The opening of director William Brent Bell’s “The Boy” promises much to the viewer. Close-up shots of dolls and rocking chairs, stylish set designs and the initially impressive score all work to get hearts racing and hands sweating at the prospect of another classic horror film to be.
Unfortunately, the possibility of quality scares dissipates by the end of the opening credits. With overall lackluster performances, tired dialogue and a plot so rushed it fails to develop its characters and atmosphere, “The Boy” only disappoints.
Greta Evans (Lauren Cohan from “The Walking Dead”) is an American teen who has just arrived in England to take a nanny job. Her employers, Mr. and Mrs. Heelshire (Jim Norton and Diana Hardcastle), are a wealthy couple of pensioners who promptly introduce her to their young son, Brahms (Jett Klyne), who just so happens to be a doll. With the help of grocery boy Malcolm (Rupert Evans), Greta soon discovers that the Heelshires lost their real son in a house fire and are dealing with their grief through the doll.
From this premise I was subjected to a further 80 minutes of anticlimactic build ups, mild scares and so much crammed into the storyline that it left me baffled. I won’t spoil the admittedly surprising twist at the end, but in hindsight I had way more questions and critiques of the film’s marketed genre than lingering thoughts on the scares. However, having seen the film’s somewhat shocking twist and climax, the director has managed to create a film in which you can look back on scenes that made no sense before the ending and appreciate them for their nod to the twist.
While there are occasional jump scares and the constant build up of unreleased suspense and tension, “The Boy” doesn’t quite manage to effectively develop some of its subplots – which could have made for a better film had it done so. The secondary characters – namely Greta’s abusive ex-boyfriend Cole (Ben Robson) – are one-dimensional and the regurgitated lines like “Hello, is anyone there?” as the defenseless damsel wanders into a dark attic alone ensures that the film remains popular only among its adolescent crowd.
A scene in which Greta runs frightened around an old wooden house seems to portray a complete change of genre – the sequence shifts from a psychological thriller feel with an almost silent soundtrack (apart from creaks and orchestral strings to build up tension) to a wild 1990s slasher film pace and soundtrack in the blink of an eye.
Plot and genre qualms aside, Lauren Cohan transitions from TV acting to film rather well as she manages to hold her own while carrying her co-stars through to the end.
Somehow the director manages to incorporate every haunted house and exhausted living doll cliché into the film’s 97 minutes – all of which have been done much better and so many times before (“Child’s Play,” “Annabelle,” etc.). While the film’s style and cinematography is impressive, had anyone in the audience seen J.A. Bayona’s 2007 film “The Orphanage” prior to the screening of “The Boy,” they would be able to identify how much was borrowed from that more stylish and creepier haunted house mystery thriller.
I wouldn’t recommend rushing to the cinema to see this film if, like me, you were expecting an all out supernatural horror with a lot of doll scares. Instead, prepare yourself for a genre-confused, mismarketed second-rate horror film that’s more likely to send you to sleep than keep you up at night.
Harry Hennah can be reached at [email protected].
