The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane is a 1976 hybrid genre film directed by Nicolas Gessner and starring Jodie Foster, Martin Sheen, Alexis Smith, Mort Shuman, and Scott Jacoby. It was a co-production of Canada and France and written by Laird Koenig, based on his 1974 novel of the same title. The film follows 13-year-old Rynn Jacobs (Foster), a child whose absent poet father and secretive behaviours prod the suspicions of her conservative small-town neighbours.

Plot

On Halloween night, in a seaside town, Rynn Jacobs celebrates her thirteenth birthday alone. She and her father, Lester Jacobs, a poet, have recently moved to the village from England. Frank Hallet, adult son of their landlady Cora Hallet, visits unexpectedly and, finding her alone, makes sexual advances toward Rynn.