Watched till the end, not a bad film, not a particularly good film. I have to write this just to mention the crickets! This is a spoiler of sorts. First of all, it's a very American interpretation of an old English house. And there are crickets in the garden? Now i live in Yorkshire, we don't have crickets on this neck of the woods? What the hell?

This isn't a movie that was going to win any oscars but it is entertaining and will keep you wanting to see how it all pans out. Not a massive fan of Lauren Cohen (I find her really annoying on The Walking Dead) but surprisingly I actually like a her a bit more having seen now The Boy. For me the ending was a bit of a let down but all in all worth a watch if you've got some time to kill.

Before I get too into the movie itself, I will say that I liked the opening credits, as they had a sort-of throwback affect to them since they were longer than credits usually are today. Is it really worth being gratful over? I dont know, maybe Im just desperate. Although this film has its problems, the second act did well in showing how the main character was manipulated into caring for the doll, and made for an interesting concept. However, the pay off is cut short once the audience is subjected to the neck-bearded man bursting out of the wall and his high-pitched cries of "mommy". On paper, the suprise ending may have done better, but after all the buildup the ending is rather disappointing. I cant bash the writers for trying something new with the haunted doll trope, but it definitly takes away from the atmosphere of the film. The ex-boyfriend subplot is only forgivable because of his controlling nature; the main character starts losing controll of her life and mental state after succumbing to the doll, and once her creepy ex shows up, she is almost unable to resist his demands for her to come back to the U.S. with him. But the moment he breaks the doll, the plot falls through and the tension is broken. Overall, the idea of a deranged child killer living in his parents basement, whille creepy in real life, doesnt work that well in The Boy. Maybe if the story had taken on a more Hardy Boys/Agatha Christie esc tone, or even as a Vincent Price esc melodrama thats not afriad to be a little campy, it may have done better, but of course its too late now.

'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.