‘The Boy’ Movie Review
Another creepy doll movie was released on January 22, 2016, to the delight of supernatural horror fans. The Boy movie features a possessed, life-sized porcelain doll who needs a babysitter.
Written by Stacey Menear and directed by William Brent Bell, The Boy stars Lauren Cohan of The Walking Dead and Rupert Evans of the 2004 film, Hellboy.
Cohan plays Greta, a young American woman from Montana who takes on a temporary job as an English nanny to escape a bad relationship with Cole, an ex-boyfriend back home. Her job is to babysit for the 8-year-old son of the Heelshires (Diana Hardcastle and Jim Norton), an older couple, reports The New York Times.
When she arrives at the England mansion, Greta is shocked to find that the boy is actually a life-sized porcelain doll. The doll was created in the image of their son, Brahms, who was killed 20 years previously in a house fire. The couple had cared for the doll just like a real boy as a way to cope with their actual son’s death.
The Heelshires head out for a much needed vacation, leaving Greta with a long list of instructions on how to care for Brahms, including giving him a good night kiss every evening, reports The New York Times. They warn her that Brahms is not a normal child.
“Whatever it might look like on the outside,” the father tells her, “our son is here. He is very much with us.”
“Be good to him and he will be good to you,” he says.
Left alone in the dark mansion, whose windows are sealed shut, Greta begins a transition from thinking the couple was nutty to beginning to believe the doll might actually be alive.
#TheBOY hits theaters today – We've got the 5 creepiest dolls in horror to get you ready! https://t.co/FGQDkgu006 pic.twitter.com/KaW1MoFRdF
— Blumhouse (@blumhouse) January 23, 2016
Greta befriends Malcolm (Rupert Evans), the friendly, flirty grocery delivery man who stops in to see her.
When Greta decides to ignore the instruction list for Brahms, it doesn’t take long for creepy and odd things begin to happen, reports Wikipedia. Brahms seems to move on his own, from one end of the house to another, a child’s cry is heard down the hallway and phone calls are cut off.
Greta gets locked in the attic and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich is left outside her door by Brahms, leading her down the path of madness, wondering if the doll really does house the spirit of the boy.
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During this time, the older couple is seen writing a goodbye letter to the doll and committing suicide by filling their pocket with rocks and drowning themselves.
Greta persuades Malcolm that the doll is alive, demonstrating how Brahms moves around by himself. Malcolm tells her about the original boy Brahms, who was friends with a young local girl who disappeared after a playdate. She was found later with a crushed skull.
Malcolm warns Greta to leave, saying “This house is not safe.” However, she decides to stay and follow the rules on how to properly care for the boy Brahms, including tucking him in at night.
When Greta’s ex-boyfriend Cole (Ben Robson) shows up unexpectedly at the large house in order to bring her home, all hell breaks loose.
The Boy had a decent creepy atmosphere to it. Director Bell did a good job with close-up shots of scary toys, creepy architectural house details and mounted animal heads, reports The Hollywood Reporter.
Familiar tropes from horror movies were included, such as several jump scares with sudden loud noises, the typical shower scene and some nasty nightmares.
However, The Boy movie did not sustain its promise, with an abrupt twist in the final stages that moved it from a scary haunted house and possessed doll story to more of a slasher movie arena.
[Photo via Eric Charbonneau/Invision/AP]
