Review of The Boy (2016) by Orlando O — 06 Jun 2016

The Boy has everything that a cliché horror movie would have, and having many cheap jolts in a tedious direction. Sure, the concept of an old couple hiring a nanny to take care of a doll which they treat as there own son can create a haunting tone. Dolls, alone can be a creepy figure. Except, there was not many scares, intense moments that even puts the audience in the edge of your seat. Director William Brent Bell pulled off every cliché there is, feels like he is an amateur at doing a horror movie that's been overdone. Of course, there is the main character Greta (Lauren Cohan) with a tragic past that is causing her to work as a nanny in an isolated mansion. Greta is given a list of rules that she has to follow to care for a doll named Brahms. While Brahms parents are going away for a trip. Greta meets the food delivery guy Malcolm (Rupert Evans) that stops by and informs Greta about the past with Brahms and the strange occurrences with the odd boy. What Greta soon realizes, she is not safe and there is more to Brahms strange folk tale rumors about the doll. Could the doll be as much of a threat? Or is her psychological past driving her mad?

The film does throw a lot of cheap jolts, using them to provide scares, which the situations feel overreacting like an item falling to the ground and the character staring intensely. Or someone is surprising the character from behind. None of it was really scary or entertaining. It was quite boring, as we learn more about Greta, and her abusive ex boyfriend. And more history about the incident with Brahms. Greta does follow every horror movie clichés there is, from breaking the rules she has to follow to a shower scene and walking around the dark atmosphere house in a towel and being stuck in the attic. Plus, plenty of more creepy noise creaking sounds, which gets redundant. The script does fall flat in creating interesting characters, and trying to throw in a love relationship with Greta and Malcolm which felt forced. I will say nothing really happens within the film until the surprising twist happens. Even then, the twist is hardly enough to make up for the rest of the boring movie. Things tries to kick into gear, as they raise the intensity music as characters are trying to escape. It is a long shot of boredom that wastes the creepy setting and doll concept in a movie that is trying nothing new to surprise the horror genre fans.