an american crime

Director: tommy o'haver

Actor: elliot page,hayley mcfarland,nick searcy,romy rosemont

Data Published: Fri Dec 07 2007

Genres: Biography,Crime,Drama,Horror

Key Words: close up of eyes,murder of sylvia likens,single mother,carnival,basement

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0802948/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_American_Crime

Description: An American Crime is a movie starring Elliot Page, Hayley McFarland, and Nick Searcy. The true story of suburban housewife Gertrude Baniszewski, who kept a teenage girl locked in the basement of her Indiana home during the 1960s.

Plot: In 1965, sixteen-year-old Sylvia Likens (Ellen Page) and her disabled 15-year-old sister, Jenny (Hayley McFarland) enjoy themselves at a carnival circuit. Their parents, Lester (Nick Searcy) and Betty (Romy Rosemont), who work at the carnival circuit, reconcile their previously estranged relationship and agree to go on a tour together. To cope with these changes, they decide to leave the Likens sisters in the care of an impoverished single mother named Gertrude Baniszewski (Catherine Keener), since they have befriended her children at church. Gertrude agrees to this since the parents have promised to pay her $20 per week to take care of the Likens sisters. Their stay is initially pleasant, until Lester’s weekly payment fails to arrive. Infuriated, Gertrude whips them with a belt in the basement. The payment, along with a letter from the parents, nevertheless arrives but Gertrude intentionally discards the letter and says nothing to the Likens girls. Her daughter, Paula (Ari Graynor), is later upset when Sylvia informs her abusive boyfriend about her secret pregnancy. Gertrude forces Sylvia to apologize for “spreading lies” and has her son Johnny (Tristan Jarred) restrain Sylvia so that Paula could beat her. The rumors surrounding Paula’s pregnancy soon circulate around their school. Meanwhile, Jenny discovers the letter in the trash, prompting Sylvia to call them. The Baniszewski children notice her calling her parents and inform their mother. Gertrude believes that they stole the money from her to make the call (in reality, they traded empty Coke bottles in for money) and burns Sylvia’s hand with a cigarette. The abuse escalates as Gertrude accuses Sylvia of flirting with Andy, the father of Gertrude’s infant child son, and starting more rumors. Gertrude then forces Sylvia to insert an empty glass Coke bottle up her skirt in front of her children and orders Johnny and Stephanie's (Scout Taylor-Compton) boyfriend Coy Hubbard (Jeremy Sumpter) to push her down the basement stairs and lock her in. Gertrude assures a fearful Jenny that Sylvia will stay in the basement “until she learns her lesson”. To cover up the situation, she instructs her children to maintain the fiction that Sylvia was sent to juvenile for her bad influence. With Gertrude’s knowledge and approval, Johnny regularly invites the neighborhood children to the basement to beat and burn Sylvia for fun. Paula soon feels guilty and tells her mother that she believes that Sylvia has been punished enough. Gertrude ignores her, but the local Reverend (Michael O'Keefe) arrives, hinting that Paula has confessed to him about her pregnancy and Sylvia’s ongoing abuse. Gertrude tells him that Sylvia was sent to juvenile. Once the Reverend leaves, Gertrude orders everyone into the basement. In the basement, Gertrude restrains Sylvia on the floor and begins branding the words “I’M A PROSTITUTE AND PROUD OF IT!” on her abdomen with a heated needle. When Gertrude is unable to finish, she forces her teenage neighbor Ricky Hobbs (Evan Peters) to continue the branding. That night, Paula quietly helps Sylvia escape from the basement. Gertrude is awakened by one of her daughters and tries to prevent Sylvia's escape, but Paula stops her. Ricky finds her and drives her to her parents, who are horrified at Sylvia’s condition. They drive back to the Baniszewski household to make sure Jenny is okay. The escape is proved to be a hallucination, as Sylvia oversees a distraught Stephanie leaning over Sylvia's dead body. Gertrude believes that Sylvia is faking it. When the police arrive, Jenny approaches one of the officers by saying "get me out of here and I'll tell you everything". At a murder trial, Jenny reveals to the prosecutor that Sylvia did not do anything to hurt Gertrude or anyone else and that Gertrude threatened her with the same treatment if she told anyone the truth. Gertrude denies any wrongdoing and blames her children and their friends for Sylvia’s death. Despite this, she is declared guilty of first-degree murder and is sentenced to life in prison. Sylvia's voiceover also narrates the fates of her other murderers. In her prison cell, Gertrude sees Sylvia’s ghost but before she attempts to apologize, the ghost disappears. It is also revealed that Gertrude was released on parole in 1985 but died five years later. The ghost of Sylvia visits her parents’ carnival circuit, where she states that it was the only place she ever felt safe.