The Boy

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: William Brent Bell/Starring: Lauren Cohan, Rupert Evans, Jim Norton, Diana Hardcastle and Ben Robson

It looks like another horror flick featuring a doll has made its way to multiplex screens. I've lost count of the films in recent years that have cast a doll as the antagonist and it would be foolish to think we've seen the last of them. The latest addition to this horror sub-genre is a film called The Boy: a pedestrian and mostly dull story whose few mildly, creepy scenes involve--what else--an expressionless doll that may or may not be the repository of a dead child's spirit. One might wonder what director William Brent Bell's film might have to offer that's new. You might be relieved to learn the film adds a twist to this shop-worn genre but you might also be disappointed to learn that his new take simply morphs into something Jason Voorhees-like, which might elicit a sigh from the audience.

Laura Cohan plays Greta Evans, a youngish American woman who has accepted a nanny gig for the Heelshires (Jim Norton and Diana Hardcastle); an elderly British couple living in their quaint, English manor. The manor's interior and exteriors are horror movie standard issue; dusty attics, taxidermal mountings and wood paneling. Or what one might also find in any episode of Scooby-doo.

Upon arrival, Laura makes the acquaintance of the man delivering groceries; Malcolm (Rupert Evans), who tells her a little about the Heelshires and their home. His immediate attraction to her is almost palpable. Soon after, Greta meets the elderly Heelshires themselves, who immediately introduce her to Brahms; a doll with the features of a young boy. Greta naturally feels she is being put on when the couple treat the doll as if it were indeed alive; talking to it, changing it's clothes, reading poetry to it and tucking it into bed. When Greta laughs, the Heelshires' withering glances preclude further mirth. She makes amends by talking to Brahms, which placates the couple. Mrs. Heelshire explains to Greta that the son they lost in his boyhood is living in the house still; a statement we are meant to take figuratively. We see that the couple's doting care for Brahms is the their way of keeping his spirit alive. We learn Greta is to care for Brahms for several months while the Heelshires are on holiday.

Mrs. Heelshire leaves Greta a specific set of rules on how to care for Brahms; a list she intends Greta to follow faithfully. The Heelshire's departure is somewhat mysterious as their faces are shrouded in angst. Observing their gloomy departure, we are left to wonder if the couple has ulterior motives for being away.

In short time, we discover Greta's decision to pursue the babysitting position partly serves as a means of escape from a miscarriage and an abusive ex back home. Greta's lost-child backstory seems to dovetail with the Heelshire's a little too neatly but what the heck, we go with it.

After the Heelshire's departure, Greta becomes very casual about Brahm's care; ignoring the list and even tossing the doll contemptuously on a rocking chair. But soon strange things begin to happen as she begins to hear a young child's voice and thumpings and bumpings about the house. Brahm's blank expression also begins to unnerve her. When she suspects that the doll might be inhabited by the Heelshire's dead child, she tries to convince Malcolm that Brahms is moving on his own, which she accomplishes during one of his visits. As the sounds of a child fill the house, Greta's compassion for the Heelshire's lost son and Brahms awakens. She begins to follow the instructions faithfully.

Rejecting Malcolm's pleas to leave the house and Brahms and the house behind, Greta is set upon by another problem; the arrival of her ex-husband Cole (Ben Robson), who has little patience for Malcolm and even less for Brahms'. Expecting Greta to return with him to the states, Cole meets vigorous resistance from both Greta and Malcolm. Violence ensues, which leads Cole to smash the doll to fragments. The house begins to shake, leading one to believe the boy's spirit has been unleashed but we learn what has really been behind all the supernatural happenings. The rest of the film is Greta and Malcolm's flight from the real mystery of the Heelshire home; a silly and anti-climactic development. The real motivation for the Heelshire's flight from their home is also explained in the film's third act.

I can respect the screenwriter and the director's attempt to give the haunted doll story a new twist but a horror film has to dispense horror, which Bell's film fails to do. A woman alone in a large house with a doll that may or may not be spirit-possessed is a great set-up for a scary story but Bell can't make the necessary transition from creepy to terrifying. Some shameless horror film staples are given some air, like frightening moments turning out to be only dreams. He uses this dusty device twice and it is no less cheap the second time around.

Lauren Cohan doesn't depict a woman with a wounded psyche; one who seeks escape from both a miscarriage and an abusive ex. She doesn't seem to be running from anything more than Montana; her home state. Her performance is all surface and serviceable. Rupert Evans and Ben Robson are more convincing though their roles scarcely have more substance.

I liked that Bell refused to turn the Heelshire's home into something like the house in Crimson Peak; something cartoonishly Gothic, but little effort was made to make the house menacing; a place to dread.

By the third act, I found myself caring little for any of the characters or the story, save the mystery behind the doll. In the end, The Boy is just something I come to expect to see in January. It didn't help that a trailer for The Witch preceded the movie (see my blogpost on the film). That film, my friends, is a horror film, as you will soon discover next month.

Moving forward, I hope to see a moratorium on haunted-doll horror films, unless one can come up with something genuinely creepy, like Annabelle, which played back in 2014. Otherwise, let's keep the dolls in the toy chest, okay?