according to my trakt history, i've seen this before. i don't know that i have, because i didn't recognize any of it, aside from the relatively similar events as the real life likens case. that said, i have a hard time watching this without comparing it directly to the movie an american crime. both are upsetting, but an american crime's acting is more intensely so (and that honestly may just be due to elliot page's acting skills?) and the changes made from the original book's plot (jack ketchum's) lessened the movie's impact. the decision to have the police officer come in prior to meg's passing was a directorial disaster; i don't care if it was the 50s, i do not see how his decision to take susan upstairs and out of the house and leave david behind with a dying girl was at all realistic.

i will say that this movie benefits from having a relatively decent protagonist. as in, there is a character that clearly does not condone what's happening and is young enough that his silence makes sense; his attempts to speak to his parents seem minor, but given what he's witnessed and the fact that there's an adult involved in what's happening, it does make sense. the sad thing is that there were entirely too many people who weren't too young to do something and intervene, both in this fictionalized version of the story and the actual likens case. so it's a very, very tiny bandaid on a very depressing look into humanity.

neither are enjoyable movies, obviously. the likens case is deeply disturbing, and one i heard about entirely too early on in my life thanks to having a mother obsessed with true crime and incapable of parenting. i have always had an uncomfortable fascination-and-revulsion over it and i don't feel any less unsettled having watched this adaptation than i did prior to watching it. i would suggest to anyone interested in the likens case that you go read the court documents. the real testimony about what sylvia went through is truly difficult to stomach, but it's ultimately what made me stop being preoccupied by the case.