The Boy (2016)

Directed by: William Brent Bell

Written by: Stacey Menear

Starring: Lauren Cohan, Rupert Evans, & James Russell







Oh my gosh guys, this film.  When it finished I was like "What just happened?"  I was pretty upset about the ending.  Ugh, I'm still kind of mad.

The Boy stars Cohan as Greta Evans, a nanny who just moved to England to get away from her abusive ex-boyfriend.  She finds a job taking care of a doll, whose parents think it is their dead son.  After the parents leave for holiday, Greta begins noticing weird things happening around the house and the doll.  She comes to the conclusion that the doll is actually alive.

Okay, ugh this film.  So the person I went with to see this film says that I'm upset that the film tricked me.  Maybe that's it.  But I don't think so.

It's hard to say what made me upset about the film without giving the ending away.  Let's just say it's not what Greta thinks it is.

The first half of the film was great.  I jumped twice and was really into the story.  I wanted to know more about Brahms, the boy, and what happened to him.  I was convinced that his spirit was haunting the doll, just like Greta did.

                               DON'T READ IF YOU'RE GOING TO SEE THE FILM!!!

SPOILER!!! SPOILER!!! SPOILER!!! SPOILER!!! SPOILER!!! SPOILER!!! 

DON'T READ IF YOU'RE GOING TO SEE THE FILM!!!

I'm a pretty spiritual person.  What made me upset about this film is that the writer portrayed this film like it was a spirit gone bad.  But really it's just some guy hiding in the walls pretending to be a spirit.  Like what?  Why would he live in the walls to begin with and pretend to be some creepy doll?  Just come out!  I don't understand.  And apparently he's always been living in the walls and the parents knew?!  Why didn't they take him out of the walls to live like a real person?  Sure, he killed some little girl, but be good parents and take him to the police.  Don't let him just live like that with an eight-year-old mind.  But then he wants a relationship with Greta.  Are you eight or twenty-eight? The film is just all over the place once the climax happens with Cole, the ex-boyfriend.  Gosh.  So many unanswered questions and then when there were times to actually explain what was going on, it was brushed over!  No!  No!  No!  I didn't just sit through half of this film to be led on that it's a bad spirit to actually come to find out that it's some lunatic living in the walls.  No!

SPOILER OVER!!! SPOILER OVER!!! YOU CAN KEEP READING!!!

So due to my spoiling rant, I'm going to give it 3 popcorns.  It was great, until the climax, then it just went all over the place in my opinion.