Released in 1976
10/10
Genre- Mystery, Thriller, Romance, Horror
Main Cast: Jodie Foster, Martin Sheen, Alexis Smith,
Mort Shuman, Scott Jacoby
Story- based on the novel of the same name by Laird Koeing
Screenplay: Laird Koeing
Direction- Nicolas Gessner

Jodie Foster in The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976)
Jodie Foster, Martin Sheen and Scott Jacoby in
The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976)

BRIEF INTRODUCTION Story about a mysterious girl and her more than often unavailable father, recently shifted to their new house, frequently bothered by too inquisitive people in the neighborhood and the town. But that’s not it, there’s more to it, there is a secret about the father, which the daughter has to hide, her father is a poet, he is either writing or sleeping but never available immediately, so, where is he? Whoever tries to find out becomes unavailable too, forever…

The Movie A mystery thriller, that turned out to be a horror. There are so many genres mixed that the film can’t be classified as one particular genre film but whatever it is, it is one of the finest, most gripping films ever. And that is justified as the screenplay is written by Koeing who also authored the original book. Although the film sets up the mood for a mystery thriller it turns out to be a nice horror as well. The screenplay is so gripping that one can’t even blink for a sec.

Performances The cast delivered flawlessly, be it Foster, Sheen, Alexis Smith, Mort Shuman or Scott Jacoby, Martin Sheen with a particular style of dialogue delivery and villainous expressions suited the character of Frank just well, and Scott Jacoby as Mario was very convincing to his character.
Jodie Foster I was completely blown away by the amount of confidence in Foster’s performance and that too in some of the initial films along with Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (1976). The dialogue delivery and the expressions are very bold and add a lot of intensity to Rynn’s character.

Rynn’s character Rynn’s character although not much in age has shown to be very mature in the film, with quite some wisdom and strength to confront anyone. She talks about leading life alone and the way she wants to…not the way others tell her to. And that it doesn’t matter, if she’s not an adult but she too has rights. Her conversation with Mrs. Hallet for me is one of the best scenes in the film.

P.S. The film won two Saturn Awards, for Best Horror Film and Best Actress (Jodie Foster).