Trivia / The Girl Next Door

• Completely Different Title: The film became Jack Ketchum's Evil in Germany.
• Dawson Casting: 14-year old Meg is played by Blythe Auffarth who was 21 at the time of filming. While this is completely necessary given what happens, it does create some awkward moments as the age difference between her and the actor playing David is apparent in their scenes together.
• Dueling Works: With An American Crime, as both films were based on the Sylvia Likens murder. The difference was that An American Crime directly adapted the events rather than the loose approach this one took.
• Playing Against Type: William Atherton, known for playing arrogant smug jerkass characters, plays the sympathetic grown up David.
• Very Loosely Based on a True Story: The Girl Next Door is based on the Sylvia Likens case but takes some pretty extreme liberties with the details. Essentially, the one thing they have in common is that a teenage girl was taken in by an older woman who eventually locked her in a basement and invited her own and the neighborhood children to torment the girl. The most significant difference is that much of the overt sexual violence didn't happen, as Gertrude Baniszewski refused to allow anyone to molest Sylvia directly, believing that the girl was "too dirty" to be touched. While Baniszewski did coerce Sylvia to strip and touch herself in front of her and others on several occasions, neither Baniszewski nor anyone else directly raped or groped Sylvia.

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