Yet another movie based on the gruesome abuse and murder of Sylvia Likens by the family of a neighbor who was supposed to be looking after her for a few months in the mid-'60s (the other one film being the more biopic-like but equally horrifying "An American Crime".) This one, despite being well-made, is based on a novel that fictionalized the incident, and really amounts to an exploitation flick. It's well-acted enough that the characters succeed in being truly, viscerally loathsome, but it doesn't offer up anything besides that.

It is very rare that I will turn a movie off just for being foul—remember, I'm the guy who loved "Necropath"—but this is just gross. The thin pretense of social responsibility afforded by being very loosely based on a true story doesn't redeem it, despite the addition of a "good guy" neighbor boy character who tries, feebly, to convince the entire torturer's family to stop and eventually contrives a plan that alerts the police to the crime, as well a few quiet scenes sympathetic to the victim. Nor does most of the gruesome violence taking place out of frame—nor the weak, inappropriately sentimental ending. This is not entertainment and it doesn't accomplish anything for anyone who doesn't get off on a young girl being sexually abused and tortured.

And I actually didn't turn this one off, as the very long, slow introductory scenes ensure that the actual torture is mostly confined to the third act, which ends in less time than it took me to tune it out and write this summary. But I intended to, and I wish I had, so I'm marking it that way.

Despicably, this is in Tubi's "horror" section. This isn't a horror film. It's just a disgusting one. It's not even a morality tale—you never find out what happens to the family of torturers. It's not even a good story. Sticking a saccharine ending on doesn't save it. It's trash.

There is no redeeming reason for this movie to exist.