The Boy Movie Review

The Boy (2016)

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Written by: Stacey Menear
Directed by: William Brent Bell
Starring: Lauren Cohan, Rupert Evans, James Russell
Rated: PG-13
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Plot
An American woman in London hired as a nanny is shocked when she discovers the "child" is actually a life-sized doll. After she violates a list of strict rules for the doll, she begins to wonder if it's alive.

Verdict
There is a lot of waste potential. The movie is not deliberate enough in setting up the mood, but what makes this is the twist. The movie throws a few possible outcomes at you, and the actual reveal was awesome. Thatl alone almost makes this something to see, but there are more than a few plot holes. The concept is great. The execution could be better, exemplified by the lackluster conclusion.
It depends.

Review
I love the premise of this, a nanny taking care of a doll that her employers, the Hillshires, treat like a real boy. It had the potential to be psychological. Who is really crazy? It's budget sequel to Chucky focusing on the psychological instead of the slasher gore fest genre.

We see Greta pull up to a Victorian styled mansion, and you just can't trust a house that fancy. Nothing good every happens in a house like that. After a few obvious delays the boy/doll is finally revealed. I really wanted to know what Greta thinks. She scoffs then backtracks when the couple give her the stink eye. No one points out this is a little odd, until Mr. Hillshire states "our son is with us." Greta says she understands but I guarantee she doesn't. It's a bit absurd as she's going along with this because of the genre. When she later calls her friend she could state how absurd it is but that she needs the money and the couple seems harmless. At least address this odd scenario.

Greta has a list of rules for the doll that seem like a red herring to make us think the doll is haunted. The movie really plays up the doll might be haunted, but I would like it better if we don't know whether Greta is going crazy or it's a possessed doll. This could have shown her exploring the house to unnerving effect. The house alone would do that, and we have a doll too. The movie never takes the time to set the mood. I could have been led to believe she's stir crazy, but this movie unfolds over just a couple of days and does do the groundwork.

I began to wonder if Greta was a sacrifice, to the doll or the house. While this employs a couple of jump scares, they were used to great effect. There's a dream sequence that seemed absurd at first because we don't know it's a dream. At first it seems to incorporate all the bad horror movie tropes which was irritating, but making it a dream fixes that and made me really like the scene. The movie is aware of horror movie tropes. Greta hears crying coming from the attic and goes to investigate. It's a scene we've seen too many times before, but in this scene she ends up unable to open the door.

We get quite a few clues that a twist is imminent. Greta seems to like the doll and I knew that somehow the doll would help or protect her, but I wasn't sure how.
The twist reveal was really cool. I don't want to call it stunning, but it was close. It's just one of those mind blowing moments. The problem with it is that the instant you think about it, there are a few issues. It does clarify some of the whys about the rules of taking care of the doll. At least some of what we had seen earlier in this movie had a point and tied back in.

After the reveal, the whole thing goes downhill. We get more than a few tropes and the final scene is just frustrating because it's a lazy way to leave this open for a sequel while ignoring logical outcomes.