I class this as a 'horror' in the loosest sense in terms of its low age classification that seems all the more frequent these days. It follows most of the key conventions of the horror film genre. Style, score, lighting and editing wise. The film has a mildly interesting premise as Greta (Lauren Cohen) begins the film as an American who takes a job as a nanny for an aristocratic English couple. An oddball couple who don't actually have an 8 year old boy, but a life-sized porcelain doll. Is the doll alive. Greta begins to think so. Let's disect the film in detail: 1. The journey. Well Greta comes from America and moves to an isolated home in rural England. Not any old home. It is the classic haunted, dark, gothic mansion! 2. The ominous atmosphere. The English couple seem uninviting and have a set of strict rules for Greta to follow when looking after the doll, Brahms. 3. The scary place. As already alluded to the house/mansion is dark, gothic and haunted looking. Evil literally seeps from the walls! 4. Traditional horror scenes include a search in the attic ala The Exorcist. 5. Jumpscares. Several. Hands coming out of paintings etc. 6. Brahms as a doll is the 'monster' meant to amplify the surprise and terror. Like a childhood toy? 7. An older Brahms has make up and looks akin to Michael Myers in Halloween. 8. The Final Girl. Well Greta is there right to the end. 9. A savant like character, Malcolm played by Rupert Evans knows some history of the English family and the doll set up. 10. Without revealing to much a classic sequel hook at the end. Added in case the film was a success to allow a sequel. I don't think a Boy 2 exists! Relies on copying classic horror films to much with a distinctly B movie feel.

'The Boy' suffers from 'how American writers think English people speak', I'll get that out of the way first. For example, the grocery boy Malcolm (Rupert Evans) says things like "I'm considered quite charming in this country." Evans is encouraged to use a well-spoken but entirely region-free accent throughout. It's not a huge issue, and UK films are not always accurate in their representation of US characters either. If you can get past that - and there are far worse examples out there - then there is much to enjoy with this.Miss Greta Evans (Lauren Cohan), an American Nanny, travels to a gothic mansion to tend to the needs of an elderly couple's young son Brahms. It is difficult to escape the central storyline in the publicity - the fact that Brahms is a doll initially filled me with reservations. Could such a realisation be taken seriously? Andrew Jones' series of low-budget projects involving Robert the Doll is good, for example, but suffers a little when the prop figure is required to move.There was little need to worry: this is a cracker: restrainedly directed by William Brent Bell at least initially, and written in the same way. Greta is just as incredulous as to the notion of a living doll as the most cynical audience member, and yet when she has reason to be convinced if the reality of its existence, we are too. Brahms is a ghostly looking, handsome doll, sometimes very life-like and often lifeless, as necessary.Greta's willingness to care for Brahms is reasoned by a miscarriage she suffered at the hands of an abusive relationship with a character called Cole (Ben Robson). Cole suddenly turns up at the house demanding Greta returns home with him. He is, of course, exactly the kind of overbearing bully we want him to be - and then we can begin the business of desperately wanting some punishment for him. This is when the pace moves from slow-burning build-up to pure horror. When the resultant manifestation of Brahms reveals itself, the fragile build-up takes a step back in favour of Jason/Michael Myers territory; whilst this doesn't carry the same kind of emotional weight we've enjoyed so far, it is still effective. The finale explains things away and makes sense of it all, but there is a slight disappointment that the spell has been punctured with reality. As a whole, though 'The Boy' works beautifully, far better than I expected it to.

First of all, I always have to laugh when I see the standard imdb "I've never written a review here before but I felt compelled to come out of the woodwork to review this movie no one knows anything about" - c'mon, folks, you're not kidding anyone.Then I'm always amused at the little tiny teens who come here to deride any film they can get their slimy fingers on - of course, seeing this in a theater with these twits would be horrible, which is why I don't go to theaters to see movies anymore - too much moron in the audience (and yet they LOVE the most infantile and ridiculous stupid-hero movies, no matter what).So, what do we have here? A fairly well directed movie with nice photography, a good score, and a nice lead performance. It has an interesting and weird premise and it moves along at a steady clip and I rather enjoyed myself during its ninety-something minutes. I could have lived without the jump scare dream cliche - once, maybe, but twice, never. I've seen so much lousy junk lately, and yes that includes the dopey super-hero movies - this one's a masterpiece compared to that idiocy - that whenever I see something that's at least competently done, I'm happy. The doll itself is very creepy and well rendered. Is it predictable - some of it, sure, so what - what isn't?You could do worse.

Somewhat of a good twist at the end but the build up has many flaws and is what holds this movie back. Never truly scary and twist is not enough to carry it as a thriller.