The Boy and all the images you see in this review are owned by STX Entertainment
Directed by William Brent Bell
Today is a day of celebration! As hard as it is to believe, there is a movie released in January that is actually worth seeing. It’s not just good; it’s GREAT and honestly hasn’t been selling itself as anything other than a low budget gimmicky horror cash grab which oddly enough ISN’T a Blumhouse joint. Hell, maybe that’s the key difference here. Blumhouse releases so many films a year (some good, some bad) that it took a fresh studio to get this right! Oh wait. This is STX Entertainment, and their only other releases were Secret in the Eyes which is one of the most poorly executed drama’s I’ve ever seen, and The Gift which is supposed to be really good but is also a Blumhouse collaboration. Eh, they’re still a pretty new studio and this defiantly a great film to have as your third outing! Just how good is it? Let’s find out!!
The movie follows Greta (Lauren Cohan) who has recently been hired by the Heelshire family (Jim Norton and Diana Hardcastle) to be the nanny for their son Brahms for a few weeks as they go out on holiday. For some reason, this family living in a preeminent estate in the British countryside (where there obvious is no wi-fi or cell reception) hired a nanny ALL the way from freaking Montana but Greta is more than happy to get away from her old life and hopes to get a fresh start or at least some time to get herself together. Seems perfect, right? Well what they failed to mention in their want ad is that the boy in question is actually a porcelain doll with the perfectly parted hair of Joseph Gordon-Levitt and eyes that stare into the darkest depths of your soul. Clearly the two owners of this house have… issues that need to be resolved but they certainly aren’t taking this holiday to see a therapist, so Greta is all alone in the house with the doll and the only company she has is the weekly visit from the grocery delivery guy Malcolm (Rupert Evans) and the occasional phone call from her sister. Now the couple has entrusted her with their son and have given her a list of rules and daily activities that she needs to follow in order to keep him happy, but Greta reasonably (though obviously wrongly) ignores these as the doll is… well a doll. Strange things begin to happen however and with no rational explanation for these events, she begins to turn to the irrational which could mean that the doll is actually alive. Will she be able to survive in this house with the doll constantly creeping on her? Has she simply lost her mind due to the isolation of this estate and the over looming threat of her past coming back to find her? WHY IS IT STILL LOOKING AT ME!?!?
The Reviewers Unite 