“The Boy” will give you a new meaning to the word temper tantrum.

 
After a tarring and long weekend I decided to sit back, relax, and scar myself to death with “the Boy.” A thrilling horror movie like nothing I could have predicted. Released in 2016 this intricately woven tale would normally get lost in all the new releases of this year but I highly encourage you to not get caught up in the flood of 2018 must sees and give this the attention that every child demands.

We start by meeting our main character Grata (Lauren Cohan), an American looking to get away from the people in her past and make a fresh start in a remote English village. After taking a nannying job for a 8-year-old boy named Brahms Heelshire (Jett Klyne).  She soon realizes something is off in the Heelshire household. Brahms, has a dark secret that is kept hidden from Grata tell it is too late. Malcolm (Rupert Evans), the handsome grocery delivery guy, must help her understand and stay same.

Lauren Cohan and her co-star Rupert Evans had the most on screen time and they killed it. I very much related to the why Cohan had Grata reacted to the doll and after she found out what was really going on Cohan protracted someone truly terrified. Evans’ Malcolm wasn't all that impressing when it came to the truly shocking bits but when things were calm he played the beast terrible flirt.

The cinematography was great at times and confusing at times, and not in the why a thriller often shifts ever so slightly so your imagination tacks over and files in the rest. Often times for no real reason the camera would shift to a clip of one of the many taxidermy animals scattered around the house. For example the beginning as Grete is looking around a random clip of a dear pops up. It wasn't scary and probably wasn't meant to be but it kept happening, throwing off the scene. One thing I really liked however was the total shift in Grete’s feeling towards Brahms. At first she utterly ignored him, then was terrified of him, and then was obsessed with keeping to his schedule to make him happy. The ending was what really got me.

It's hard to believe a horror/thriller could teach you a moral or lesson other than, if something suspicious or out of the ordinary happens GTCO (get the cross out). And not much has changed. All I learned is don’t mess with a family that believes their doll is a child.

Scary Good Rating: