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The Boy (2016)


Children can be pretty creepy, right?  Right.  Dolls are pretty creepy, right?  Right.  So dolls of children should be super creepy, right?  Maybe...

Greta has been hired by the Heelshires to look after their son while they are away.  When she arrives, she learns that Brahms is actually a doll... a doll made to look like their deceased son.  Escaping an abusive relationship, and needing the money, Greta takes the job.

Soon, she learns that there's more to Brahms than meets the eye...

The premise of this movie really intrigued me.  I wanted to see it.  I was hoping that this would be a great supernatural horror movie that provided spooky tension and unease like "The Others" (2001), "The Changeling "(1980), and "The Woman in Black" (2012).

For the most part, the movie delivered on this promise with some really nice ghostly, "What the fuck?" moments.  Strange noises and whispers, shifting shadows, and the Brahms doll apparently moving by itself from location to location.  The "big reveal" however, was a little underwhelming I found, since it then treaded pretty worn and unoriginal steps afterwards.

The characters weren't really all that developed, but you got to know them enough to at least like them, and even root for them.

While the acting was certainly good enough to carry this movie and the characters- but it wasn't exactly memorable either.

Which is what can also be said for the camera work.  There are some really effective shots, etc... but they don't stand out enough to be ones that you think back and go, "That was an amazing bit of camera footage".  I did like the rather subdued, earthy colour palette used.  It helped to give a dusty, secretive feel to the events unfolding.

"The Boy" isn't a bad movie- but it's not a memorable one either in my opinion.  Up until the "big reveal", I quite enjoyed it- but that after that point, I found myself not as engaged in it.  I'm going to have to put it in "The Bad".
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