There is something truly scary about dolls. There, I said it. Forget your not-so-real looking Barbie and let’s focus on a crux of the doll population, they’re spooky, let’s be real. A slew of Hollywood horror films seem to agree with us, among them that is a horror highlight for us is the haunting Annabelle from The Conjuring. A new devilish doll has arrived on DVD and Blu-Ray and its name is simple, but still scary — The Boy.
Lauren Cohan (The Walking Dead) stars as a young American nanny, Greta, who has been hired to watch over an eight-year-old boy in an isolated British village. When she arrives to start her duties, she discovers something just a wee bit odd. Actually, it’s terrifying.
The child in her charge is actually a life-size doll. The couple have cared for this doll as it if was a real person. They have their reasons and it involves losing their own child two decades prior.
No biggie, right? Well, just as long as Greta keeps to a strict list of rules that the couple has set forth for watching The Boy.
Only thing, Greta doesn’t follow those rules. After all, it’s just a doll.
Thus begins a myriad of horrifying events that bring her worst fears to life. After a number of those scares, she thinks the doll is very much alive.
The Boy is a perfect horror movie in the Blu-Ray/DVD era. It did a decent business in theaters ($64 million), but The Movie Mensch suspects that it will find a long life on home video and become one of those films whose audience reach expands exponentially over time. Although one of the biggest joys of watching a scary movie is with a crowd, thus if you missed it in the theaters, you are missing out on one element of this. The Boy is actually one that works well with a small group at home, and if you dare… alone!
The biggest selling point in all of The Boy is its star, Cohan. She makes the leap from zombie fighter on the small screen to scream queen on the big screen with panache and ease. We hope that The Boy will lead to many more film offers for the versatile star and that she won’t be type cast in the horror genre. But, that being said, Cohan is fantastic in The Boy and truly what puts it over the top in terms of what could have been a purely formulaic film. Since so much of what is giving the audience the chills emanates from what she sees, or thinks she sees with this doll, the actress is truly carrying the film. And as such, it is a thrill ride that has its star to thank for providing a landscape that gives us the chills.
Sadly, there are no bonus features of any kind on this home video release. We would have liked to have seen a making-of, or at least an audio commentary featuring Cohan herself. But, alas, the movie will have to stand on itself, and it does a pretty good job of doing that… thanks to its star.
Film: B-
Bonus Features: N/A