The Boy from Hell
The Boy from Hell
| 07 October 1988 (USA)
The Boy from Hell Trailers

A teenage boy is hidden at an orphanage by his mother to protect him against his father, who wants to use the boys body to be reborn.

Reviews
Woodyanders

Teenager Daniel (a solid performance by Anthony Jenkins) gets sent away to a special home for disturbed kids by his mother in order to protect him from his demonic father Luther (played with frightening intensity by John Reno). However, Luther still finds Daniel and takes over Daniel's body with his powerful and malevolent spirit. Director Derwyn Warren, working from a compact script by Gerry Daly, relates the absorbing story at a snappy pace, grounds the fantastic premise in a plausible everyday reality, draws the characters with some depth, delivers a couple of cool murder set pieces (the gruesome wood chipper sequence rates as a definite gory highlight), and pulls out the thrilling stops for the exciting climax. The decent acting from the competent no-name cast helps matters a whole lot: Aarin Teich as the troubled, sensitive Charlie, Twink Caplan as sweet house mother Jenny, Alexandra Kennedy as the pretty, bubbly Debbie, Edward Dloughy as amiable guidance counselor Tony, and Kimble Jemison as hip black dude Georgie. Ronn Schmidt's sharp cinematography gives the picture a nifty misty'n'atmospheric look. Randy Miller's shivery score does the lively ooga-booga trick. A fun little fright flick.

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unclehugo

This cheap little horror about father-son relationships and demonic possession starts with a young man who wakes up in the middle of the night and goes for a walk through the dim passageways of a house only to discover a girl's corpse hung by the neck. He gets scared out of his mind but later finds out he became a victim of a dumb practical joke set up by other kids dwelling in the house (supposed corpse was nothing but a plastic dummy). This house, St. Bonifacius' facility for teenagers with psychological problems, is inhabited by a group of truly annoying young people and two adult counselors. Charlie, the kid from the beginning of the movie, is a constant target of pranks and insults. One night, Charlie witnesses unexpected arrival of a new boy, Daniel, whose mother wishes to protect son from his demonic father. Daniel's dad may appear to be an ordinary guy in a suit but in fact, he plans on taking over Daniel's body with the help of good old black magic. The demonic dad locates Daniel's mother and strangles her after a brief struggle. He then pays a visit to his boy and presents him with a special gift. Daniel is turned into The Boy from Hell with the ability to hurt and kill people by means of pure mind-power. Two pranksters who used to ridicule poor Charlie all the time try to pull the same stuff with Daniel around. They pay for it through the nose. First, a pigeon stricken by Daniel's rage crashes through the window and several glass shards cut into a prankster's face. The same lad is later found burnt to a crisp in his room although the police cannot find any possible source of fire. The other prankster falls into a wood-chipper and is ripped to shreds during the bloody highlight of the movie (a severed finger that lands on the lawn looks quite convincing). After two terrible and peculiar accidents, Charlie starts to suspect Daniel might be involved (Daniel's looks can really kill).... The Boy from Hell kidnaps Charlie's girl to celebrate his eighteenth birthday. Fortunately, Daniel's possession isn't irreversible at this point. Charlie hastens to rescue the girl of his heart and finally destroys the materialized spirit of Daniel's father. The demonic dad is impaled on a metal pipe and hit by an electric discharge from above. When you are up to your eyeballs in trouble, you can always count on Lord's intervention.... The Boy from Hell may not scare you to death but some of the performances of confused teenagers have certain bizarre quality that will undoubtedly entertain the fans of cheap horror movies.

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drhackenstine

I first saw this on cable (as Bloodspell) like 15 years ago as a kid. I enjoyed it. I saw it for the first time again since then last night and didn't really feel the same way. The only thing I remembered was the kid who got sucked into the wood chipper and the lady from Look Who's Talking was in it. Anyways, this is not really all that great. No special effects, absurd acting, and a dim-witted story. I guess it could be good for the bad horror movie buffs, but even I had a hard time sitting through it. Teens start dying at a center for troubled kids. The villain is the new kid who may or may not be possessed by his crazy father. Rather bloodless affair, with next to nothing to recommend it, unless if you were a fan of USA's Saturday Nightmares and your trying to see all those wacky movies again. One and a half stars.

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amok1980

One of the worst horror movies I've seen, this one hardly has any entertainment value whatsoever. To be avoided.Plot summary: boy dropped off at troubled teen center (I don't think it was a school), bad things start happening to the mean kids, lame showdown with happy ending.

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