Review of The Boy (2016) by Maddison B — 20 Apr 2016

The Boy, joins the haunted toy chest with the likes of Chucky and Annabelle, in this moody goofy creeper. This twisty horror is not that terrible, the outrageous premise serves as a guilty pleasure and a bit of fun for a Friday night, despite its lack of originality and creativeness.

Greta (Lauren Cohan), a young American woman, escaping a troubled romantic past takes a job as a nanny for the British Heelshire family. To Greta's surprise her new English family's child is actually a life-sized china doll. Before the Heelshire's leave for holiday, Greta is given a list of rules to follow, with a warning that Brahms is not your normal child.

William Brent Bell, delivers heavily on the creep front. The eerie atmospheric presence shrouds the overly designed gothic setting. It's all a little on the cheap side of being taken as a serious horror and unfortunately The Boy relies heavily on its fake out jump scares.

My greatest hate is the tired use of the fake out dream sequence jump scare, and The Boy painfully goes down this route not one, but TWICE! It must be tempting for novice directors, but for us seasoned horror vets it ultimately cheapens the experience. The narrative feels cheated, as we now no longer can trust what we see. Furthermore, the unnecessary subplot of the violent ex-boyfriend (Ben Robson) felt rushed and melodramatic, at no point do you feel any real sense of intimidation from him - I am more threatening then him on a bad hair day.

With a fun final act reveal, its hard not to notice that the climatic confrontation has blatantly been lifted from maybe a not so well known New Zealand horror gem. The lack of originality is regrettable, but if you can look past the checklist of 'how to do horror', it's a fun exploration into the creepy doll genre.