This film, about a homicidal orphan girl, is farfetched nonsense with precious little to appease shriek freaks. Laird Koenig's screenplay from his novel is riddled with unsuspended disbelief - coincidences, gimmicks.
The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane
✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
France, Canada, Switzerland · 1976
Rated PG · 1h 31m
Director Nicolas Gessner
Starring Jodie Foster, Martin Sheen, Alexis Smith, Mort Shuman
Genre Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Add to Watchlist
Please login to add films to your watchlist.
Quiet, withdrawn 13-year-old Rynn Jacobs lives alone in a New England beach town. Whenever the landlady inquires after Rynn's father, she politely claims that he's in town on business. But when the landlady's persistent son, Frank, won't leave Rynn alone, she teams up with kindly neighbor boy Mario to maintain the dark family secret that she's been keeping to herself.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Washington Post by Gary Arnold
While it's too pat, Little Girl is several cuts above thrillers in the dopey, bedraggled class recently exemplified by Burnt Offerings and The Sentinel. [17 May 1977, p.B9]
The New York Times by Janet Maslin
Nicolas Gessner's direction has a correspondingly comfortable feel, but this type of story is as old as the hills—no, older—and Mr. Gessner doesn't do much to make it plausible.
Village Voice by Melissa Anderson
Gessner’s film may be for Foster completists only. But the intensity of her dead-eyed stare as the final credits scroll across her face reminds us of her preternatural ability, as a kid and beyond, to transform even the most negligible movie or scene into an event.
Users who liked this film also liked
Bugsy Malone
A musical about gangsters in prohibition-era New York with exclusively child actors.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom • 1976
- Director Alan Parker
- Cast Scott Baio, Jodie Foster, Florrie Dugger, John Cassisi, Martin Lev, Paul Murphy
- Genre Drama, Action, Comedy, Music, Family
- Available on TCM, Apple TV, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Spectrum On Demand, Pluto TV, Kanopy
Village of the Damned
An English village awakens from a mysterious sleep to find that every woman of child bearing age has become pregnant.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom • 1960
- Director Wolf Rilla
- Cast George Sanders, Barbara Shelley, Martin Stephens, Michael Gwynn, Laurence Naismith, Richard Warner
- Genre Horror, Science Fiction
- Available on TCM, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube
Meeting People Is Easy
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom • 1998
- Director Grant Gee
- Cast Thom Yorke, Colin Greenwood, Jonny Greenwood, Ed O'Brien, Philip Selway
- Genre Music, Documentary
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Araya
A documentary depiction of laborers working off the coast of the Araya Peninsula in order to mine salt.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Venezuela, France • 1959
- Director Margot Benacerraf
- Cast José Ignacio Cabrujas, Laurent Terzieff
- Genre Documentary
- Available on Criterion Channel, Kanopy
The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom • 1976
- Director Lewis John Carlino
- Cast Sarah Miles, Kris Kristofferson, Jonathan Kahn, Margo Cunningham, Earl Rhodes, Paul Tropea
- Genre Drama, Mystery, Thriller
- Available on Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, YouTube, Tubi TV, Kanopy, Plex, Plex Channel
A Fantastic Fear of Everything
- ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom • 2012
- Director Crispian Mills
- Cast Simon Pegg, Paul Freeman, Clare Higgins, Amara Karan, Alan Drake, Michael Feast
- Genre Comedy, Thriller, Horror
- Available on Amazon Prime Video, fuboTV, Peacock Premium, Peacock Premium Plus, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Crackle, Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, Pluto TV, VUDU Free, Shout! Factory TV, Freevee, Kanopy, Plex, Plex Channel
Watchtower
(Gözetleme Kulesi)
Deep in the wilderness, a fire warden haunted by his past finds himself drawn toward a woman with secrets of her own.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Turkey, France, Germany • 2012
- Director Pelin Esmer
- Cast Olgun Şimşek, Nilay Erdönmez, Laçin Ceylan, Menderes Samancılar, Rıza Akın, Kadir Çermik
- Genre Drama
- Available on Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Tubi TV, Cineverse, Kanopy, Plex, Plex Channel
Parasyte: Part 1
(寄生獣)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 2014
- Director Takashi Yamazaki
- Cast Shota Sometani, Eri Fukatsu, Ai Hashimoto, Kazuki Kitamura, Masahiro Higashide, Tadanobu Asano
- Genre Science Fiction, Horror
- Available on Fandango At Home
The Fear of 13
We are the stories we tell.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom • 2015
- Director David Sington
- Cast Sammy Silverwatch
- Genre Documentary, Crime
- Available on Apple TV