Director: William Brent Bell
Writers: Stacey Menear
Starring: Lauren Cohan, Rupert Evans, James Russell
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for violence and terror, and for some thematic material
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Hashtag: #5thWaveMovie
Greta is a young American woman who takes a job as a nanny in a remote English village, only to discover that the family's 8-year-old is a life-sized doll that the parents care for just like a real boy, as a way to cope with the death of their actual son 20 years prior. After violating a list of strict rules, a series of disturbing and inexplicable events bring Greta's worst nightmare to life, leading her to believe that the doll is actually alive.
The Boy is a horror movie in which Greta (played by Lauern Cohan) gets hired to be the new nanny, only to find out that she won't be taking care of a little boy but rather a life-size doll the family treats as if it were an actual living boy. As strange events start to happen once she's left alone with the doll, she starts to wonder if the doll could actually be possessed.
From it's trailer and it's generic,"possessed scary doll” plot, I thought The Boy would turn out to be another bad January horror movie, but it actually didn't turn that way. Now this movie isn't amazing, but it’s not as bas as to what we are accustomed to when it comes to these types of films, around this time of year.
It's smooth sailing when the film is in it's first and second acts. Doing a good job catching your attention creating good suspense and in making you try to figure out what's going on, "Is the doll really possessed?", "Are the parents in on it?", "Could the house be haunted instead?", "Or could she just be going crazy".
But right when the movie was getting better, we hit the third act and it's big plot twist and this is where the film goes downhill. It's twist (no spoilers here) is my biggest flaw with the movie mainly because of the way they executed it. The twist is not a terrible one, but it's one that if it could've been approached and gone another direction, it might've panned out better with what looked like the film was building up to.
Overall, The Boy's essentially a missed opportunity. You thought the film was leading up to one thing by the looks of it, but then the twist itself took it a different direction that didn't work with the rest of the film. Lauren Cohan does a good job holding her own throughout the film, it was nice seeing her outside of the walking dead world. Rupert Evans as well delivered a pretty solid performance. Although The Boy isn't one of the worst horror movies to come out in January or any recent time for that matter, it's not one that you should rush out to go see right away, but more of a wait to see it on demand on a rainy day.
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