The Boy (2016) Review

The Boy (2016)

Director: William Brent Bell

Writer: Stacey Menear

Stars: Lauren Cohan, Rupert Evans, James Russell

1 Hour, 37 Minutes

Get it From Amazon: https://amzn.to/2Z6Bcc9

The Boy (2016)
The Boy (2016)

The new nanny, Greta, arrives at a huge house in the British countryside. Mr and Mrs Heelshire aren’t home, so Malcolm, the local grocer, gives her a tour of the house. His grandmother was psychic and he’s got a little of the gift. He gets her completely wrong. He says the family is generous and nice. Brahms, the child, however, he can’t describe.

Greta’s shoes disappear. Mrs. Heelshire finally arrives and shows Greta to Brahms. He’s. A. Doll.

Literally. A Doll.

Greta laughs at first at the joke, and then notices no one else is laughing. She needs the money, so she plays along. She introduces herself to the doll, and then Mrs. Heelshire shows her around. It seems Brahms has rejected several other nannies in the past. She’s to read poetry to him in a loud, clear voice. Brahms likes his music loud as well.

Clearly, the husband and wife have mental issues. “No matter what it may look like on the outside, our son is here, with us,” Mr Heelshire explains. At the end of the day, Brahms likes her and wants Greta to stay.

She calls her friend, and is told that her boyfriend has been asking about her, and that he doesn’t care about the restraining order.

The next morning, the Heelshires are leaving for vacation, and Greta will be alone with Brahms. They leave an explicit schedule and set of rules that she needs to adhere to. Malcolm will be around with supplies and can answer any questions she may have. “Be good to him, and he’ll be good to you. Be bad to him, and he’ll–” “Yes, I’ll treat him like my own.” And they’re off.

She immediately throws a blanket over Brahms and tells him that he “creeps her out.” That evening, she finds him uncovered. She takes him to his bedroom and roughly throws him in the chair. She hears a child crying late in the night.

The next morning, Brahms is in exactly the same spot, but he has water on face as if he were crying. It’s just a leaky roof. She starts getting really bored since there’e no TV, cable, Internet or even cell service.

Malcolm stops by to drop off her pay. He explains that the real Brahms died in a fire on his eighth birthday, twenty years ago. He’d be about Malcolm’s age now. As she prepares to go into town with Malcolm, she notices the doll staring at her, and it’s creepy. While she’s in the shower, her dress and necklace are stolen. As she goes looking for them, she gets locked in the attic. Malcolm comes to pick her up, goes to the door, and drives away.

The next morning, the ladder opens up and she comes down. We see the list of rules, and Greta’s broken several of them by now. She asks him for the truth about Brahms, and he says that the kid was “downright strange.” Even Mr. Heelshire called him “odd.”

She talks to her phone friend again, and Cole, the ex-boyfriend, now has her address. That night, her missing shoes are returned, and she finds Brahms sitting up in bed next to the rule sheet. She gets a phone call, “Please come out. Come play with me, Greta.”

Meanwhile, Mr and Mrs Heelshire fill their pockets with rocks and walk into the ocean. They write a letter to Brahms stating that the girl is his now to love and care for.

Back at home, Greta has given in and is treating the doll according to the rules. She reads him stories, plays loud music, and walks with him around the house. She starts to believe that Brahms is alive.

Malcolm things Greta is losing her mind, until he sees the doll do things too. He explains that a little girl was killed on the very day that the real Brahms burned up in the fire. Malcolm hints that maybe Brahms killed the girl, and the parents set the fire to cover it up.

Cole, the boyfriend, shows up out of the blue. He tries to convince her to go back home with him; he’s even bought her a plane ticket, but she’s done with him. Cole says he’s never going to leave her behind. He wakes up screaming that night, and “Get Out” is painted on the wall. Cole is not amused and he starts getting mean. Cole smashes the doll into pieces.

The house makes noises. The lights blink. The real Brahms comes out of the wall. He’s real, but wearing a china mask. Brahms kills Cole. Greta and Malcolm hide upstairs. They find a hidden bedroom inside the walls, along with a dummy wearing her dress and necklace. She gets away, but Brahms has Malcolm.

She goes back inside, yells that it’s bedtime, and he obeys. She stabs him, but he’s really strong and tries to strangle her. She stabs him again. She goes back inside the wall and grabs Malcolm. They head out in the car and drive away.

The next morning, someone has glued the doll back together and is caring for it now.

Commentary

I came up with a theory about halfway into the film that the real Brahms didn’t die in the fire and was hiding in the house somewhere. This explains the loud music, reading stories loudly, and putting food in the fridge at night, as well as the way things moved around on their own.

I was entertained throughout, but most of the movie I was thinking, I know what’s going to happen, and I was right. If that’s not the very definition of “predicable,” I don’t know what is.

It was entertaining until the last portion, and then it was the typical run-through-the-the-house-to-avoid-the-maniac type of movie.