Trailer Tuesday: An American Crime

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Halloween is rapidly approaching, so expect the number of horror movies released in cinemas to jump considerably in the coming few months. However, there are many different kinds of monsters. And sometimes the most horrific stories aren't made up. Sometimes they are lifted straight from real life...



Watching this trailer, I actually don't know if I can sit through An American Crime, which graphically documents the degradation, torture and murder of teenager Sylvia Likens by suburban housewife Gertrude Baniszewski, and her children in the 1960s. All the while neighbours deliberately ignored the poor girl's screams. The film version of this forgotten slice of shameful American history looks grim, grim, grim. Hell, the trailer actually made me feel sick to my stomach.

What I do think will go a long way towards luring people into cinemas are the 2 superb, gutsy actresses who head up this film: Catherine Keener as Gertrude and Ellen Page as Sylvia. Most moviegoers will recognise Page as Kitty Pryde in X-Men 3, but this talented, fresh-faced 20 year old is quickly accumulating awards for her largely indie work (including the paedophile thriller Hard Candy, and teen-pregnancy comedy Juno). Ellen Page is definitely a young actress to watch!


For people with a strong constitution who are interested in the horrific case of child abuse documented in An American Crime, there is also a novel, The Girl Next Door, by Jack Ketchum, which is loosely based on the same real life events.

An American Crime seems to have suffered from distribution problems, after debuting at this year's Sundance Film Festival. Who knows when it will be released in cinemas? It would be shameful if this powerful examination of an often hushed-up issue doesn't get at least a little screen exposure before heading to DVD...

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