Director: William Brent Bell
Cast: Lauren Cohan, Rupert Evans, Jim Norton, Diana Hardcastle, Ben Robson
Running Time: 97 mins
Certificate: 15
Release Date: 18th MarchÂ
Greta Evans (LAUREN COHAN) travels to an isolated house in England to look after a little boy for a few months. Running away from her past, she quickly realises she may have fallen into even deeper trouble when she discovers that the boy she is being paid to take care of is actually a life-size porcelain doll.
The basic plot of The Boy is something we have already seen. A creepy doll appears to be possessed by some sort of spirit and is causing havoc in the household. Luckily, The Boy tries to be just a little bit more creative with this story. Films like Annabelle show how spectacularly lazy some writers can be for supernatural ‘horror’ films these days and it makes real fans of the genre lose hope. The Boy is not really a horror, but it does have crucial elements of the genre within it that work well. It creeps you out more than terrify you, but at least you feel something.
The film moves at a decent pace and does not bore you that much at any particular point. It does a good job of keeping you entertained and, more importantly, intrigued.The performances in it are pretty good; actors Jim Norton and Diana Hardcastle give are wonderfully sinister, and Lauren Cohan does very well in the lead role. The difficulty with reviewing this film is that you don’t want to give away the ending, but it does exceed your expectations if you are currently feeling a bit disenchanted about ghost films. Throughout the film, there are several little plot twists that keep you guessing, and though the final twist may be slightly predictable for some, it is a lot better than what many would have anticipated from a film like The Boy.
These days, a lot of supernatural thrillers end in a similar fashion, which makes them quite dull. Thankfully, The Boy tries to slightly subvert your expectations. This is admirable, it may not be the best film ever, but at least it is trying to be creative on some level. Another really great aspect of The Boy is that there are hardly any jump scares, another common trait in modern supernatural thrillers! The film scares you by building tension, a somewhat exciting plot, and by showing the doll (which is ordinary in appearance) from sinister angles.
Overall, The Boy is a fairly entertaining film that does its best to scare you. You cannot hate this film simply because it is clear they tried to make it a little bit different from everything else in this genre being released at the moment.
Verdict
