Wednesday, February 3, 2016

El Niño

Next to clowns, horror movies love dolls.  Movies like ‘Chucky’ and ‘Annabelle’ raked in more money than they had any right to, thanks to our obsession with witnessing these inanimate objects come to homicidal life.  Like clowns, dolls have a certain creepiness to them that’s inexplicable but taps into our worst fears.  And let's face it, movies about them can also be undeniably fun.
 
‘The Boy’ is the latest film featuring a doll.  Brahms, the young boy of a couple from the English countryside who died in a fire when he was but eight years old, somehow “inhabited” a porcelain doll with pale complexion and neutral features.  At least, that’s what his parents believed.  A young and attractive 20-something American woman (Lauren Cohen), in need of making a quick buck and to escape from her abusive boyfriend, answered their call for a nanny and discovered much to her amusement that her new charge is not a real boy.  Or is he???!!!
 
If you’re expecting ‘The Boy’ to be like ‘Annabelle’ and those beloved ‘Chucky’ flicks, you may be disappointed because this is not that kind of horror movie.  But in a way I liked it even more because it broke the mold and dared to be different.  More of a dripping slow-burning psychological suspense thriller than a typical doll-inhabited-by-a-serial killer (or evil spirit) movie, ‘The Boy’ has a twist that’s somewhat familiar yet is wholly unexpected.  I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised.
 
Grade: B+
 
 photo the-boy-2015-horror-film-poster_zpsug3psyor.jpg

No comments:

Post a Comment