The Boy (2016)

Here at HBTS I have been pretty strict about never posting spoilers - however I feel that by sticking to this I am restricting my reviews quite a bit so may bend this - so...

**Warning - May contain spoilers!**

The Boy was an interesting flick, it was hard to guess which path it was going to take when there were so many ways that it could have.

The story focuses on Greta, an American nanny who has re-located to rural England to look after the boy,  Brahms. Upon meeting the family she notices that they are quite elderly and then when she meets Brahms, that he's actually a doll. A doll you say? That's right, a doll.

The family treat him like any other boy and lay out a list of rules for Greta to follow when they go away. Loving the big house all to "herself" and putting the doll to one side, Greta's peace is disturbed when spooky happenings start around the house - seemingly Brahms can steal clothes,  move, cry, and make snacks.

Malcolm, a local delivery chap that comes by for the odd flirt tells Greta that Brahms was a real boy that presumably died in a fire about 20 years ago, he'd always believed that the doll was the family's way of coping with the loss, but that (the real) Brahms had also been thought to have murdered a local girl before his death.

Greta thinks that maybe Brahms the doll carries the spirit of Brahms the boy and sets about following the rules on his list and generally having an OK time, since Brahms seems not to want to case her any harm.

So once the plot has unfolded we're left wondering which was it will go - is the doll possessed by the spirit of Brahms and if so is it friendly? Or is Brahms still about? Did he have some kind of power or was he "special" - many references are made to the real Brahms being "different".

One thing for sure is that the blank face of the doll is creepy as hell in the old house and moments of what seems like normal life (as normal as it can be when you're caring for a doll) are just waiting to be disturbed.

The surreal atmosphere is punctuated with a couple of jump-scares and The Boy was good enough to keep me watching. I wasn't over-keen on the ending but you can't have everything - felt that it changed the mood a little too much. Still, a good enough little odd horror.

5/10 Masks