal to physical abuse involving not only Ruth, but her three sons as well. When Megan asks help from a police officer, Megan gets punished even further by Ruth and is locked down in the basement's old bomb shelter. That is just the beginning...