Wonderfully offbeat film!

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

I wanted to see this movie bad. I read the book a few times, and the movie did NOT do it justice. If you are familiar with the story of Sylvia Likens, then you know they left out how they used to bathe Sylvia in scalding water. Where was Paula and Marie? Paula inflicted a lot of pain on Sylvia, which was not depicted in the film.Why did they change the names? It's supposed to be based on a true story, but very loosely based to say the least.

If you want to watch a movie where the only feeling you'll be left with is "why did i watch this?". There is no justice, no reason for the torture you'll be watching. No end credits with quotes about the story the movie is based on, no links to websites handling child abuse. It literally gives you nothing. To be completely honest I felt violated after watching this movie.You will follow the torture of a girl brought on by her aunt and her devil children. Even though the actress was 20 at the time, she does look earily young and does a great job acting, I will certainly give her that. Believe it or not, but children are capeable for empathy from a very young age. They are not small monsters with no regard for other humans, and do -not- become psycopaths that easily. I know this movie is from the 60's, and yes both womens stand in society and childrens upbringing was different than it is today, but I simply don't buy that a child (with the moral character he is given) would look at the torture of that young girl and not tell somebody. That he wouldn't walk around with a pit in his stomach, have trouble sleeping and even wet the bed at night - and I do not believe that his mother or his father would not have noticed this change in behaviour.And then there is the reasoning behind this torture and hatred for these two young girls by their aunt. There is no backstory, nothing that gives you any reason why someone would act like that. Yes, I know some people are insane without any reason, but would no one have noticed her psycopathic tendencies before this event? She is watching her boys rape a young girl, encouraging them to torture her and violate her, and what do you get by the very end of the movie, other than her dying a quick death (by getting hit in the head with a crutch). I only watched this movie to the end because I hoped to see something of the trial, of the neighbours reacting with schock by having noticed nothing of this. Something that would give the young girl who died a sense of justice, but nothing happens. The end credits hit the screen and I was left with a feeling of senselessness. I do not reccomend this movie and I hope the book is better.The only reason I'm giving this 3 stars is that I enjoyed some of the acting (and no, english is not my first language)

I found this film in a list of best torture films. I love saw and hostel and was hoping for this kind of thing. It's a slow burner at first, it sets the scene for over half an hour and I began thinking am I watching the right film? But when it starts it REALLY starts. I could say a lot about this film, like how the main guy could have done a lot more to help the situation. But I won't say much because I want you to watch it knowing and expecting nothing like I did. What I will say though, is I actually cried at this film. And I don't think I've ever done that in a horror film before. Enjoy!

A bum is run over by a car. Some guy in a business suit gives him CPR for some reason and save his life somehow. The suit then tells us about pain and that nothing has been right in his life since the summer of '58. He pulls some painting out of an envelope.Now we're in 1958 when this guy, named David of course, was a kid. While at the river he runs into some older girl. They get along well. She tells him she lives with her aunt, Ruth, and sister, Susan, next door to him, after her parent died in a car accident.This was a time when doors were kept unlocked and kids just showed up in your living room. We meet some of the other teen and preteen kids in the neighborhood, mostly mean guys who don't treat girls well. They also play mean games. David and the girl, Meg, run into each other a couple more times and they start liking each other, even though David seems several years younger. David starts visiting Meg at Ruth's place. There are always a bunch of kids there. Ruth is single, and for some reason she offers these kids beer and cigarettes. She gives moralizing speeches aimed to belittle Meg and Susan. Susan is disabled, wears knee braces, and uses crutches, but that doesn't stop Ruth from violently disciplining her in front of the kids.One day Meg gives David a painting--the same painting from the intro. When Ruth finds out she interprets it as proof that Meg is a slut. After more abuse eventually Meg is bound in some torture position in the basement while Ruth and all the kids figure out how to make her suffer. They take her clothes off, start cutting her, burning her, eventually raping her. And things go downhill from there, while no one dares say a word and everyone except David participates enthusiastically.And that's what this movie is about--human inhumanity and cruelty--for the sake of cruelty. It's never clear what Ruth gains from all this, what her motivation is. Perhaps it's just the sorry need to feel superior and doing something because it can be done. I guess that's the common denominator in all torture whether in the 50s or today, allegedly for the sake of "security." More than horror torture porn, this is rather drama torture porn, it's not particularly explicit or visually gruesome. The movie is fairly slow and oddly enough the filmmakers don't bother to establish the character of Meg enough, which is why we can't really feel for her all that much until the very end.