NEW MOVIE: The Boy

The Boy is the second horror film of 2016, and one of many creepy doll movies, one of many creepy house movies, and certainly not the last of bad horror movies. The Boy stars Lauren Cohan from The Walking Dead as an American who is hired to be a nanny in a secluded mansion in the UK. As we all know, the boy she is nannying is not just any boy; he's a porcelain doll named Brahms. While the concept is not in any way new or fresh (we just had Annabelle a little over a year ago, it has the same rule trope as Gremlins, and the attic scene is just Christmas Vacation with a Gothic vibe), there is something that makes the film interesting.

Rated PG-13 for violence and terror, and for some thematic material

Remarkably, the performances are actually good. Cohan makes most of her character's actions believable, especially when we learn some of the horror she's experienced in the past. Even though the concept is somewhat ridiculous (which is brought up in dialogue), she makes us the viewer believe the circumstances, making the first half pretty tolerable as far as the story is concerned. Rupert Evans, from The Man in High Castle (another popular television show), is also good as the family's delivery boy, and he and Cohan have good chemistry together as romantic leads (that doesn't mean I wasn't suspecting him of being a villain for half the movie).

It's also worth mentioning that the film builds suspense rather well. Where it disappoints is in scares, I thought. I felt uneasy at times during the movie when it was building up the tension. Unfortunately, all but maybe two of the scares in the movie are not silly jump scares. By that I mean, fake-outs. For example, the first scare in the film is the hand grab out of the portrait that ends the trailers. The build-up to it is nice: there's a bump in the night, she goes walking to figure out the source, sees the portrait, looks around, then there's a really loud noise as the ghost hand pops up!--and...it's just a dream. The next scare happens, and it's just a dream. Heck, there's even one scare in the attic where there's literally just a loud noise. I think there was supposed to be something on screen to accompany it, but I couldn't make it out. So I jumped because of the noise, but I was more confused than anything. As a result of the inefficiency, I didn't believe the movie the way the movie wanted me to. I'm sure the 13 year olds screaming behind me did, but the jump scares didn't do anything for me. Granted, I wasn't looking for a Jaws, but there could have been better resolutions.

But besides the lack of scariness to accompanying the suspense, there is an even worse offender that completely negates the moody suspense and the fine performances: the twist and the third act. I'll save you the spoilers if you do decide to see this movie (which you shouldn't), but I was angered by it. As we learn more about Greta through phone calls from her family in America, we learn that she was the victim of an abusive boyfriend that had terrible consequences. Because of those events and the trauma she experiences over the course of the film, I felt invested in a film about the psychological effects of these real-life horrors that also provided a tragic comparison between her and Brahms's parents. Just thinking about the potential makes me wish that was the movie I saw.

But, of course, the writer doesn't seem to recognize the potential behind the film to make a work that could raise awareness on an important issue while providing an unconventional horror. Instead what we get is a film that tells us that Greta was abused and then goes and abuses her, needlessly sexualizing her in a gratuitous (though non-explicit) shower scene and further torturing her when we realize the disturbing implications of the twist. The twist also reveals the inconsistency of the film: it began as a Gothic horror, developed as a ghost movie, then became an interesting psychological horror, then debased itself into a suspenseless PG-13 slasher that takes all the character development and important themes and burns them, throws them out the window, and dances on the ashes whilst making it rain with the millions in profit. When the theme music that introduced us to the creepy atmosphere plays during the last moments of the movie, it feels inauthentic and too good for the movie that we got in the end. We came in and got one thing, then left with something completely different and worse.

One may say, "Adam, it's just a stupid horror movie. You're thinking too much into it." To which I say, "Why shouldn't we look at a movie with depth?" Performances aside, this movie is beyond hollow. The fact that it disregarded the heaviness of Greta's past for a cheap finale chase and a stupid final shot that tries to set up Brahms as the newest horror icon is wrong. Greta was a well-developed character until the movie just didn't care. This isn't even a question of a strong female character or not--this is beyond that. This movie is morally wrong. It really upsets me how they made us empathize with a past that may have had sexual abuse and then goes on and metaphorically does the same to her.

Well, you did! You hurt me pretty bad after I had to sit through this awful thing.

I give this film 1 out of 5 stars. It's a thoroughly disappointing horror movie that had a lot of potential, good performances, and a creepy, suspenseful feel, but it ultimately threw all that away in favor of non-scary scares and a cheap, albeit surprising, finale that in turn cheapened the rest of the film to the point that it just felt wrong on so many levels. I left the theater hating it, and the more I thought about it, I hated it even more. If I hadn't seen Paul Blart 2 last year, I would've said this was the worst movie I've ever seen in a theater. But congratulations, Mall Cop, at least you've got that going for you.

So did you see The Boy? What did you think about it? How does it compare to other horror you've seen? Whatever you have to say about me or the movies, comment below!