Last weekend, I went to see "The Boy" with my roommate. I was kind of excited; I've always found dolls to be extremely creepy and I thought this would be an interesting new take on the "Child's Play" and "Annabelle" attempts previously. There will probably be some spoilers, so just to warn you: If you haven't seen it and you plan to, don't read this.
This was quite honestly one of the most terrible movies I have ever seen.
It would have been incredibly good and an interesting view of the "creepy doll" horror sub-genre, except for the ending. The ending made absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Before I talk about the ending, let me set the stage for the storyline itself.
This American girl, Greta, is hired to be a nanny for this cute little English couple in this McMansion in the remote countryside of England. I'm all about creepy, old English mansions.
When she arrives to greet the family, she comes to realize that their "son", Brahms, is in fact, a child-size porcelain doll. She learns that all the nannies previously have not been satisfactory for him. He has this super creepy blank expression that would make any person's skin crawl the second they saw him. She is given a list of very strict rules to follow by this doll's parents because they treat him like he's alive. She finds out later from the very attractive grocery delivery man that their real son, in fact, passed away in a fire and that is why they use the doll. The doll is a coping mechanism.
Greta completely ignores the rules, only to find out later that the doll is, in fact, alive. Now, in every doll horror movie I've ever seen, the doll has always ended up alive. However, in this particular adaptation, the doll wasn't 100% "alive". It would occasionally move around or she would have a dream hearing a young boy screaming and crying and wake up to find the doll exactly where she left it. After discovering that the doll is alive, she chooses to follow the rules and even begins to believe that the doll is, in fact, protecting her.
Side note: throughout the movie, she gets these cryptic calls from her best friend talking about this guy, Cole. You can already tell by each conversation that this guy is not a bad guy and Greta clearly has a bad past with him. Well, out of nowhere, he tracks her down and shows up. We as an audience are under the impression that she took this nanny job halfway across the world to get away from him.
Long story short, Cole shows up at the house out of freaking nowhere and tries to bully her into coming back with him. Greta believes that the doll is protecting her from him and he breaks the doll in protest. A struggle ensues, and a mirror breaks, revealing the real Brahms, now in his late 20's and actually alive. He has a burn mask on that looks similar to the face of the now shattered doll. He immediately begins to attack Cole and even the grocery guy (who is named Malcolm). We then come to find out that he had been obsessing over Greta ever since she arrived, and if he got out, he planned on keeping her for himself forever.
So, long story short, this is basically a dash of Child's Play, a pinch of The Strangers, and a whole lot of unnecessary dumping of House at the End of the Street. While entertaining for the first hour, the last thirty minutes ruin the entire film. The lead actress is pretty good, and the love interest is definitely eye candy, but overall it was a weak attempt at an already pretty successful subgenre.
Don't play with Brahms, it's not worth it.
