Film of the Week: The Boy

Continuing horror movie month with The Boy, this isn’t one I would recommend highly either, unfortunately. It definitely has a few jump scares and scary parts, but if you’re looking for something original and unique, you’ll have to wait until the last fifteen minutes.

Greta Evans (Lauren Cohan) wants to break away from her old and be a nanny to Mr. and Mrs. Heelshire’s son, Brahms. What she wasn’t expecting was their son isn’t real, but instead is a doll that she has to treat as if it were a real boy by following a strict set of rules, including playing loud music and reading a book in a loud, clear voice. Throughout the story we learn more about Brahms; he was a real boy that died at the age of eight after he set a house on fire which claimed the life of his friend.

It’s a stereotypical supernatural horror movie for the majority of the film. With the doll moving around by itself, noises coming from the other room along with a boy’s voice echoing through the house, Greta quickly realises she’s out of her comfort zone. However, when she does start following the rules, all that dies down until her old boyfriend reappears and destroys the doll.

The uniqueness of the last few minutes merits my silence. Whilst you do have to prepare yourself for the clichéd following of the horror genre, I do recommend giving this a watch as the last few minutes does make you think slightly, and is original enough to make it entertaining – it’s up to you if you believe it redeems itself for the past hour prior, I personally don’t think it does and so it’s not one I would be watching again. All the supernatural happenings are explained right at the end of the film; you’re not left with any unanswered questions, something I was happy about.

It does sit above last week’s film, Orphan. The Boy might be clichéd, but it isn’t boring. Compared to Orphan where you would be waiting for something to happen but nothing does, you do know something will and unfortunately you do know when the majority of them will happen, however, it’s still entertaining enough to keep watching.

In conclusion, it’s predictable right up to the last few minutes where things take an unexpected turn; avid horror movie fans will probably get bored and stop watching before then, but for people like me, who likes the occasional horror movie it’s easy to see past the clichéd elements until the end, but it’s not necessarily something that would top my list of horror films.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)