The Boy (2016)
Horror from the director of The Devil Inside. An American nanny discovers her new English employee's boy is actually a life-sized doll. After she violates a list of strict rules, disturbing events make her believe that the doll is alive.
- Director:
- William Brent Bell ('The Devil Inside', 'Stay Alive')
- Writer:
- Stacey Menear
- Cast:
- Lauren CohanRupert EvansJames RussellJim NortonDiana HardcastleBen Robson
Reviews & comments
Flicks, Sarah Ward
flicksFor his exceptional work in 12 Years a Slave, Chiwetel Ejiofor should have an Oscar to his name. As that compelling role proved, and everything from Dirty Pretty Things to Children of Men to The Martian too, he’s a quietly powerful actor whose portrayals not only burrow under his characters’ warm, textured, intelligent skins, but under the audience’s as well. Rare is the moment when Ejiofor does more than what’s necessary for a performance, although that description might be misleading. An economical master at making every look, gesture, move and moment count in a potent and pared-back way, there’s never anything lacking when he’s on screen, even when he appears to be playing a straightforward role.
A horror movie with originality and surprises rather than formulas.
If you are looking for a horror movie with more originality than usual this may be your film. Most horrors are standard genre films that rely on cinema clichés to frighten us, even though audiences have become immune to plots with spooky dolls, isolated nannies and scary mansions. The Boy (2016) stands out by combining all of these horror tropes into a...
Variety
pressDespite game efforts by the cast, this tepid horror opus is never scary enough to overcome its silly premise.
Los Angeles Times
pressIf only writer Stacey Menear and director William Brent Bell took the very real horrors of domestic abuse as seriously as they do the virtual horror of paranormal activity.
Huffington Post
pressNot as bad as the trailer makes it look & for a horror film it has a substantial plot.
Hollywood Reporter
pressStacey Menear's screenplay doesn't manage to sustain its clever premise, with the final act featuring a banal and formulaic revelation...
Entertainment Weekly
pressThe Boy, from director William Brent Bell, aims to set itself squarely in the fictional canon of "Chucky" and its brethren, but it ends up trying to do so much that it forgets to scare us.
Flicks, Sarah Ward
flicksFor his exceptional work in 12 Years a Slave, Chiwetel Ejiofor should have an Oscar to his name. As that compelling role proved, and everything from Dirty Pretty Things to Children of Men to The Martian too, he’s a quietly powerful actor whose portrayals not only burrow under his characters’ warm, textured, intelligent skins, but under the audience’s as well. Rare is the moment when Ejiofor does more than what’s necessary for a performance, although that description might be misleading. An economical master at making every look, gesture, move and moment count in a potent and pared-back way, there’s never anything lacking when he’s on screen, even when he appears to be playing a straightforward role.
Variety
pressDespite game efforts by the cast, this tepid horror opus is never scary enough to overcome its silly premise.
Los Angeles Times
pressIf only writer Stacey Menear and director William Brent Bell took the very real horrors of domestic abuse as seriously as they do the virtual horror of paranormal activity.
Huffington Post
pressNot as bad as the trailer makes it look & for a horror film it has a substantial plot.
Hollywood Reporter
pressStacey Menear's screenplay doesn't manage to sustain its clever premise, with the final act featuring a banal and formulaic revelation...
Entertainment Weekly
pressThe Boy, from director William Brent Bell, aims to set itself squarely in the fictional canon of "Chucky" and its brethren, but it ends up trying to do so much that it forgets to scare us.
A horror movie with originality and surprises rather than formulas.
If you are looking for a horror movie with more originality than usual this may be your film. Most horrors are standard genre films that rely on cinema clichés to frighten us, even though audiences have become immune to plots with spooky dolls, isolated nannies and scary mansions. The Boy (2016) stands out by combining all of these horror tropes into a...
Share