Film

The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane

Name: The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Released: 1976
Cast: Jodie Foster, Martin Sheen, Alexis Smith, Mort Shuman, Scott Jacoby

Coming-of-age

A preteen girl living alone in a coastal New England house guards a dark secret with chilling composure. Jodie Foster's debut is a taut, strange thriller that treats its young protagonist with unsettling seriousness—neither childish nor innocent, she's resourceful and dangerous. For viewers who prize atmospheric unease and performances that complicate sympathy.

TMDb rating

3.5

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like slow-burn thrillers where the menace lives in a quiet house and a child's steely composure does more than any jump scare, especially early, watchful Foster work.

Skip it if you want brisk plotting, since it moves at a deliberate crawl and keeps its cards close for most of its 91 minutes.

What it asks of you: Ninety-one minutes, mostly unhurried, with long stretches of silence and a dread that builds from ordinary domestic rooms rather than from set pieces.

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Halloween1978

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The wildcard

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Marnie1964

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The Changeling1980

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Picnic at Hanging Rock1975

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Possession1981

Both films refuse to soften their protagonists or offer reassurance. Both use their central performance to make you uncomfortable witnessing someone's interiority. Both are formally strange in service of psychological horror.

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