Ah, I think Annabelle had a remake or someone woke up and realised they could do better. Yes, we have another creepy doll film and it looks classier than Chucky and scarier than Annabelle altogether.
The Boy, directed by William Brent Bell, is a dark and eerie film about a young nanny called Greta (Lauren Cohan) who escaped America from her strong, abusive ex-boyfriend Cole (Ben Robson). Greta moves to the English countryside to help out at an English estate and wait, really? This is really cliché with the whole 'I have an issue and I better move to England to escape it' and what? It's America meeting England. Two things in a film that should not exist as they have better movie making skills than us. Come on, when was the last time you heard a British film with the gross of one billion pounds?
More to the story, the film welcomes an elderly couple with definite issues concerning the last time they left the house. Mrs. Heelshire (Diana Hardcastle) is pretty much viewed as the boss lady that runs the house and with the size of the house, where is the staff? Is Greta playing nanny, cook, waiting staff, cleaner, gardender and I don't really know what an estate needs but this is a big house and so far you've met Mrs. Heelshire and her very hair sprayed wig - I'm being real.
We finally meet Mr Heelshire (Jim Norton) who is standing in front of a large, red chair and yes, we totally know where this is going. Greta is soon greeted to their son Brahms and of course an American bursts into laughter realising two elderly people are babysitting a life size 6 year old boy. The parents immediately brush off the fact Greta is laughing and start explaining how to look after him. Long story short, it's Annabelle meeting Gremlins. A possessed doll but turns out great if you follow the rules.
And of course, Greta being Greta, forgets the roles and yes, queue the montage of her rejecting him but it's going to stop at dinner time, of course, and he's at the table with mash and some cabbage, obviously the Heelshire's told Greta to cook him "actual" meals but she throws it away and of course the shot follows her to you can't clearly see someone move the doll... oh boy we have that kind of film.
I mean, the scariest part was definitely the realisation the doll moves and Greta proves this to the grocery boy Malcolm (Rupert Evans). Although this seems very cliché and by then, I'm thinking was the money I spent to see this film even worth it. Just seems to be a little bit too towards the typical horror. However, the film did slow down and kept its pace with the scene when Greta catches a tear down Brahms' face but soon realises it's a leak from the roof so this puts us back into our seats and the director obviously making us stay through the entire film just to see who Brahms really is.
Towards the end, Greta is greeted by her ex-boyfriend Cole but all turns nasty as he begins to threaten her which obviously builds to the twist of who Brahms actually is. The twist to this film definitely made those common horror clichés look like nothing and that's what I enjoyed most about this film.
Overall Choice: Good
