The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane (1976)

With its young female protagonist (Jodie Foster, playing 13-year-old Rynn Jacobs) living in a gothic American mansion and trying to keep the outside world out, this 1977 horror-mystery tells a very Shirley Jackson story - it's dark and there are magical elements, even, when a magician turns up - Mario - who helps Rynn avoid the world - and it is all quite chilling like a Jackson story, but perhaps this plot is a little aimless and it is a shame the most chilling aspect of it all is Jodie Foster's 21-year-old sister's nude scene that surely wasn't okay in 1977 either.

★★★☆☆

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Trash (2014)

The source material, a book by Andy Mulligan, apparently also awkwardly straddled the divide between young adult fiction and violent crime drama and that is the problem here in this movie adaptation about street kids in Rio de Janiero doing kids' stuff (code-breaking, sneaking past adults and playing Donkey Kong) while also dodging bullets, falling victim to police brutality and running afoul of criminals who torture and kill - adults will yawn through the childish adventure while wanting to shield their younger kids from the violence and language.

★★★☆☆

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