The Boy

This review may contain spoilers!

Who would even name their kid Brahms?! That's just begging for a creepy horror film. I would give The Boy a 6/10.

Everything that is masterful about this film's plot is the set up and the creation of suspense, you'll be watching and waiting for the scares but the addition of certain plot points makes the rising horror all the more intense. I also have to commend this film for presenting an ending that I just did not expect at all, the twist that Brahms was actually still alive was a genuine shock. I thought this film had some amazing cinematography, the framing displayed an artistic flair to this film and the director should be commended for that. The score did tend towards the generic at times but it really aided in building up the suspense; that's what you'll get when the guy making your music is also composing for The Walking Dead.

Jim Norton, who played Mr Heelshire, really set the ball rolling for raising our suspicions in this film; his character had two sides to him that put you on edge from the beginning.

However the best performance came from Diana Hardcastle, who played Mrs Heelshire. The way she interacted with the Brahms doll made you convinced that it really was alive. Hardcastle was a firm and severe character in this film; you didn't believe she was entirely sane when it came down to it. However when she apologises to Greta you feel an incredible amount of dread for what's to come.

The problem with this film is primarily the main protagonist, Greta. In Greta we have a role who is running from an abusive ex-boyfriend and unfortunately this backstory really clashes with the main plot of the film. I never really had much interest in Greta's backstory as it was very cliched, so when the film confronted it near the end of the film I was a little disappointed. The editing for this film let down the great cinematography, the cutting in particular was quite slow and didn't help the pacing much.

Lauren Cohan, who played Greta Evans, was a terrible lead in this film; her role went through just about every horror film stereotype that there is. Rupert Evans, who played Malcolm, did his best to play a charming character but was stuck delivering a lot of exposition to help progress the film; he also had next to no chemistry with Cohan which didn't help matters much. James Russell, who played Brahms Heelshire, was instrumental in presenting the film's great reveal but didn't exactly live up to the moment; his appearance wasn't so much revealing a character so much as it was a last ditch attempt to frighten the audience. Ben Robson, who played Cole, came into the film far too late to be interesting; Robson didn't really suit the abusive boyfriend role because he wasn't intimidating. Stephanie Lemelin, who voiced Sandy, gave a pretty half-assed performance as Greta's sister; Lemelin stuck to portraying a very basic stereotypical horror film character.